Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 4 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let have defect group . Use two vertex-and-source facts, with their relevant content made explicit. Every indecomposable module in has a module vertex conjugate into . Also , as a -module with , is an indecomposable permutation-module summand with module vertex and trivial module source. The second fact is the bimodule characterization of a defect group of a block; the first follows by applying its relative- induction splitting to .
If is cyclic, every module source for every module vertex occurs among the finitely many indecomposable modules for a cyclic p-group. Each module in the block is a summand of an induction of one of these finitely many module sources. There are finitely many subgroups and each induced representation has finitely many indecomposable summands by Krull–Schmidt theorem. Thus cyclic defect implies finite representation type of the block.
For the converse, the restriction has the regular -bimodule as a direct summand. To see this from module vertices and module sources, its Brauer quotient of a module at is nonzero. Its summands are permutation modules for the -group and have module vertices of order at most . A summand detected at therefore has module vertex and trivial module source, hence isHere a transitive permutation module for a -group is indecomposable: it has one-dimensional head of a module over the local group algebra and cannot split into two nonzero modules. This also explains the Brauer-quotient detection used in the argument.
For any -module , tensor that split bimodule inclusion with . It giveswhere denotes being a direct summand. If has only finitely many indecomposable modules , each is a sum of these. Therefore every indecomposable must occur among the summands of the finite list . Thus has finite representation type.
A noncyclic -group has a quotient : its Frattini quotient has rank at least two, since a one-generator Frattini quotient forces the group itself to be cyclic. Inflation along this quotient embeds all the indecomposable modules of that elementary abelian group, preserving isomorphisms and indecomposability. Part (b) rules out finite type when is infinite.
The conclusion remains valid if the splitting field is finite. For completeness, replace the scalar parameter in part (b) by an companion matrix of an irreducible polynomial . On useAn endomorphism commuting with these has form with . Its endomorphism ring has a square-zero ideal of the -matrices and quotient , a field, so it is local and the module is indecomposable. Finite fields have irreducible polynomials of arbitrarily large degrees, giving infinitely many dimensions. This also excludes noncyclic in that case. Altogether,
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 4 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A finite-dimensional group algebra has finite representation type of a group algebra when there are only finitely many isomorphism classes of finite-dimensional indecomposable modules. The definition concerns all dimensions, not merely finitely many modules in each fixed dimension.
Let be the block idempotent and choose a maximal Brauer pair : is a block idempotent of with . The inertial index of a block iswhere is the stabilizer of the chosen pair. Changing the pair by conjugation does not alter this number. For cyclic , it is a prime-to- divisor of . Here , as required for the order- subgroup to exist.
Put . Since is characteristic in , , so Green correspondence applies. In fact the nonprojective modules in have a particularly simple correspondence. If , a nontrivial intersection would contain the unique order- subgroup of both cyclic groups, giving and hence , a contradiction. Thus every such intersection is trivial. The error modules in induction are projective. In restriction, an intersection cannot contain a conjugate of a nontrivial subgroup of by an element of : such a conjugate contains , and that would again force . The general Green correspondence therefore pairs all indecomposable modules with nontrivial module vertex contained in a conjugate of . In particular it pairs the nonprojective modules of with the nonprojective modules of its Brauer correspondent in ; the block-compatible form of the correspondence selects . Explicitly,where is projective and the restriction error family is . One should not replace this restriction error term by projectives without an additional argument about .
For the final structure calculation we use the general cyclic-defect structure theorem, which is permitted here as a general fact: the basic algebra of a split block with cyclic defect group is a Brauer tree algebra. Its tree has edges, one simple module per edge, and exceptional multiplicityFor a one-edge tree the basic algebra presentation is . This is the local presentation of the tree algebra, not an assertion that an arbitrary block with one simple module is automatically uniserial.
With the tree has one edge and . Thus the basic algebra of isIt has exactly one simple module, . Its ideals are precisely : for any nonzero element, factor out its lowest power of , after which the remaining factor is a unit. The regular projective therefore has the unique submodule chainwith each consecutive factor one-dimensional and simple. A Morita equivalence from to preserves simple modules, projective covers, submodule lattices and composition length. HenceIn the split setting one may also write . The projective cover has composition factors all isomorphic to , so its vector-space dimension is , not generally .
