Related papers: On the Divisibility of Character Values of the Sym…

For any two partitions $\lambda$ and $\mu$ of a positive integer $N$, let $\chi_{\lambda}(\mu)$ be the value of the irreducible character of the symmetric group $S_{N}$ associated with $\lambda$, evaluated at the conjugacy class of elements…

Let $X$ be a character table of the symmetric group $S_n$. It is shown that unless $n = 4$ or $n=6$, there is a unique way to assign partitions of $n$ to the rows and columns of $X$ so that for all $\lambda$ and $\nu$, $X_{\lambda\nu}$ is…

Suppose that $\chi_\lambda$ and $\chi_\mu$ are distinct irreducible characters of the symmetric group $S_n$. We give an algorithm that, in time polynomial in $n$, constructs $\pi\in S_n$ such that $\chi_\lambda(\pi)$ is provably different…

In \cite{[CZ]}, Cohen and Zemel showed that for a partition $\lambda \vdash k$, the dimension of the irreducible representation of $S_{n}$ corresponding to the partition $(n-k,\lambda) \vdash n$ is a polynomial of degree $k$ in $n$, whose…

Determining if a symmetric function is Schur-positive is a prevalent and, in general, a notoriously difficult problem. In this paper we study the Schur-positivity of a family of symmetric functions. Given a partition \lambda, we denote by…

In previous work of this author it was conjectured that the sum of power sums $p_\lambda,$ for partitions $\lambda$ ranging over an interval $[(1^n), \mu]$ in reverse lexicographic order, is Schur-positive. Here we investigate this…

We give a new formula for the values of an irreducible character of the symmetric group S_n indexed by a partition of rectangular shape. Some observations and a conjecture are given concerning a generalization to arbitrary shapes.

We determine when a permutation with cycle type $\mu$ admits a non-zero invariant vector in the irreducible representation $V_\lambda$ of the symmetric group. We find that a majority of pairs $(\lambda,\mu)$ have this property, with only a…

Let $\mathcal{C}_n =\left [\chi_{\lambda}(\mu)\right]_{\lambda, \mu}$ be the character table for $S_n,$ where the indices $\lambda$ and $\mu$ run over the $p(n)$ many integer partitions of $n.$ In this note we study $Z_{\ell}(n),$ the…

Given an integer $n\geq 1$ and an irreducible character $\chi_{\lambda}$ of $S_{n}$ for some partition $\lambda$ of $n$, the immanant $\mathrm{imm}_{\lambda}:\mathbb{C}^{n\times n}\to\mathbb{C}$ maps matrices $A\in\mathbb{C}^{n\times n}$ to…

Let $q$ be a prime power, and $d$ a positive integer. We study the proportion of irreducible characters of $\mathrm{GL}(n,q)$ whose values evaluated on a fixed matrix $g$ are divisible by $d$. As $n$ approaches infinity, this proportion…

If $\lambda$ and $\mu$ are two non-empty Young diagrams with the same number of squares, and $\boldsymbol\lambda$ and $\boldsymbol\mu$ are obtained by dividing each square into $d^2$ congruent squares, then the corresponding character value…

Let $S_n$ denote a symmetric group, $\chi$ an irreducible character of $S_n$, and $g\in S_n$ an element which decomposes into $k$ disjoint cycles, where $1$-cycles are included. Then $|\chi(g)|\le k!$, and this upper bound is sharp for…

We fix integers $k> 0$ and $n>0$. For a $k$-punctured Riemann surface $\Sigma \setminus \{ p_1,\ldots,p_k \}$ and a $k$-tuple $\boldsymbol{\mu}=(\mu^1,\ldots,\mu^k)$ of partitions of $n$, we can define the character variety of type…

In recent work, M. Schneider and the first author studied a curious class of integer partitions called "sequentially congruent" partitions: the $m$th part is congruent to the $(m+1)$th part modulo $m$, with the smallest part congruent to…

We generalize Regev's result on a virtual character of $S_n$. Suppose that $\lambda$ and $\mu$ are integer partitions of $n$. For the associated irreducible character $\chi^\lambda$ of $S_n$, when $\chi^\lambda(\mu)\neq0$ we find another…

Let $\lambda$ be a partition of the positive integer $n$ chosen umiformly at random among all such partitions. Let $L_n=L_n(\lambda)$ and $M_n=M_n(\lambda)$ be the largest part size and its multiplicity, respectively. For large $n$, we…

Let $s,t$ be natural numbers, and fix an $s$-core partition $\sigma$ and a $t$-core partition $\tau$. Put $d=\gcd(s,t)$ and $m= lcm(s,t)$, and write $N_{\sigma, \tau}(k)$ for the number of $m$-core partitions of length no greater than $k$…

The covering number of a non-linear character $\chi$ of a finite group $G$ is the least positive integer $k$ such that every irreducible character of $G$ occurs in $\chi^k$. We determine the covering numbers of irreducible characters of the…

Let $k, t$ be coprime integers, and let $1 \leq r \leq t$. We let $D_k^\times(r,t;n)$ denote the total number of parts among all $k$-indivisible partitions (i.e., those partitions where no part is divisible by $k$) of $n$ which are…