The quadratic type of the 2-principal indecomposable modules of the double covers of alternating groups
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: The quadratic type of the 2-principal indecomposable modules of the double covers of alternating groups
zbMATH Open document ID: 1462.20006
published in: Journal of Algebra
publication date: 2018-08-10T00:00:00Z
full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.03555
full work available at URL: JM maths the quadratic.pdf
review text: Let \(K\) be an algebraically closed field of characteristic \(2\) and let \(G\) be a finite group. An indecomposable module \(V\) for the group algebra \(KG\) is self-dual if and only if it has a non-degenerate \(K\)-valued \(G\)-invariant bilinear form \(\beta\). The form \(\beta\) may be assumed to be symmetric; if it is in addition symplectic, so \(\beta(v,v) = 0\) for all \(v \in V\), then it may in some cases be obtained as the polarisation \(q(v+w)-q(v)-q(w)\) of a \(G\)-invariant quadratic form on \(V\). Say that such modules have \emph{quadratic type}. \textit{R. Gow} and the author [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 147, No. 7, 2783--2796 (2019; Zbl 07073434)] proved that the number of isomorphism classes of quadratic type indecomposable projective \(KG\)-modules is equal to the number of strongly real \(2\)-regular conjugacy classes of \(G\). For the alternating group \(A_n\), every real \(2\)-regular conjugacy class is strongly real: that is, if \(g\), \(g^{-1} \in A_n\) are in the same \(2\)-regular class then \(g^x = g^{-1}\) for some involution \(x \in A_n\). The double cover \(2.A_n\) is the unique group up to isomorphism such that \[ \langle z \rangle \hookrightarrow 2.A_n \twoheadrightarrow A_n \] is a non-split central extension of \(A_n\) by \(\langle z \rangle \cong C_2\). (In fact, by a theorem of Schur, \(2.A_n\) is the universal perfect central extension of \(A_n\) for each \(n \not= 6, 7\).) Writing \(\overline{g}\) for the image of \(g \in 2.A_n\) under the quotient map \(2.A_n \twoheadrightarrow A_n\), it may be that \(\overline{g}\) is strongly real while \(g\) is not: for example, since the only involution in \(2.A_6\) is the central involution \(z\), \emph{no} \(2\)-regular conjugacy class in \(2.A_6\) is strongly real. It is therefore an interesting problem, solved in this paper, to determine which indecomposable projective \(K(2.A_n)\)-modules are of quadratic type. To state the author's main result we need some further notation. Let \(S_n\) denot…
reviewed by: Mark Wildon
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 20C30
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 20C20
zbMATH DE Number: 6915732
zbMATH Keywords: alternating group
zbMATH Keywords: principal indecomposable module
zbMATH Keywords: dual module
zbMATH Keywords: quadratic form
zbMATH Keywords: characteristic 2
zbMATH Keywords: involution
author: John Murray
MaRDI profile type: MaRDI publication profile
OpenAlex ID: W2963657680
arXiv ID: 1803.03555
cites work: Spin Modules for Symmetric Groups
cites work: A unification of two refinements of Euler's partition theorem
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cites work: Q3934684
cites work: Symmetric bilinear forms and vertices in characteristic 2
cites work: The duals of the 2-modular irreducible modules of the alternating groups
cites work: Shifted tableaux and the projective representations of symmetric groups
Wikidata QID: Q129556761
DOI: 10.1016/J.JALGEBRA.2018.06.034
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description: scientific article