Counting characters of small degree in upper unitriangular groups.

DOI10.1016/J.JPAA.2010.04.006MaRDI QIDQ712191zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Maria Loukaki

Publication date 28 October 2010

Published in Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.07071

zbMATH Keywords

character degreescharacter multiplicitiesirreducible charactersLehrer conjecturenumbers of charactersunitriangular groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Ordinary representations and characters (20C15) Arithmetic and combinatorial problems involving abstract finite groups (20D60) Representation theory for linear algebraic groups (20G05) Linear algebraic groups over finite fields (20G40)

Abstract: Let $U_n$ denote the group of upper $nimesn$ unitriangular matrices over a fixed finite field $mathbbF$ of order $q$. That is, $U_n$ consists of upper triangular $nimesn$ matrices having every diagonal entry equal to $1$. It is known that the degrees of all irreducible complex characters of $U_n$ are powers of $q$. It was conjectured by Lehrer that the number of irreducible characters of $U_n$ of degree $q^e$ is an integer polynomial in $q$ depending only on $e$ and $n$. We show that there exist recursive (for $n$) formulas that this number satisfies when $e$ is one of $1,2$ and $3$, and thus show that the conjecture is true in those cases.

Review text

Let \(q\) be a prime power, and let \(U_n(q)\) be the group of upper triangular \(n\times n\) matrices with all diagonal entries equal to 1. It is known that all complex irreducible character degrees of \(U_n(q)\) are powers of \(q\) and that all powers \(q^e\) occur for \(0\leq e\leq\mu(n)\), where the upper bound \(\mu(n)\) is defined by the formulas \(\mu(2m)=m(m-1)\) and \(\mu(2m+1)=m^2\). A conjecture of Lehrer states that the number \(N_{n, e}(q)\) of irreducible characters having degree \(q^e\) is some polynomial in \(q\) with integer coefficients (depending on \(n\) and \(e\)), and a recent strengthening of this conjecture by Isaacs states that \(N_{n, e}(q)\) is even a polynomial in \(q-1\) with nonnegative coefficients. In earlier work by \textit{M. Marjoram} [Ir. Math. Soc. Bull. 42, 21-31 (1999; Zbl 0964.20023) and his unpublished dissertation] and \textit{I. M. Isaacs} [J. Algebra 315, No. 2, 698-719 (2007; Zbl 1127.20031)] the numbers \(N_{n, e}(q)\) were studied (and thereby the above-mentioned conjectures confirmed) for very small and very large values of \(e\). The paper under review continues the study of the small values of \(e\) and uses an elementary method to construct recursive formulas for \(N_{n, e}(q)\) when \(e\leq 3\), confirming Lehrer's and Isaacs' conjecture in these cases. (Note that the cases \(e\leq 2\) were already known from Marjoram's work.)

Recommendations

• Counting characters of upper triangular groups.
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Cites work

• Character theory of finite groups
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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3479120 (Why is no real title available?)
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Cited in

(16)

• Subregular characters of the unitriangular group over a finite field.
• Characters of unipotent radicals of standard parabolic subgroups with 3 parts
• Counting characters of upper triangular groups.
• Characters arising from monomial coadjoint orbits for finite pattern groups
• Representations of unitriangular groups.
• A note on commutators in the group of infinite triangular matrices over a ring.
• Combinatorial methods of character enumeration for the unitriangular group.
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 635807 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1492360 (Why is no real title available?)
• Representations of McLain groups
• On the representations of \(q\) unipotent groups over a finite field.
• Characters of 2-layered Heisenberg groups
• The basic character table of the unitriangular group
• A conjecture about characters of finite pattern groups
• Counting irreducible representations of large degree of the upper triangular groups.
• Coadjoint orbits of low dimension for nilradicals of Borel subalgebras in classical types

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