English

A theorem on roots of unity and a combinatorial principle

Quantum Algebra 2014-10-20 v2 Combinatorics Representation Theory

Abstract

Given a finite set of roots of unity, we show that all power sums are non-negative integers iff the set forms a group under multiplication. The main argument is purely combinatorial and states that for an arbitrary finite set system the non-negativity of certain alternating sums is equivalent to the set system being a filter. As an application we determine all discrete Fourier pairs of {0,1}\{0,1\}-matrices. This technical result is an essential step in the classification of RR-matrices of quantum groups.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.5822,
  title  = {A theorem on roots of unity and a combinatorial principle},
  author = {Simon Lentner and Daniel Nett},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.5822},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

We have proven the more general combinatorial statement and made some other minor improvements

R2 v1 2026-06-22T06:01:21.691Z