There is also an elementary reason why the uniserial conclusion follows once the one-simple-module conclusion and finite type are known. If the basic local algebra had , quotienting its radical square and all but two generators would give . The two-dimensional parameter family from Question 3(b) would then give infinitely many indecomposables. Thus is one-dimensional. Nakayama lemma makes generated by one element , so its powers yield a chain and the basic algebra is . The cyclic-defect calculation above identifies . This explains why finite representation type rules out branching in this projective cover.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 6 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let and be rational parabolic subgroups with rational Levi subgroups. Work with complex representations of their finite groups of Lie type. Here Harish-Chandra induction and Harish-Chandra restriction meanThe latter is an -module, and it is adjoint to the former by Frobenius reciprocity.
DefineFor , put and let transport an -module to a -module. The Mackey formula for Harish-Chandra induction is the natural functor isomorphismOn characters the direct sum becomes a sum. The intersection parabolics displayed in the subscripts are important: they specify exactly which Harish-Chandra induction and Harish-Chandra restriction occur.
We use the following parabolic-intersection lemmas, stating explicitly the geometric input to the proof. First, representatives of represent exactly the double cosets . Second, for such , the groups and are parabolic subgroups of and , respectively, with common Levi subgroup and respective unipotent radicals and . If , projection maps onto with kernel . Projection maps onto with kernel . These assertions hold on rational points as well. The surjectivity on rational points uses connectedness of the unipotent kernels and the Lang theorem for algebraic groups. These are the compatible-Levi and rational double-coset lemmas; they follow by applying the root-subgroup decomposition after choosing the common maximal algebraic torus.
For completeness, the representation-theoretic reduction is as follows. The group algebra realization of induced representation splits according to the double cosets:as a -bimodule. Tensoring on the right with an inflated -module identifies each summand with induction from . This proves the finite-group Mackey restriction formula in the formHere is trivial on .
We next record the elementary normal-subgroup identity underlying Harish-Chandra restriction. If are finite groups, with a normal subgroup, and , then for a complex -module ,To see this, replace invariants by coinvariants using the averaging idempotent . Taking coinvariants in first replaces by , and forces to act trivially on . Thus it yields ; averaging over identifies this last module with the one displayed. This also shows why characteristic zero makes the argument exact.
Apply this identity to , , . By the intersection lemmas, . Since is trivial on , its -invariants are exactlyMoreover acts trivially on this module, so induction from to is precisely Harish-Chandra induction from . Substituting into each double-coset summand gives the boxed formula. This proves the formula for rational parabolics; it does not assume a general Mackey formula for nonrational Deligne-Lusztig induction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 8 5 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Take the group algebra withon its group basis, extended linearly. Multiplication of group basis elements makes algebra homomorphisms, and verifies the antipode identities. The coproduct is fixed by the tensor flip on every basis element, so this is a cocommutative Hopf algebra. But and are distinct basis elements, proving noncommutativity. Thus .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 5 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The correspondence concerns uniform pro-p groups and powerful Lie lattices, with their natural morphisms. Put for odd and for . A powerful pro-p group is a pro-p group whose closed commutator subgroup lies in its closed -power subgroup. It is uniform when it is topologically finitely generated and all successive indices in its lower p-series are equal. Equivalently, a finitely generated powerful pro-p group is uniform precisely when it is a torsion-free group. A powerful Lie algebra over p-adic integers means a Lie algebra over that is free of finite rank as a module and satisfiesHere a Lie algebra over a ring is a module with an alternating bilinear Lie bracket satisfying the Jacobi identity. Finite freeness is an essential part of the lattice convention. The zero-bracket module satisfies the bracket inclusion but has torsion, and its additive group is not uniform. Thus allowing arbitrary torsion modules would make the categorical assertion false.
The basic structural facts behind the construction can be seen from the power layers. Write with . Collection for a powerful pro-p group givesFor odd , the power lifting is exactly the successive-correction argument of Question 3, followed by compactness; at the stronger fourth-power commutator condition makes the corresponding collection corrections work. The maps between successive layers are surjective linear maps. Uniformity makes their finite dimensions equal, so these maps are isomorphisms. Comparing the first layer in which two elements differ now shows that the power map is injective, while the power-set formula makes it surjective. Thus all the roots used below exist uniquely in the indicated layer. If lift a basis of , the images of form a basis of . Successively choosing their coefficients modulo gives the unique ordered expressionExistence follows by lifting one layer at a time and taking a limit; uniqueness follows by comparing the first nonzero coefficient layer. In particular and these layers form a neighbourhood basis. These are the power-layer and coordinate facts needed in the proof, rather than an assumption that an arbitrary pro-p group has unique roots.
