English

McKay graphs for alternating and classical groups

Group Theory 2020-07-22 v1 Representation Theory

Abstract

Let GG be a finite group, and α\alpha a nontrivial character of GG. The McKay graph M(G,α)\mathcal{M}(G,\alpha) has the irreducible characters of GG as vertices, with an edge from χ1\chi_1 to χ2\chi_2 if χ2\chi_2 is a constituent of αχ1\alpha\chi_1. We study the diameters of McKay graphs for finite simple groups GG. For alternating groups, we prove a conjecture made in [LST]: there is an absolute constant CC such that diamM(G,α)ClogAnlogα(1)\hbox{diam}\,{\mathcal M}(G,\alpha) \le C\frac{\log |\mathsf{A}_n|}{\log \alpha(1)} for all nontrivial irreducible characters α\alpha of An\mathsf{A}_n. Also for classsical groups of symplectic or orthogonal type of rank rr, we establish a linear upper bound CrCr on the diameters of all nontrivial McKay graphs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2007.10530,
  title  = {McKay graphs for alternating and classical groups},
  author = {M. W. Liebeck and A. Shalev and Pham Huu Tiep},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.10530},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

22 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T17:16:01.905Z