A numerical invariant for linear representations of finite groups (Q894379)

Let \(K/k\) be a field extension and let \(G\) be a finite group of exponent \(e\). A theorem of Brauer states that in the ``non-modular'' setting (where characteristic of \(k\) does not divide \(|G|\)), any representation \(\rho : G\to\mathrm{GL}_n(K)\) can be defined over \(k\) provided it contains a primitive \(e\)-th root of unity. If \(k\) does not contain such a root, the classically defined Schur index of \(\rho\) (when the representation is absolutely irreducible) measures how far away \(\rho\) is from being defined over \(k\). In this paper, the authors study the notion of essential dimension of a representation \(\mathrm{ed}(\rho)\) which provides another numerical invariant to address the same question. \(\mathrm{ed}(\rho)\) is defined to be the smallest transcendence degree of an intermediate field \(k \subset K_0 \subset K\) such that \(\rho\) is defined over \(K_0\). A naive upper bound for \(\mathrm{ed}(\rho)\) is \(rn^2\) where \(G\) is generated by \(r\) elements. The authors present much improved upper bounds (for instance \(n^2/4\), \(|G|/4\),...etc) in the case when \(k\) has characteristic 0. They do this by relating \(\mathrm{ed}(\chi)\) (the maximal value of essential dimensions of representations with a given character \(\chi\)) with the ``canonical dimension'' of a product of Weil transfers of generalized Severi Brauer varieties. To further develop the analogy between the Schur index and the essential dimension of a representation, the authors prove a variant of another of Brauer's theorem. Namely, they show that for any integer \(l\geq 1\), there exist a number field \(K/\mathbb{Q}\) and a linear representation \(\rho : G\to \mathrm{GL}_{2l}(K)\) with essential dimension \(l\) over \(\mathbb{Q}\). Computations of canonical dimensions of a large class of Weil transfers of generalized Severi Brauer varieties extending previous results of Karpenko are made. These lead to a nice formula of the essential \(p\) dimension of a character in terms of its absolutely irreducible components. A variant of a theorem of Schilling is also proved. The authors finally investigate the essential dimensions of modular representations (when \(\mathrm{char}(k)\) divides \(|G|\)) and prove that it can be arbitrarily large. In the appendix, a constructive version of this result is given.