Paper 2, Section II, G

Representation Theory
Part II, 2017

In this question you may assume the following result. Let χ\chi be a character of a finite group GG and let gGg \in G. If χ(g)\chi(g) is a rational number, then χ(g)\chi(g) is an integer.

(a) If aa and bb are positive integers, we denote their highest common factor by (a,b)(a, b). Let gg be an element of order nn in the finite group GG. Suppose that gg is conjugate to gig^{i} for all ii with 1in1 \leqslant i \leqslant n and (i,n)=1(i, n)=1. Prove that χ(g)\chi(g) is an integer for all characters χ\chi of GG.

[You may use the following result without proof. Let ω\omega be an nnth root of unity. Then

is an integer.]

Deduce that all the character values of symmetric groups are integers.

(b) Let GG be a group of odd order.

Let χ\chi be an irreducible character of GG with χ=χˉ\chi=\bar{\chi}. Prove that

χ,1G=1G(χ(1)+2α),\left\langle\chi, 1_{G}\right\rangle=\frac{1}{|G|}(\chi(1)+2 \alpha),

where α\alpha is an algebraic integer. Deduce that χ=1G\chi=1_{G}.

1in,ωi1in(i,n)=1\begin{aligned} & \sum_{1 \leqslant i \leqslant n,} \omega^{i} \\ & \begin{aligned}&1 \leqslant i \leqslant n \\&(i, n)=1\end{aligned} \end{aligned}