Pattern groups and a poset based Hopf monoid (Q5919438)

A supercharacter theory \(S\) of a finite group G is a pair \((\mathrm{Cl}(S), \mathrm{Ch}(S))\) where \(\mathrm{Cl}(S)\) is a set partition of \(G\) and \(\mathrm{Ch}(S)\) is a set partition of the irreducible characters \(\mathrm{Irr}(G)\) of \(G\), such that: 1) \( \{1\} \in \mathrm{Cl}(S)\) 2) \( |\mathrm{Cl}(S)| = |\mathrm{Ch}(S)|\) 3) For each \(X \in \mathrm{Ch}(S)\) one has \(\chi^X=\sum_{\psi\in X}\psi(1)\psi\in\{\varphi: G\rightarrow \mathbb{C}: \{g,h\}\subset K\in \mathrm{Cl}(S)\text{ implies }\varphi(g)=\varphi(h)\}\) As the authors write, ``a supercharacter theory of the unipotent upper-triangular matrices of the finite general linear groups gave a representation theoretic interpretation to the Hopf algebra of symmetric functions in non-commuting variables.'' In the present paper, the pattern groups are considered. The patter groups are a family of unipotent groups that are built out of finite posets. The authors use the specific supercharacter theory introduced in [\textit{F. Aliniaeifard}, J. Algebra 469, 464--484 (2017; Zbl 1443.20005)]. Using it, a Hopf monoid naturally arising in the supercharacter theory is investigated. The authors ``give a formula for the coproduct on supercharacters, establish an algebraically independent set of free generators (as a monoid), and construct the primitive elements''.