Artin induction 2026-10-14
Every complex character of a representation of a finite group is a rational linear combination of characters of induced representations from one-dimensional group representations of cyclic subgroups . One-dimensionality follows because the irreducible representations of a finite cyclic group over the complex numbers are one-dimensional. The rational coefficients distinguish this statement from Brauer induction, which permits integer coefficients by allowing more general subgroups. For a rational-valued character, another form of Artin induction uses rational combinations of induced representations of trivial group representations of cyclic subgroups.
The branching of a group representation to a subgroup is its decomposition into irreducible representations of , when that restriction of a representation is a semisimple representation: . The nonnegative integers are the branching multiplicities. For finite groups over the complex numbers, they are the character inner products of the restricted character with the irreducible characters of . Restriction to an arbitrary subgroup need not be completely reducible.
Branching rule Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-25
A branching rule decomposes a representation into irreducible representations after restriction from a Lie group or Lie algebra to a subgroup or subalgebra.
A branching rule gives the irreducible representation decomposition after restricting a group representation to a subgroup, or a Lie algebra representation to a Lie subalgebra. For the standard block embedding , and .
For a complex irreducible representation of a finite group , the sum commutes with every : conjugation sends its summands to , merely permuting the summation index. Schur's lemma gives . Taking the trace yields , proving the identity. Here is the Frobenius-Schur indicator. For a reducible representation the sum is still central in its image, but need not be one scalar on all irreducible constituents.
Character expansion of the identity delta Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
For a finite group, the regular representation contains copies of each irreducible representation . Its character of a representation is at the identity and zero elsewhere. Thus , including the trivial representation. This formula converts independent uniform expectations into constrained configuration counts.
Character projection operator Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-10-25
For a finite group represented unitarily by , the central projector onto the isotypic subspace of an irreducible representation is , where is its dimension. Character orthogonality implies that the operator is identity on copies of and zero on other irreducibles. For a one-dimensional irreducible, applying it to an atomic orbital gives either zero or a symmetry-adapted linear combination of that symmetry, to be normalized afterward. A multidimensional central projector selects an entire isotypic component rather than one uniquely chosen component function.
Write the Klein four-group as . Its four one-dimensional irreducible representations independently assign signs to , so the displayed characters have . The character table is
Every conjugacy class is a singleton because the group is abelian. The four rows exhaust the complex irreducibles by the equality between their number and the number of classes. If is this table, proves character orthogonality. The diagonal three-dimensional representation by half-turns about the coordinate axes is the direct sum of the three nontrivial characters, with total character .
In the order of the conjugacy classes of the symmetry group of a square displayed there, its irreducible complex character table is
The four one-dimensional representations assign independent signs to and . The remaining row is the character of the ordinary planar representation: a rotation has trace and a reflection has trace zero. Weighted by class sizes, these rows satisfy character orthogonality. Their squared dimensions sum to eight, so they exhaust the irreducible representations.
For a finite-dimensional complex semisimple representation with pairwise inequivalent irreducible representations , its commuting endomorphisms are exactly . To prove it, write each block as an intertwiner and apply Schur's lemma: blocks between inequivalent constituents vanish, and blocks between fixed copies of the same constituent are scalar. The dimension is .
Compact averaging of a rank-one operator Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-25
For a strongly continuous unitary representation of a compact group, this Bochner integral exists in the Hilbert-Schmidt norm and is a positive compact operator commuting with the representation. It is nonzero if , because . A nonzero eigenspace is finite-dimensional and invariant. Applying this on orthogonal complements yields an orthogonal direct sum of finite-dimensional irreducible representations, with no separability assumption on the represented Hilbert space.
For , the complex irreducible representations are precisely the one-dimensional maps , with . Their characters have the displayed values, forming the discrete Fourier character table. Indeed a representing matrix satisfies . Applying the fundamental theorem of algebra to its characteristic polynomial gives an eigenvalue and an eigenvector over the complex numbers. Its line is an invariant subspace under every power of ; irreducibility therefore forces the entire space to be that line. Its eigenvalue is an th root of unity. Different roots give inequivalent one-dimensional representations, and there are exactly possibilities.
All conjugacy classes are singletons because the group is Abelian. The number of the displayed irreducibles equals the group order, and their squared dimensions sum to , in agreement with the sum of squares of irreducible representation dimensions. Over the real numbers, conjugate nonreal characters instead combine into the planes described by the irreducible real representations of a finite cyclic group.
Conjugacy-class sum Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-07
For a conjugacy class of a finite group, is central in its group algebra. In a complex irreducible representation of degree and character of a representation , it acts by ; its trace gives this formula and Schur lemma gives scalarity.
For the defining -dimensional special linear Lie algebra module, with , write . The equivariant contraction is . The map is also equivariant, since is an invariant identity tensor. Direct differentiation gives , so the displayed direct sum follows. Its trace-free part is an irreducible representation of highest weight . Its highest-weight vector is ; the Weyl dimension formula gives dimension , exactly .
// Target: semisimple-lie-algebra.bigb
D3h molecular point group 2026-10-20
The twelve-element molecular point group of an ideal trigonal bipyramid. Reflection in its equatorial plane distinguishes primed and double-primed irreducible representations.
D4h molecular point group 2026-10-20
The sixteen-element molecular point group of an ideal square with a horizontal mirror plane. Inversion distinguishes gerade and ungerade irreducible representations.
D6h molecular point group 2026-10-20
The 24-operation molecular point group of a regular planar hexagon with equivalent sites. Its irreducible representations have inversion labels ; polar-vector components transform as for and for .
Eta singlet state 2026-10-07
This flavour combination is the invariant scalar in the octet and singlet in a fundamental SU3 tensor product. Its isospin and flavour hypercharge vanish. Although it shares the central weight with the Eta octet state, it lies in a different irreducible representation. Physical eta mixing and the singlet axial anomaly distinguish the mass eigenstates from the pure flavour directions.
Let and for . For the sl2 Lie algebra, the raising and lowering operators are , , and has weight . A weight basis of the irreducible representation is
A weight basis of the complementary is
The first vector in each list is a highest-weight vector. Applying along the first list gives successive coefficients ; along the second it gives . The final vectors are killed by . At the overlapping weights , the two listed vectors are independent, proving the direct sum.
// Target: semisimple-lie-algebra.bigb