On the underlying set of , set the additive zero to , the additive negative of to , and defineThe p-adic integers act through limits of integer powers in the closed cyclic subgroup generated by . In the second formula the product belongs to ; in the third the group commutator belongs to . The symbols and denote the unique group roots, not unrestricted division in a group. We next justify convergence and the Lie algebra laws together.
A useful concrete tool is a complete normed group algebra containing . In its completed group algebra, put . Ordered-coordinate uniqueness gives unique expansions with . To see why, first work modulo and : the ordered products of the with exponents below form the regular basis, and the change to the corresponding products of is triangular with diagonal entries one. Take inverse limits and then lift the coefficient digits successively in powers of . Define the weightIt is a genuine separated, submultiplicative weight. Indeed reordering produces a group-commutator correction in ; the binomial expansion of a th power gives that correction weight at least , so collection never decreases total weight. Also . Inverting and completing therefore gives a Banach algebra over . For , ordered coordinates showwith value infinity at . Thus the induced topology on is exactly its original topology. This construction supplies the ambient algebra without presupposing the uniform pro-p group and powerful Lie lattice correspondence. The weighted construction, including the case , is described in Equivariant D-modules on rigid analytic spaces, Section 6.5.
Since , the p-adic logarithm and p-adic exponential converge on the relevant balls in :The estimates and show that term weights tend to infinity. Formal substitution is legitimate there and proves that the two maps are inverse. They preserve the leading weight. In particular embeds the compact set homeomorphically into , and .
Put and . Expanding the convergent Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formula in givesThe first expansion has linear part and all other terms have degree at least two in . The second has leading term and all remaining terms have degree at least three. After division by the displayed powers of , the extra factor of forces those errors to zero. The normalized expressions are logarithms of the unique roots already specified. Since is compact and closed in , both limits belong to . Scalar multiplication also remains in by continuity of powers. Consequently is a module over , closed under the associative-algebra Lie bracket . Bilinearity, alternation and the Jacobi identity follow by expanding products in the associative algebra . Transporting these operations back gives exactly above.
The commutator-layer inclusion places every normalized bracket root in . Since and this set is compact, passage to the limit proves . Addition modulo is the original multiplication modulo : collection shows , as the nonlinear errors lie at least one layer deeper. Thus has dimension , with basis . Given , write its residue as and repeat on . This iterative digit lifting converges because the remainders stay in the bounded compact set . It gives with . A nontrivial relation among the could be divided by the smallest power of among its coefficients, contradicting their independence modulo . Hence is free of rank , proving that it is a powerful Lie lattice.
Conversely, let be a powerful Lie lattice. In , defineThe formal Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formula and its coefficient estimate are the algebraic ingredients used here. More precisely, the degree- component can be expressed as an integral Lie polynomial divided by a number of -adic valuation at most . One way to obtain this estimate is to bound the associative coefficients of and use an integral ordered basis of the free Lie algebra. The denominator bound , where is the base- digit sum, is at most . A precise primary reference for that denominator estimate is Smallest common denominators for the homogeneous components of the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff series. A length- Lie bracket in lies in . Thus the degree- term belongs toThese exponents are nonnegative and tend to infinity; for they are at least one. This proves integral convergence, continuity and . Associativity follows from the formal identity in the completed universal enveloping algebra. Substitution of three elements is justified by the same valuation estimates, so the two associative expressions agree. The identity is , the inverse is , and because every nonlinear term involving only vanishes.
For powerfulness, formal conjugation givesThe difference lies in : its th term has valuation at least for . The group commutator is therefore . Its linear term is . Every nonlinear Lie term contains , since it vanishes when , and the extra divisibility makes all those terms lie in too. Hence . The ideals are open normal subgroups for , and their finite quotients have order . The group is consequently a pro-p group. Its power sets are exactly , its lower-series indices are constantly , and a basis of topologically generates it by the same successive digit lifting. The BCH group is uniform.
To check the inverse constructions, powers in the Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formula group are ordinary multiples in . Thereforeand the similarly normalized group commutator tends to . The limit constructions recover the original Lie algebra exactly. In the other direction, the ambient Banach algebra construction gives , so the recovered operation is the original multiplication of .
