2-modular blocks of S3 2026-10-05
Over a splitting field for finite group representations of characteristic , put . The block of a group algebra idempotents of are and . Their block algebras are and , with a defect group of a block given by and , respectively. The first is a local ring; for the second, the representation , generates the full matrix algebra. The Cartan matrix of a group algebra is , and the ordinary trivial, sign, and two-dimensional characters give decomposition matrix .
Cartan matrix of a group algebra Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Cartan matrix records composition-factor multiplicities in the projective indecomposable modules. For a split modular group algebra, it is
where is the decomposition matrix.
Rows of the symmetric-group decomposition matrix are all ordinary shapes, columns are regular partitions, and . A nonzero column antisymmetrizer of shape on forces dominance: the first rows contain at most column entries. For a regular shape its diagonal simple appears once, giving a rectangular triangular matrix and a unitriangular regular-row submatrix.
Since , Question 2 shows that every composition factor of is for a regular partition . If is regular, its radical quotient occurs once: it occurs as a quotient, and its multiplicity is bounded above by the multiplicity one in . All remaining factors have strictly dominating labels. A nonregular row has only strictly dominating regular labels.
Define . Order the row labels, all partitions of an integer of , and the column labels, the regular partitions of an integer, by the same total order refining decreasing dominance. Then
The matrix is generally rectangular. Its submatrix on regular rows is lower unitriangular in this decreasing convention; placing least dominant shapes first would transpose the visual triangular convention, not the indices.
This is the decomposition matrix, not just an abstract composition factor table. The standard polytabloid basis makes a free invariant integral lattice whose extension to characteristic zero is the ordinary irreducible . Reducing this same lattice modulo gives exactly the modular . On p-regular elements, reduction of its ordinary character is the sum of the Brauer characters of its composition factors, with coefficients . These are the defining decomposition numbers; the resulting class in the modular representation ring is independent of the chosen invariant lattice.
For , take rows in that order. In characteristic zero, or , all three Specht modules are irreducible by Maschke's theorem, and
For the regular labels are and
Indeed the sign representation equals the trivial representation. The two-dimensional is the sum-zero subspace of the three-point permutation module. Over an algebraic closure, a -cycle has two distinct nontrivial third-root eigenvalues there, and a transposition exchanges their lines. Neither line is invariant under , proving absolute irreducibility.
For the regular labels are and
In the same sum-zero space the vector now spans an invariant trivial line. Its one-dimensional quotient is sign: the determinant of the sum-zero representation is sign, and the determinant of the invariant line is trivial. Therefore has one trivial and one sign factor, with sign its simple head . The bottom Specht module is itself sign. This proves every entry of the three possible matrices.
A standard Young tableau is a filling by , each used once, increasing along rows and down columns. A semistandard Young tableau is a filling by positive integers, weakly increasing along rows and strictly increasing down columns. Its content means that the entry occurs times. The Kostka number counts semistandard tableaux of shape and content . The dominance order on partitions is
Strict dominance adds . The Young permutation module is .
Let be a composition factor of . It occurs as a submodule of some quotient , so its defining surjection gives a nonzero map . With the row reversal from Question 1, , , and the cyclic generator cannot have zero image under . Therefore acts nontrivially on , and hence on . The column-cancellation argument proves .
When , the identity shows more: the image of every nonzero map is . In a composition series of , a factor isomorphic to can thus occur only at the step where first becomes contained in the series term. Once contained, every later such map would have zero image. Since the quotient of the submodule certainly occurs when is regular, it occurs exactly once. If is not regular, no simple is indexed by . Consequently every other factor has a strictly dominating regular label. The same conclusion holds for ; when regular, its radical quotient supplies the unique factor.
The integral standard-basis theorem says that the standard polytabloids form a basis over every field. Thus is independent of characteristic. In the decomposition matrix, rows are indexed by all ordinary shapes and columns by regular shapes :
Ordering shapes by a common linear extension of dominance gives a rectangular triangular matrix, whose regular-row square submatrix is unitriangular. The standard basis also gives .
Young's rule states that has a Specht filtration with copies of . In characteristic zero this is a direct-sum decomposition into irreducibles. In positive characteristic these are Specht factors, not simple factors; rather
For content and shape , entries at most must lie in the first rows, because columns strictly increase. Their number is exactly the size of those rows, so successive rows must be filled by their row number. Hence . A one-row shape has a unique weakly increasing arrangement of any prescribed content, so . Content uses every label once, making semistandard and standard conditions identical, so .
For content only the entries are available; strict columns allow at most two rows. In shape every bottom entry is and every entry above it is . The remaining top row is uniquely fixed by the content, and such a filling exists exactly for when . Young's rule therefore gives
where multiplication denotes induction from the indicated Young subgroup, not pointwise multiplication of characters of the same group. The dimension of this permutation module is . Subtracting the analogous identity with yields
with for . This dimension holds over every field.
An integral form of a group representation is a -stable finite free -submodule with . Such a form exists: take a basis lattice and replace it by , which is finite and torsion-free and therefore free over the discrete valuation ring .
Choose ordinary simple modules with forms , and modular simple modules with projective covers . With a uniformizer, put . The decomposition matrix and Cartan matrix of a group algebra have entries
The first numbers do not depend on the integral form: the Brauer character of its reduction is the ordinary character restricted to p-regular elements, and part 2(a) determines all composition multiplicities from this restriction.
For the assertion in (i), set . It is a submodule of the finite free module , hence is finite free over . There is a natural injective map
For any homomorphism in the target, clearing the finitely many denominators of its values on an -basis of gives . Thus , and the map is surjective. Therefore , regarding this Hom space as a vector space. The original PDF supplies part (i), which is missing from the supplied TeX.
On the 2-regular classes the six ordinary characters decompose as
Therefore the decomposition matrix, with columns ordered , is
The Cartan matrix of a group algebra is
The decomposition matrix separates into two connected components. The first contains and ; it is the principal block . The second contains only and ; since contains the full 5-part of , this is a defect-zero representation and its block has defect group .
For , the normalizer is , so the Brauer correspondence is the identity and corresponds to itself.
The defect group of the principal block is a Sylow 5-subgroup . There are six Sylow 5-subgroups in , so the orbit-stabilizer theorem gives
The centralizer of a 5-cycle in is , and an involution in the normalizer acts on by inversion. Hence
In characteristic five the simple -modules are inflated from : their Brauer characters are and on the identity and involution classes. If are the two one-dimensional and two two-dimensional ordinary characters of , their reductions are
The resulting decomposition matrix is connected, so these characters form the unique 5-block of , with defect group . By the Brauer first main theorem,
This is the complete 5-modular blocks of A5 correspondence.