Sign conjugacy classes of the symmetric groups. (Q2517658)

This paper is concerned with ordinary character theory of finite groups. A conjugacy class in a finite group \(G\) is called a \textit{sign conjugacy class} if every ordinary irreducible character takes the value \(0\) or \(\pm 1\) on that class. The object of the paper is to determine the sign conjugacy classes in the symmetric groups; the main theorem verifies a conjecture of Olsson. With the natural labelling of conjugacy classes in \(S_n\) by partitions, we can define a \textit{sign partition} to be a partition for which the corresponding conjugacy class is a sign class. Two important results from Olsson's prior work are used: a sign partition cannot have repeated parts, except possibly for the part \(1\) which may appear twice, and if \(\lambda=(\lambda_1,\ldots,\lambda_r)\) is a partition of \(n\) with \(\lambda_1>n/2\), then \(\lambda\) is a sign partition if and only if \((\lambda_2,\ldots,\lambda_r)\) is. Otherwise, the main tool used is the Murnaghan-Nakayama rule, which is a very helpful rule for calculating character values for the symmetric groups. The paper consists entirely of the proof of the main theorem. This is carefully broken down into sections and is very easy to follow. However, there is essentially no introduction to the paper, and the non-expert is left to refer to the references to discover why sign conjugacy classes might be interesting. It would have been nicer if the paper could have included a little background (perhaps with a reminder of the details of the Murnaghan-Nakayama rule); on the other hand, the compactness of the paper is an asset, and other researchers working in this area will find it useful when trying to prove other results in this immediate area.