Linear representations, symmetric products and the commuting scheme (Q2466938)

The ring of multisymmetric functions is the ring of invariants of the symmetric group of degree \(n\) acting on the direct sum of \(m\) copies of the standard \(n\)-dimensional representation. Working over an arbitrary base ring, the author points out that there is a surjection from the ring of simultaneous conjugation invariants of \(m\)-tuples of \(n\times n\) matrices onto the ring of multisymmetric functions (in characteristic zero this is a paraphrasing of a classical result). Moreover, the ring of multisymmetric functions is shown to be isomorphic to the ring generated by the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of polynomials in commuting generic matrices. In characteristic zero this gives an alternative proof of the following statement from the reviewer [Multisymmetric syzygies, \url{arXiv:math/0602303}]: the subring of conjugation invariants in the coordinate ring of the scheme of commuting \(n\times n\) matrices is isomorphic to the ring of multisymmetric functions, hence is reduced.