Kernel intersection theorem for Specht modules ($S^{\lambda }={\bigcap }_{i,v}\ker {\psi }_{i,v}$)

For a partition of an integer $\lambda$, let ${\psi }_{i,v}:M^{\lambda }\to M^{\lambda (i,v)}$ sum all tabloids obtained by retaining $v$ elements of row $i+1$ and moving its other ${\lambda }_{i+1}-v$ elements into row $i$, leaving the other row sets unchanged. Here $0\le v<{\lambda }_{i+1}$ and $\lambda (i,v)$ replaces $({\lambda }_i,{\lambda }_{i+1})$ by $({\lambda }_i+{\lambda }_{i+1}-v,v)$; Young permutation modules are defined for compositions too. Then $S^{\lambda }={\bigcap }_{i,v}\ker {\psi }_{i,v}$ over every field. Pairwise column cancellation gives inclusion of the Specht module in each kernel. The reverse inclusion follows by straightening the tabloid coefficients using these adjacent-row relations: the remaining free leading coefficients are exactly those of the standard polytabloid basis.

In positive characteristic $p$, $(S^{\lambda }{)}^{S_n}$ is nonzero exactly when ${\lambda }_i\equiv -1(\mathrm{mod}{p}^{t_i})$ for every adjacent pair, where $t_i$ is least with ${\lambda }_{i+1}<p^{t_i}$. The only invariant line in $M^{\lambda }$ is generated by the sum $z_{\lambda }$ of all tabloids. The map ${\psi }_{i,v}$ sends it to $\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{{\lambda }_i+{\lambda }_{i+1}-v}{{\lambda }_i}\right)z_{\lambda (i,v)}$. Thus the kernel intersection theorem for Specht modules gives vanishing of $\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{{\lambda }_i+j}{j}\right)$ modulo $p$ for $1\le j\le {\lambda }_{i+1}$. By Lucas's theorem, all these binomial coefficients vanish exactly when the last $t_i$ base-$p$ digits of ${\lambda }_i$ are $p-1$.