On the Schur indices of the irreducible characters of \(\text{SL}(n,q)\) (Q1592612)

Let \(q=p^a\), where \(p\) is a prime and \(a\) is a positive integer. Let \(G=\text{GL}(n,q)\) denote the general linear group of degree \(n\) over the field with \(q\) elements. Let \(S=\text{SL}(n,q)\) denote the special linear group of degree \(n\) over the same field. \(S\) is a normal subgroup of \(G\) and the quotient group \(G/S\) is cyclic of order \(q-1\). A. Zelevinsky showed that the Schur index over the rational numbers of any irreducible complex character of \(G\) is \(1\). It is also known that the Schur index over the rational numbers of any irreducible complex character of \(S\) is \(1\) or \(2\). The reviewer used Zelevinsky's methods to show that the Schur index of any irreducible character of \(S\) is \(1\) in certain special circumstances, for example, if \(p=2\) or if \(p\) is odd and the exact power of \(2\) dividing \(n\) is greater than the exact power of \(2\) dividing \(p-1\). On the other hand, there are many circumstances involving conditions on \(n\) and \(q\) under which the Schur index of a particular irreducible character of \(S\) may be \(2\). In the present paper, the author provides new proofs of some of these older theorems. He also gives two further results that guarantee that certain characters of \(S\) have Schur index \(1\). These results depend upon the parametrization of the irreducible characters of \(G\) and cannot be easily summarized here. It should be mentioned that most of these partial results on the Schur indices have been superseded by work of \textit{A. Turull}, [J. Algebra 235, No. 1, 275-314 (2001; Zbl 0977.20036)], in which a complete solution of the problem of computing the Schur index of an irreducible character of \(S\) is given. Turull's results also depend on the parametrization of the irreducible characters of \(G\) but are much more delicate and precise than those previously obtained.