Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / iii / Paper 103 / 1 / ii

The Young permutation module $M^{(n-k,k)}$ is the symmetric-group subset permutation representation on the $k$-element subsets of $\{1,\dots ,n\}$: the second row of a tabloid specifies the subset. For $k\ge 1$, restriction of a character to $S_{n-1}$ fixing $n$ splits these subsets into two orbits of a group action, according as they contain $n$.

The corresponding permutation representations are on the $k$-subsets and the $(k-1)$-subsets of $\{1,\dots ,n-1\}$. Their Young permutation modules have two row sizes $n-1-k,k$ and $n-k,k-1$, respectively. Sort each pair into decreasing order and omit any zero part; swapping the two row labels gives an isomorphic permutation representation. This sorting matters at $n=2k$.

We use Young's rule: over the complex numbers, the multiplicity of $S^{\rho }$ in $M^{\eta }$ is the Kostka number $K_{\rho \eta }$, and it can be nonzero only if $\rho$ dominates $\eta$ in the dominance order on partitions. Since each $\eta$ above has at most two parts and size $n-1$, dominance givesThus $\rho$ has at most two nonzero parts. The character inner product measures this constituent multiplicity, soIf $k=0$, the original and restricted modules are the trivial representations, giving the same conclusion. For $n=1$, there is no partition of $n-1=0$ with three parts, so the assertion is vacuous.