5 votes
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If $\chi$ is a complex-valued character of a representation of a finite group, is it always true that $\overline{\chi(g)}=\chi(g^{-1})$?

Another way to see that is as follows: Let $G$ be a finite group, $ρ:G\rightarrow \text{GL}_n(\mathbb{C})$ a representation and $χ$ the corresponding character. We know that for any $g\in G$, all the ...
Fotis's user avatar
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5 votes

Validating a Character Table for a Given Finite Group

Adding to the excellent answer of @BrauerSuzuki I wanted to comment on the point: For $H≤G$, one gets a permutation character $π$ from the (transitive) action of $G$ on the set of (left) cosets by (...
Kira G.'s user avatar
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Does any valid character table correspond to a group?

In his famous report for the ICM, Richard Brauer proposed a number of questions on representations of finite groups. His Problem 6 asks to give necessary and sufficient criteria on a complex matrix to ...
Brauer Suzuki's user avatar
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Confused about the domain of characters

Usually, when people ask about potential errors in books, either the book is wrong or they’re wrong. In this case, you’re both a bit wrong. The book is wrong in that it introduces the circle group ...
joriki's user avatar
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Character table guarantees certain property of groups

This happens if and only if $$\sum_{\chi\in\mathrm{Irr}(G)}\frac{\chi(x)\chi(y)\chi(z)\chi(g)}{\chi(1)^2}$$ is constant (i.e. does not depend on $g$). See Corollary 4.14 in [Navarro, Characer theory ...
Brauer Suzuki's user avatar
4 votes

If $g$ is commutator then so is $g^m$ for $(m,o(g))=1$

A character-free proof of this result of K. Honda (1953) has recently been found by Hendrik Lenstra. It has been published in Operations Research Letters, Powers of Commutators, Volume 51, Issue 1, ...
Nicky Hekster's user avatar
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Why does character of identity element always positive integer?

The character of the identity element is the trace of the identity matrix, i.e. the dimension (the "degree") of the representation.
Anne Bauval's user avatar
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Definition of a character of a linear algebraic group

Yes, please don't feel bad about this confusion. It is for semi-historical reasons as KReiser rightly pointed out above, and can be quite confusing. Namely, let us fix a field $K$ and an (affine) ...
Alex Youcis's user avatar
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On the proof of: If $0<\frac{|χ(g)|}{χ(1)}<1$ then $\frac{χ(g)}{χ(1)}\notin\overline{\mathbb{Z}}$

This has something to do with Galois theory. Since the minimal polynomial is irreducible, its roots are permuted transitively by the Galois group of the splitting field. But the Galois group sends ...
Brauer Suzuki's user avatar
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Why is the determinant of a character well-defined?

For any two choices $\rho$ and $\rho'$ giving the same character $\chi$, there exists $P\in GL_n(\mathbb{C})$ such that $\rho'(g)=P\rho(g)P^{-1}$ for all $g\in G$: in other words, $\rho$ and $\rho'$ ...
Captain Lama's user avatar
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Is there a group $G$ with $|G|=8$ and $\chi$ assuming values $-2,-1,0,0,0,0,1,2?$

I shouldn't have asked this question: turns out it is a straightforward computation if we decompose $\rho$ in terms of irreducible characters $\rho=\oplus_i n_i \rho_i $: $$\sum_i n_i^2=\left\langle \...
Kadmos's user avatar
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p-adic Norms and Character Values

It is trivially correct when $n = 1$: the left side is $1$ and the right side is $|\chi(g)|_p^2$, which is $1$ since $\chi(g)$ is a root of unity when $n = 1$. Is is never true for all $g$ when $n >...
KCd's user avatar
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Why do characters fail to characterize non-abelian LCH-groups?

The short answer is that if $G$ is a group and $A$ an abelian group (like $\mathbb T$), then every group homomorphism $\phi\colon G\to A$ factors through the abelianization $G/[G,G]$. Here $[G,G]$ is ...
MaoWao's user avatar
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Formula for $\chi(g)\chi(h)$, where $\chi$ is an irreducible character of $G$

Theorem Let $\chi \in Irr(G)$, and $x,y \in G$, then $$\chi(x)\chi(y)=\frac{\chi(1)}{|G|}\sum_{z \in G}\chi(xy^z)$$ Before proving this theorem we need to set notation and an observation. Write $\...
Nicky Hekster's user avatar
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Same character values iff related by outer automorphism, for perfect groups

There are plenty of counterexamples. The ATLAS of finite groups is a good place to look. I think the smallest is for the group ${\rm PSL}(2,11)$, for which there are two characters of degree $12$ with ...
Derek Holt's user avatar
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Help with proof of $\langle\chi,\psi\rangle=\delta_{\chi,\psi}$ with $\chi$ and $\psi$ characters of a group.

