Hochschild cohomology of symmetric groups and generating functions (Q6095986)

In this paper, the authors determine the dimensions of \(\operatorname{HH}^{\ell}(\mathbb{F}_p S_n)\) for \(\ell \in \{0,1,2\}\) in terms of the number \(p(n)\) of partitions of \(n\) along with explicit combinatorial descriptions of these dimensions when \(n > 0\). For example, when \(p \geq 3\) the authors show that \(\dim \operatorname{HH}^1 (\mathbb{F}_p S_n)\) is equal to the total number of parts of length \(p\) in all partitions of \(n\). To show this, the authors use the fact that \[ \operatorname{HH}^* (RG) \cong \bigoplus_g \operatorname{H}^* (C_G(g), R) \] for \(R\) a commutative ring, \(G\) a finite group and \(g\) running over a set of conjugacy class representatives for \(G\). The authors are then able to use the structure of centralisers of elements in \(S_n\) to combine this into the combinatorial results mentioned above in quite a neat manner. The authors also show that in general there exists a rational function \(R_{p,r}(t)\) such that \[ \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} \dim( \operatorname{HH}^r(\mathbb{F}_p S_n) )t^n = R_{p,r}(t) P(t) \] where \(P(t) = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} p(n)t^n\) (using the convention that \(p(0) = 1\)).