Finally a continuous group homomorphism between uniform pro-p groups preserves integer powers and powers with exponents in the p-adic integers, preserves the unique roots in the power layers, and commutes with their limits. It therefore becomes a linear Lie algebra homomorphism. Conversely a linear Lie algebra homomorphism between finite free modules is continuous and preserves every term of the convergent Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formula, hence is a continuous group homomorphism for . The constructions preserve identity maps and composition, and the inverse identifications are natural. They are mutually inverse functors, giving the stated category correspondence with the finite-free lattice convention.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 2 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write and , its Jacobson radical. First suppose the characteristic is . We prove the counting statement through the cocenter of a finite-dimensional algebrawhere is the linear span of commutators, not an ideal. In a group algebra, this span is exactly the span of differences of conjugate group elements: is such a difference, and . Consequently has one basis vector for each conjugacy class.
There is a well-defined Frobenius map on an algebra cocenterHere is additive and . To prove additivity, expand into words of length . Cyclic rotations of a word are equal modulo commutators. Every nonconstant word has a rotation orbit of length , so its orbit contributes zero; only remain. Alsobecause the two products are cyclic rotations. Additivity then shows that the whole commutator subspace maps to zero, proving well-definedness on the quotient.
Let be the number of simple modules up to isomorphism. The semisimple algebra is : over an algebraically closed field, a finite-dimensional division algebra is the field itself, since the minimal polynomial of any element splits into linear factors and a division algebra has no zero divisors. In a matrix algebra, the commutator subspace is precisely the traceless matrices. Off-diagonal matrix units are commutators, and ; these span that subspace in every characteristic. ThusThe map induced by on each coordinate is , since . This is bijective because is a perfect field.
The natural surjection has kernel . Every kernel class has a representative in . Since is nilpotent, kills that kernel for sufficiently large . On the quotient it remains bijective, so its image has dimension exactly . On the conjugacy-class basis, however,For large , every is a p-regular element; moreover the -power map permutes the p-regular conjugacy classes, because an inverse exponent can be chosen modulo the prime-to- part of the exponent of . The stable image therefore has precisely those conjugacy classes as its basis. Comparing dimensions provesThis argument uses dimensions of semilinear images: a bijective scalar Frobenius map preserves dimension, so the usual rank count applies.
In characteristic zero every group element is relevant. Averaging a linear projection onto a submodule over makes that projection -equivariant, proving Maschke's theorem and semisimplicity of . The same matrix-algebra cocenter calculation now gives , the total number of conjugacy classes.
For the second request, is a relative projective module for when every -equivariant epimorphism onto which splits after restriction to already splits over . Equivalently is a direct summand of , the induced representation of the restriction of a representation to . We can verify the defining splitting property directly: if has an -linear section , choose representatives of the left cosets and setThe sum is independent of representatives by -linearity. Reindexing proves -linearity, while . Hence every is relatively -projective when the index is invertible in .
For completeness the canonical induced-module epimorphism has the explicit -linear sectionIt exhibits the promised direct summand and is the projectivity detected on a subgroup of invertible index construction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 2 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
An idempotent gives a projective module , since . It is primitive when it cannot be written as a sum of two nonzero orthogonal idempotents. This is equivalent to indecomposability of : a projection onto a direct summand is an idempotent of , and conversely such an idempotent splits . Starting with , split any nonprimitive summand repeatedly. The process terminates because each splitting increases the number of nonzero vector-space summands in a finite-dimensional algebra. Thuswith orthogonal primitive idempotents and indecomposable projective modules. Each summand is generated by its idempotent.
Let . A Frobenius algebra is a finite-dimensional algebra with as left modules over , where . Equivalently there is a linear functional for which is nondegenerate. A symmetric algebra satisfies the stronger bimodule isomorphism , with ; equivalently the functional can be chosen with . This is the associative-algebra meaning of symmetric, rather than the symmetric algebra of a vector space.
For a finite-dimensional module,The socle is its largest semisimple submodule, and the radical of a module gives its largest semisimple quotient. With one has and : is semisimple, and annihilates every simple module.
Now let for a primitive idempotent, allowing the field to be nonsplit. Symmetry identifies with through the pairingIt is nondegenerate on these corners. If , choose with ; then . The other variable is treated similarly. The pairing respects the left -action, soThe right-module quotient is simple. A primitive idempotent remains primitive modulo the nilpotent radical: idempotents lift through that radical, so a decomposition in the quotient would lift to one in . In the semisimple algebra , the left simple and the dual of the right simple belong to the same matrix block. There is exactly one left simple isomorphism class in that block, even over a nonalgebraically closed field. Hence the head-socle identity for a symmetric algebra isThis is an isomorphism of left modules, and need not be canonical.
