Stanley character formula for the spin characters of the symmetric groups (Q2306453)

Spin representations of the symmetric groups (i.e. representations of their double covers) have seen an increase in popularity in recent years. The focus in this extended abstract is the calculation of character values. A recent conjecture of Stanley (proved by \textit{V. Féray} and \textit{P. Śniady} [Ann. Math. (2) 173, No. 2, 887--906 (2011; Zbl 1229.05276)]) gives a new combinatorial formula for the ordinary characters of the symmetric groups in terms of colouring the cycles of permutations, and here the authors report on an analogue for spin characters. One application of this is a bound on character values; the authors also speculate that their work might lead to a straightforward explicit construction of the spin representations themselves. Much of the paper is devoted to explaining how the main theorem is proved; this is based on finding explicit relationships between linear and spin characters. The paper is well written and easy to follow.