 Symmetric cube of a group representation

The symmetric cube of a group representation $V$ is the symmetric part of $V^{\otimes 3}$. Over the complex numbers, its character isThe projection onto symmetric tensors averages the six permutations of the three factors. The identity permutation contributes $\chi (g{)}^3$, the three transpositions each contribute $\chi (g)\chi (g^2)$, and the two three-cycles each contribute $\chi (g^3)$. Cubic polynomial invariants are fixed vectors in ${\mathrm{Sym}}^3(V^{\ast })$, whose dimension follows by averaging this character for a finite group.