Paper 2, Section II, G
Part II, 2017
In this question you may assume the following result. Let be a character of a finite group and let . If is a rational number, then is an integer.
(a) If and are positive integers, we denote their highest common factor by . Let be an element of order in the finite group . Suppose that is conjugate to for all with and . Prove that is an integer for all characters of .
[You may use the following result without proof. Let be an th root of unity. Then
is an integer.]
Deduce that all the character values of symmetric groups are integers.
(b) Let be a group of odd order.
Let be an irreducible character of with . Prove that
where is an algebraic integer. Deduce that .