On permutation characters and Sylow \(p\)-subgroups of \(\mathfrak{S}_n\) (Q1647345)

Let \({\mathfrak S}_n\) denote the symmetric group on \(n\) letters, and let \(P_n\) denote a Sylow \(p\)-subgoup of \({\mathfrak S}_n\). In this interesting and well-written article under review, the authors determine, for an odd prime \(p\), the irreducible constituents in characteristic zero of \({\mathbf 1}_{P_n}\) (the trivial character of \(P_n\)) induced up to \({\mathfrak S}_n\). As a corollary, they deduce the number of irreducible representations of the corresponding Hecke algebra \({\mathcal H}\left({\mathfrak S}_n,P_n,{\mathbf 1}_{P_n}\right)\). The authors also point out that an analogous second theorem concerning the alternating group \(\mathfrak A_n\) follows from their main result on \({\mathfrak S}_n\). More precisely, their main result is Theorem. Let \(n\in {\mathbb N}\) and let \(p\) be an odd prime. Let \(\lambda\in {\mathcal P}(n)\), where \({\mathcal P}(n)\) is the set of partitions of \(n\), and let \(\chi^{\lambda}\) be the ordinary irreducible character of \({\mathfrak S}_n\) corresponding to \(\lambda\). Then \(\chi^{\lambda}\) is not an irreducible constituent of \(\left({\mathbf 1}_{P_n}\right)\big \uparrow^{{\mathfrak S}_n}\) if and only if \(n=p^k\) for some \(k\in {\mathbb N}\) and \(\lambda\in \left\{\left( p^k-1,1\right),\left(2,1^{p^k-2}\right)\right\}\), or \(p=3\) and \(\lambda\) is one of the following partitions: \[ (2,2);\quad (3,2,1);\quad (5,4),(2^4,1),(4,3,2),(3^2,2,1); \quad (5,5),(2^5). \] The authors first prove the prime-power case of their main result, and then show that the general theorem follows easily from this special case. As indicated in the statement of the main result, \(p=3\) requires special attention. The authors also remark, not surprisingly, that the case \(p=2\) remains somewhat of a mystery. Many proofs of lemmas and propositions along the way are proven by induction, and for the most part, standard techniques such as the Littlewood-Richardson rule, the Murnaghan-Nakayama rule, Frobenius reciprocity and Mackey decomposition are employed.