4.II.19F

Representation Theory
Part II, 2006

In this question, all vector spaces will be complex.

(a) Let AA be a finite abelian group.

(i) Show directly from the definitions that any irreducible representation must be one-dimensional.

(ii) Show that AA has a faithful one-dimensional representation if and only if AA is cyclic.

(b) Now let GG be an arbitrary finite group and suppose that the centre of GG is nontrivial. Write Z={zGzg=gzgG}Z=\{z \in G \mid z g=g z \quad \forall g \in G\} for this centre.

(i) Let WW be an irreducible representation of GG. Show that ResZGW=dimWχ\operatorname{Res}_{Z}^{G} W=\operatorname{dim} W \cdot \chi, where χ\chi is an irreducible representation of ZZ.

(ii) Show that every irreducible representation of ZZ occurs in this way.

(iii) Suppose that ZZ is not a cyclic group. Show that there does not exist an irreducible representation WW of GG such that every irreducible representation VV occurs as a summand of WnW^{\otimes n} for some nn.