Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-introduction-to-representation-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/2/e/solution

In the order of conjugacy classes used in part (c), the elements of have the following types:
By part (d), only and have nonzero character values. Formula (b), or equivalently the element-sum version proved there, therefore gives
with zero on the other three conjugacy classes. Here the centralizer order is . Thus .
Let denote the sign representation and take the explicit two-dimensional -module
Its character is . The character of a tensor product of group representations is the pointwise product of their characters, because . Consequently
By Maschke's theorem both complex representations are semisimple representations, and characters distinguish finite-dimensional complex semisimple representations. Therefore
This is the induction of the planar square representation to the symmetric group on four letters.
The dimension of the fixed-point subspace of a group action is the multiplicity of the trivial representation. Its character inner product here is
Hence . Equivalently, Frobenius reciprocity identifies this multiplicity with .

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