Representation zeta functions of wreath products with finite groups. (Q965087)

Summary: Let \(G\) be a group which has a finite number \(r_n(G)\) of irreducible linear representations in \(\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb C)\) for all \(n\geq 1\). Let \(\zeta(G,s)=\sum_{n=1}^\infty r_n(G)n^{-s}\) be its representation zeta function. First, in case \(G=H\wr_X Q\) is a permutational wreath product with respect to a permutation group \(Q\) on a finite set \(X\), we establish a formula for \(\zeta(G,s)\) in terms of the zeta functions of \(H\) and of subgroups of \(Q\), and of the Möbius function associated to the lattice \(\Pi_Q(X)\) of partitions of \(X\) in orbits under subgroups of \(Q\). Then we consider groups \(W(Q,k)=(\cdots(Q\wr_X Q)\wr_XQ\cdots)\wr_XQ\) which are iterated wreath products (with \(k\) factors \(Q\)), and several related infinite groups \(W(Q)\), including the profinite group \(\varprojlim_kW(Q,k)\), a locally finite group \(\lim_kW(Q,k)\), and several finitely generated dense subgroups of \(\varprojlim_kW(Q,k)\). Under convenient hypotheses (in particular \(Q\) should be perfect), we show that \(r_n(W(Q))<\infty\) for all \(n\geq 1\), and we establish that the Dirichlet series \(\zeta(W(Q),s)\) has a finite and positive abscissa of convergence \(\sigma_0=\sigma_0(W(Q))\). Moreover, the function \(\zeta(W(Q),s)\) satisfies a remarkable functional equation involving \(\zeta(W(Q),es)\) for \(e\in\{1,\dots,d\}\), where \(d=|X|\). As a consequence of this, we exhibit some properties of the function, in particular that \(\zeta(W(Q),s)\) has a root-type singularity at \(\sigma_0\), with a finite value at \(\sigma_0\) and a Puiseux expansion around \(\sigma_0\). We finally report some numerical computations for \(Q=A_5\) and \(Q=\mathrm{PGL}_3(\mathbb F_2)\).