For the modular examples put , , so and . The coefficient-of-identity functional on the group algebra is symmetric and nondegenerate, so the identity just proved applies.
In characteristic two, the central idempotents are and . The first block has basis and is . For the second, choose a primitive cube root and useThe two -eigenlines are interchanged by , proving irreducibility. Polynomial interpolation in gives diagonal matrix units, and multiplying by gives the off-diagonal units. Thus the four-dimensional block maps onto and is isomorphic to it:There are two simple modules, the trivial one-dimensional module and the two-dimensional module ; the sign module equals . Their projective covers are , with layers , and . The regular module is , and the Cartan matrix of a group algebra is . Every module is a sum of : the first block is classified by Jordan chains for a nilpotent linear map of lengths one and two, while the matrix block is semisimple. Thus there are exactly three indecomposable isomorphism classes. This describes the 2-modular blocks of S3.
In characteristic three put . The ideal satisfies , and , so . The only simples are the trivial and sign modules . Put . The projectives have dimension three. A convenient radical generator is :The basis gives the radical layersThus and its Cartan matrix of a group algebra isThe elements and give one arrow in each direction between the two simples. All paths of length three vanish, and the six paths of lengths zero, one and two are linearly independent. Hence is the path algebra of that two-vertex oriented cycle modulo the ideal of paths of length three. Its connected quiver also proves there is a single block of S3 in characteristic three.
Any module is a -graded vector space given by the -eigenspaces, with interchanging the grades and . Constructing Jordan chains with homogeneous bases in the kernel and image filtrations and homogeneous lifts decomposes it into graded chains. Each chain has length or and is determined by its top sign. It is a uniserial module and hence indecomposable. Consequently there are exactly six indecomposables, the length- quotients , .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 23 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The coefficient ring is complete for its -adic norm, with uniformizer and residue field . Its residue field is infinite, so is not compact. The measure construction uses completeness, not compactness of the coefficient ring.
An -valued p-adic measure on is a bounded -linear functionalon the continuous functions with the uniform norm. Equivalently it assigns a value to each clopen subset, finitely additively on disjoint unions. Integration of a locally constant function is defined byRefining finite clopen partitions shows that this is independent of the expression. Since every , the nonarchimedean triangle inequality gives .
Locally constant functions are uniformly dense in . Indeed, for every , continuity and compactness of supply a finite clopen partition on which is constant modulo ; choose one value of on each part. These approximations converge uniformly, and completeness of extends integration uniquely. Conversely, a bounded functional gives and finite additivity. This proves the equivalence of the two definitions. Ordinary countable additivity of real measures is not part of the definition.
Define the Iwasawa algebra bywhere runs over open subgroups. Since is an abelian profinite group, every such quotient is a finite abelian group. The transition map for sends a basis element to , so sums coefficients over the fibers.
A p-adic measure defines an element of this inverse limit byFinite additivity is precisely compatibility under the transition maps. Conversely, compatible coefficients define values on every coset and hence on every clopen subset: any clopen subset is a union of cosets of one open subgroup, by compactness and a finite common refinement. Compatibility makes the resulting value independent of that subgroup. The preceding integration argument then constructs the p-adic measure.
Finally, multiplication is convolution of p-adic measures. On a finite quotient its coefficients areThis is exactly the coefficient of in . Equivalently,first for locally constant , then by uniform approximation. The Dirac measure at the identity corresponds to the identity element of the group algebra. We have proved a bijection respecting addition, scalar multiplication and multiplication:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ii Paper 3 19F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
We use the standard facts that finite complex representations are completely reducible, irreducible characters are orthonormal, the regular character is , and the number of irreducible characters equals the number of conjugacy classes. We also use Schur's lemma, Sylow's theorem and the nontrivial center of a nontrivial finite -group.
For an irreducible character of degree , a conjugacy-class sum acts as the scalar by Schur's lemma and taking traces. This scalar is an algebraic integer: class sums form an integral basis of the center of the integral group algebra, their multiplication has integer structure constants, and multiplication by satisfies its monic integer characteristic polynomial. That same polynomial annihilates its image in any irreducible representation. Character values are also algebraic integers, since they are sums of roots of unity. Character orthogonality now givesThis is a rational algebraic integer, hence an integer. Therefore divides .