From my understanding, it comes from the fact that the matrix $X=(x_{i,j})$ is a matrix of indeterminants, so these $x_{i,j}$ are just variables, and the quantity $Y$ will be a polynomial in the ...
Steven Creech's user avatar
3 votes

The set of characters

Instead of regarding your algebra as a subalgebra of $C_b(\mathbb{R})$, I'll further enlarge the ambient algebra to $L^\infty(\mathbb{R})$. We note that any character on $C_\infty(\mathbb{R})$ can be ...
David Gao's user avatar
  • 1,489
3 votes

Determine conjugacy classes from group representation for character table

A conjugacy class of $x$ in $G$ is a set $\{gxg^{-1} : g \in G\}$. In the case of an abelian group $G$, we have $gxg^{-1} = x$ for all $g \in G$, so every conjugacy class is a singleton $\{x\}$. ...
testaccount's user avatar
2 votes
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Permutation analog of a character table

Every group action is the “union” of transitive actions. Every transitive action of a group $G$ is equivalent to the action on the set of (left) cosets $G/H$ for some $H\le G$ by (left) multiplication....
Brauer Suzuki's user avatar
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Same character table implies same composition factors

Theorem 4 of Kimmerle, Wolfgang; Sandling, Robert, Group theoretic and group ring theoretic determination of certain Sylow and Hall subgroups and the resolution of a question of R. Brauer, J. Algebra ...
Jeremy Rickard's user avatar
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Let $\chi(g)$ is a nonnegative real number. Show that if $\chi$ is irreducible, then $\chi$ is the trivial character

Edit: I'll rewrite this in a much simpler way - basically what MarkH wrote in the comment. What I wrote last night was extremely convoluted. Since $\chi$ is irreducible, $\chi$ is one of your $\chi_r$'...
Kenny Wong's user avatar
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2 votes
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If a hom. $\phi:G\to H$ of diagonalisable linear algebraic groups is injective, then the induced hom. $\phi^*:X^*(H)\to X^*(G)$ is surjective

Unless I'm missing something here, the exercise is wrong as stated. Let $k$ of characteristic $p>0$ and let $G=H=\Bbb G_m$. Let $\phi:G \to G$ be the map that raises everything to the $p$-th power....
Lukas Heger's user avatar
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Legendre symbol as a group character

The character group $\hat{G}$ of a group $G$ is defined as $$\hat{G}=\lbrace \chi:G\to \mathbb{C}^\times \mid \chi\text{ homomorphism}\rbrace$$ as Sean Eberhard wrote in the comment. (note: some ...
SomeCallMeTim's user avatar
2 votes

Is there some sort of irrep orthogonality for finite groups?

What you wrote isn't right, and my guess is that basically any example will break it. It can be fixed though by adding a transpose: $$ \sum_{g \in G} \pi_1(g) \pi_2(g^{-1})^\top = 0$$ Let's go back ...
Nate's user avatar
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2 votes
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Is there some sort of irrep orthogonality for finite groups?

Let's generalize. Suppose $(V_1,\pi_1)$ and $(V_2,\pi_2)$ are two irreps of $G$. Define $$ T(M)=\frac{1}{|G|}\sum_{g\in G} \pi_1(g)M\pi_2(g^{-1}). \tag{$\color{green}{\triangle1}$}$$ Observe $T$ is a ...
coiso's user avatar
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2 votes
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Character of a representation and dimensione of $G$-invariant space

It seems like the step that's giving you trouble is proving that $(\overline{\chi_V},\chi_V)=(\chi_0,\chi_V^2)$. The calculation is: \begin{align*} (\overline{\chi_V},\chi_V) &= \frac{1}{|G|}\sum_{...
Kenny Wong's user avatar
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2 votes
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Character of induced representation

Assuming that $\{t_{\lambda}\}$ is a set of coset representatives for $G/H$. First of all, we need to verify that $\dot{\alpha}$ satisfies something like equation $(1)$, namely we want to check that $\...
Dylan's user avatar
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2 votes
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Character of restricted representation.

Your interpretation seems correct to me. It also easily follows using the inner product. If $\rho$ is a non-linear character then $[$$\rho_{\{e\}}$,$\rho_{\{e\}}$$]$$=\rho(e)^2>1$ and hence $\rho_{\...
Deif's user avatar
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2 votes
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A question about hypothesis of Clifford's Theorem in Isaacs Character Theory book

The irreducibility of $\chi$ is necessary to assert that $\chi$ is a constituent of $\vartheta^G$. By Frobenius reciprocity we have that $0\not=[\chi_H,\vartheta]=[\chi,\vartheta^G]$. Then $\chi$ is a ...
Deif's user avatar
  • 638
2 votes
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The set of characters

Consider $C$ be an ${}^*$-algebra (not $C^*$ yet) generated by $C_\infty$ and $\{e^{it}\}.$ $C = C_\infty \oplus P(e^{it}, e^{-it})$ where $P$ is polynomial algebra. Direct sum is viewed in category ...
dsh's user avatar
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