Paper 3, Section II, F

Representation Theory
Part II, 2015

(a) State Mackey's theorem, defining carefully all the terms used in the statement.

(b) Let GG be a finite group and suppose that GG acts on the set Ω\Omega.

If nNn \in \mathbb{N}, we say that the action of GG on Ω\Omega is nn-transitive if Ω\Omega has at least nn elements and for every pair of nn-tuples (a1,,an)\left(a_{1}, \ldots, a_{n}\right) and (b1,,bn)\left(b_{1}, \ldots, b_{n}\right) such that the aia_{i} are distinct elements of Ω\Omega and the bib_{i} are distinct elements of Ω\Omega, there exists gGg \in G with gai=big a_{i}=b_{i} for every ii.

(i) Let Ω\Omega have at least nn elements, where n1n \geqslant 1 and let ωΩ\omega \in \Omega. Show that GG acts nn-transitively on Ω\Omega if and only if GG acts transitively on Ω\Omega and the stabiliser GωG_{\omega} acts (n1)(n-1)-transitively on Ω\{ω}\Omega \backslash\{\omega\}.

(ii) Show that the permutation module CΩ\mathbb{C} \Omega can be decomposed as

CΩ=CGV,\mathbb{C} \Omega=\mathbb{C}_{G} \oplus V,

where CG\mathbb{C}_{G} is the trivial module and VV is some CG\mathbb{C} G-module.

(iii) Assume that Ω2|\Omega| \geqslant 2, so that V0V \neq 0. Prove that VV is irreducible if and only if GG acts 2-transitively on Ω\Omega. In that case show also that VV is not the trivial representation. [Hint: Pick any orbit of GG on Ω\Omega; it is isomorphic as a GG-set to G/HG / H for some subgroup HGH \leqslant G. Consider the induced character IndHG1H]\left.\operatorname{Ind}_{H}^{G} 1_{H} \cdot\right]