The Burnside's pa qb theorem states that every finite group of order is soluble. We prove its character-theoretic ingredient. If a class has size coprime to , integers with givean algebraic integer. Every algebraic conjugate of this number is the average of roots of unity and has modulus at most one. If it is nonzero, its algebraic norm is a nonzero integer of absolute value at least one; since every factor has modulus at most one, all must have modulus one. In particular . Equality in the triangle inequality for the unit-modulus eigenvalues implies that is scalar. Thus if , either or is scalar.
Suppose a group of order were nonabelian simple, with both primes present. Choose a nonidentity in the center of a Sylow -subgroup. Its centralizer contains that Sylow subgroup, so its class size is a power of . Every nontrivial irreducible representation is faithful by simplicity. If it sent to a scalar, faithfulness would make central in the group, impossible in a nonabelian simple group. The ingredient above therefore gives for every nontrivial character with degree coprime to . Evaluating the regular character at givesThe right side is an algebraic integer, but is not, a contradiction. A group of prime-power order cannot be nonabelian simple either, by its nontrivial center. Induct on the order: every nonsimple group has a proper nontrivial normal subgroup, and that subgroup and the quotient have smaller orders with at most these two prime divisors. By induction both are soluble; their derived-series extensions make the original group soluble. Simple abelian groups have prime order and start the induction. This proves Burnside's theorem.
For the final divisibility, let be odd and let be its number of conjugacy classes. All irreducible degrees are odd by the divisibility just proved. We use the standard Frobenius-Schur indicator theorem: is zero precisely for an irreducible character not equal to its conjugate, and is otherwise. Squaring is a bijection on an odd-order group: for each , its unique square root is , since every element order divides . For every nontrivial irreducible character, orthogonality to the trivial character consequently gives . The nontrivial characters therefore occur in distinct conjugate pairs of equal odd degree. Since an odd square is one modulo eight,is a sum of pairs , each divisible by sixteen; the trivial character contributes zero. Hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 3 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
A partition of an integer is a finite sequence with sum ; append zeros when comparing lengths. Its Young diagram has cells with . A Young tableau is a bijective filling of these cells by . Write for its row and column stabilizers, and fix the conventionPermutations act on entries on the left, with the rightmost factor acting first. This defines the Young symmetrizer used throughout. In the dictionary order on integer partitions, means that at the first differing part ; equality is allowed in .
Suppose there is no row-column collision between of shape and of shape . Each column of contains at most one entry from each row of . The first rows of therefore contain at mostentries, where is a column length. Thus for every : dominates in dominance order on partitions. If in dictionary order on integer partitions, a first strictly larger part would contradict the corresponding prefix inequality. Hence .
All the bounds must now be equalities. Every column of contains exactly one entry from row of whenever . Choose sending that entry to the entry of in cell . These prescriptions are bijections within the rows. The columns of then have exactly the same sets of entries as the columns of , so for some . ConsequentlyIf a collision was present instead, its two entries supply the first alternative. This proves the row-column collision lemma, including the prescribed order of the two stabilizer factors.
We next prove the Specht module classification. By Maschke's theorem, the group algebra is a semisimple algebra. Use the permitted basic quasi-idempotence of a Young symmetrizer,and put . The coefficient of in is one, because , so .
For , consider . A collision between the rows of and the columns of gives a transposition . Row symmetrization fixes , whereas column antisymmetrization changes its sign, so . If there is no collision, the proved lemma gives with , andIt follows that is zero or . Since permutations span , . In a semisimple algebra this means that is a primitive idempotent, so is an irreducible left module.
If in dictionary order on integer partitions, the collision lemma applied to every gives , and therefore . Sincethe two simple modules cannot be isomorphic. Conversely, Young tableaux of the same shape are related by a permutation, which conjugates their Young symmetrizers and gives isomorphic left ideals. Finally, the center of has the conjugacy-class sums as a basis. Conjugacy classes are indexed by cycle-type partitions, so its dimension is the number of partitions of . The Artin–Wedderburn theorem gives exactly that many simple-module isomorphism classes. We have already produced one for each partition. Thus the form a complete set of pairwise nonisomorphic irreducible modules.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 5 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Maschke's theorem makes the group algebra semisimple, since is a finite group and the ground field has characteristic zero. By the Artin–Wedderburn theorem, write . Its simple modules give exactly the nonisomorphic irreducible complex group representations.
