Cycle type and descent set in wreath products (Q1381834)

This paper investigates the wreath product \(G_n\) of \({\mathbb{Z}}/p{\mathbb{Z}}\) with the symmetric group \(S_n\), viewed as a permutation group on \(\{1,\dots,n\}\times{\mathbb{Z}}/p{\mathbb{Z}}\). After some short introduction into relevant material from representation theory, it is shown that the number of elements \(\sigma\) in \(G_n\) with a prescribed descent set for \(\sigma\) and \(\sigma^{-1}\) can be expressed as a product of two characters of \(G_n\). These results are specialized to the hyperoctahedral group \(B_n\): The number of elements in \(B_n\) having a prescribed descent set and being in a fixed conjugacy class is expressed as a product of two characters. Finally, formulas are given for the generating function of alternating elements of \(B_n\).