The ring of upper triangular invariants as a module over the Dickson invariants (Q2563408)

We study the (polynomial) ring of invariants \(H_n\) of the upper triangular group \(U_n (\mathbb{F}_p)\) as a module over the (polynomial) ring of invariants \(D_n\) of the full general linear group \(Gl_n (\mathbb{F}_p)\) over the finite field \(\mathbb{F}_p\) for \(p\) a prime, both groups acting as algebra automorphisms of the polynomial algebra \(\mathbb{F}_p [x_1, \dots, x_n]\). \(D_n\) is known as the ring of Dickson invariants. \(H_n\) is well-known to be a free \(D_n\)-module. We determine a `natural' basis \(\{1= h(0), \dots, h(m)\}\). That is, every upper triangular invariant admits a unique expression \(h= \sum_i d(i) h(i)\) for \(d(i) \in D_n\). There is a natural map of \(D_n\)-modules \(H_n \to D_n\) obtained by \(h\to d(0)\); we think of this map as rewriting. Another natural map of \(D_n\)-modules \(\rho_n: H_n \to D_n\) is obtained by averaging over a choice of coset representatives of \(U_n (\mathbb{F}_p)\) in \(Gl_n (\mathbb{F}_p)\). We prove these two maps agree, `rewriting is averaging'.