The center of each matrix algebra consists of scalar matrices, so . On the other hand, an element is central precisely when its coefficients are constant on conjugacy classes. The sums of the elements in the separate conjugacy classes are therefore a basis of the center. Hence the number of irreducible complex representations equals the number of conjugacy classes.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 5 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a box of a Young diagram, its hook of a Young diagram contains that box, all boxes to its right in its row, and all boxes below it in its column. Its hook length is . The hook graph of a partition is the diagram with each box labeled by its hook length. Write for the hook product of a partition. The hook-length formula is
Pad to rows and use the beta set of a partition , so and , where . We prove the beta-set hook-product identity row by row. For , put ; then . The are distinct integers in , and none equals a beta number. Indeed, if then , whereas if then . Exactly beta numbers lie below , so the remaining integers in that interval are precisely these . ThereforeThis gives the equivalent Specht module dimension expression .
The standard Young tableaux of shape form the dimension count for the Specht module. The largest entry must occupy a removable corner. Deleting it bijects tableaux with the disjoint union of standard tableaux of the shapes obtained by deleting a corner, provingSet a term to zero whenever is not a partition: this includes equal adjacent rows and an attempted deletion from a zero row. The empty diagram has dimension .
For an algebraic proof that the proposed formula has the same recurrence, establish the Vandermonde shift identityIts left side is an alternating polynomial in the , because permuting the variables permutes the summands and changes the sign of every Vandermonde factor. It is therefore divisible by . The quotient is symmetric in and homogeneous of total degree one in , so has the form . At , . Differentiating in at zero and using the Euler theorem for homogeneous functions gives , so . This proves the identity as a polynomial identity, including repeated coordinates.
Take and . Since , it gives . For , this is exactlyThe summand is the proposed dimension for ; if two beta numbers collide its Vandermonde is zero, and if its coefficient is zero, so no negative factorial is needed. For the empty partition, and , giving initial value . Induction now proves the hook-length formula from the tableau recurrence.
For the final sum, tuples with repeated coordinates contribute zero. Sorting each distinct nonnegative tuple with sum gives one beta set of a partition of size , since subtracting the staircase removes from the sum. Conversely every partition of , padded to rows, supplies exactly ordered tuples, with the same squared summand. Hence the square-sum identity for shifted partition coordinates isThe middle equality uses the Artin–Wedderburn theorem for the group algebra and the complete classification of its simple modules by Specht modules. It explains why the last identity is a representation-dimension count rather than an accidental cancellation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 103 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Work over , with the standard inclusions fixing the letters . In the group algebra, the Young–Jucys–Murphy elements areThus adds all transpositions involving the newest letter. Conjugating by merely permutes the summands, so commutes with . In particular, if , then and . Hence the whole family is commuting.
Put , the transposition conjugacy-class sum in , with . ThenThis identity will connect the Young–Jucys–Murphy elements with the centres of the successive group algebras.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 103 1 a i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Work over the complex numbers. The chain has multiplicity-free restriction: each irreducible representation restricts to a direct sum of pairwise inequivalent irreducible representations. This structural fact can be proved before identifying the branching diagram. Indeed, the permitted Olshanskii centralizer lemma makes commutative, since it is generated by the center at the previous level and the commuting element . In each irreducible block this is the endomorphism algebra of the restricted module; a repeated summand would give a noncommutative matrix algebra factor. Thus no identification of the branching graph with Young diagrams is being assumed here.
Successively restricting an irreducible representation gives one-dimensional spaces indexed by paths of irreducible representations from the trivial -module to . Choosing one nonzero vector in each gives a Gelfand–Tsetlin basis. Define the Gelfand–Tsetlin algebra as the subalgebra of acting diagonally in all these bases. The Artin–Wedderburn theorem identifiesUnder this identification the Gelfand–Tsetlin algebra is the direct sum of the full diagonal matrix algebras in the indicated bases, so it is commutative.
To see that it is actually available inside the group algebra, let be the central primitive idempotent selecting the irreducible representation of . For a path the productis the projection onto in its final irreducible representation and is zero in every other final block. These products commute: a center at a higher level commutes with every element at a lower level. The are precisely the diagonal matrix units, and therefore span the proposed algebra.
If an element of the group algebra commutes with every , its matrix preserves every and is diagonal in every block. It already belongs to the Gelfand–Tsetlin algebra. Thuswhich proves that it is a maximal commutative subalgebra.
There is a separate problem with the printed linear-span assertion, when denotes the usual centralizer of a subalgebra. Let be the sum of all transpositions in . Direct expansion in the group algebra givesThus commutes with and satisfies . For it contains nonzero coefficients on three-cycles involving , whereas every element of is supported only on the identity and transpositions. Therefore is an explicit counterexample to the asserted equality.
One correct description of the entire preimage is obtained by putting . Equivariance gives , and is the identity on that center. It follows thatA useful corrected two-dimensional statement restricts the support to the identity and the transpositions : invariance under conjugation by then forces their coefficients to be equal, yielding exactly . This additional support restriction is absent from the PDF.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 103 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the Young–Jucys–Murphy elements in the group algebra . Their joint spectrum isEquivalently one can use the regular representation, which contains every irreducible representation. The commuting elements are self-adjoint in a unitary representation, so there is a simultaneous eigenbasis.
A standard Young tableau has entries increasing along each row and down each column. If entry occupies cell , its Content of a Young-diagram cell is . Define the set of content vectors of standard Young tableaux byThe shape here is a partition of an integer; it is not itself the vector of eigenvalues. For both sets consist of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 103 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Put and take the subgroup permuting the first and last letters. Define the skew representation of a symmetric group as the multiplicity spaceThe last-letter copy of commutes with , so it acts on a map by . This gives a genuine -module, without claiming that the whole restricted module is itself the skew representation. Equivalently,
Fix a prefix tableau of shape and complete it to shape . Iterated restriction branching rule for a symmetric group identifies the multiplicity-space orthonormal basis with standard skew Young tableaux, using labels for the last cells. The Young orthogonal form restricts to this basis. When is standard and ,An admissible interchange has , so its off-diagonal coefficient is nonzero. Consequently belongs to the group algebra span of . The preceding reduced-path argument reaches every standard skew tableau, so this span is the whole module. Every is a cyclic vector for a group representation. The inherited invariant inner product makes this a unitary representation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 128 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The Jacobson radical is , where runs over the maximal right ideals of ; equivalently, it is the intersection of the annihilators of all simple modules. It is a two-sided ideal. A projective module has the lifting property against every surjective R-module homomorphism. A finitely generated module is a projective module precisely when it is a direct summand of a finitely generated free module. An indecomposable module is nonzero and admits no direct sum decomposition into two nonzero submodules.
To calculate the top of an indecomposable projective module, use the right Artinian ring hypothesis, namely the descending chain condition on right ideals. The Hopkins-Levitzki theorem gives finite composition length of the right regular module, hence of its submodule . Also is a nilpotent ideal, and is a semisimple ring. Thus the quotient module is a semisimple module; it is nonzero, since would imply for sufficiently large .
Suppose were not a simple module. A nontrivial direct sum decomposition of this semisimple module would give an idempotent that is neither zero nor the identity. Writing , the lifting property of the projective module gives with . The Fitting lemma for an indecomposable module of finite composition length says that is either invertible or a nilpotent element. Its induced map would then be invertible or a nilpotent element, respectively. Neither is possible for a nontrivial idempotent. Therefore is simple. This argument does not assume that an embedded projective module automatically splits off from the ambient module.
A block of an Artinian algebra is a nonzero two-sided direct summand determined by a primitive central idempotent : cannot be written as a sum of two nonzero orthogonal central idempotents. Its identity is . For a finite-dimensional associative algebra, the blocks of an Artinian algebra give its unique decomposition as a finite product of indecomposable algebras, or equivalently as a direct sum of two-sided ideals.
For the block of S3 in characteristic three, put , , and . The group algebra has basis for . In characteristic three,Consequently is a two-sided nilpotent ideal, , and . A nilpotent ideal lies in the Jacobson radical, and a quotient that is a semisimple ring forces the reverse inclusion. HenceDefine orthogonal idempotents and . They sum to one, so the right regular module decomposes asThe two summands are the indecomposable projectives of S3 in characteristic three. Each direct summand is a projective module, with basis . Its quotient module modulo multiplication by is one-dimensional: the trivial representation for , and the sign representation for . Each is an indecomposable module, since two nonzero direct summands would each have nonzero quotient module modulo , contradicting its one-dimensional top. For additional detail, the successive factors of the radical series of a module are the trivial representation, sign representation, trivial representation for , and the sign representation, trivial representation, sign representation for . Indeed, modulo the relation reverses the -sign, whereas commutes with .
The center of an associative algebra is spanned by the conjugacy class sums , , and . Since and , this center of an associative algebra isIts vector subspace is a square-zero ideal. If is a central idempotent, then and . Thus or and . There is no nontrivial central idempotent, so the whole group algebra is its single block. The two three-dimensional projective modules above are a decomposition of the regular module, not two blocks of an Artinian algebra.
