Group representation

A group representation is a group homomorphism from a group to the general linear group of a vector space. It realizes abstract group elements as invertible linear transformations.

A Galois representation is a continuous group representation of an absolute Galois group, usually on a vector space or lattice over a local field. Examples include the cyclotomic character and the representations attached to modular forms. The coefficient topology is part of the definition.

A Galois character is a continuous one-dimensional Galois representation: the absolute Galois group acts by multiplication by a scalar in a coefficient field $F$. A quadratic character over a coefficient field of characteristic different from two has values in $\{1,-1\}$; after identifying this group with $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$, its kernel fixes a quadratic extension, or the base field for the trivial character. Its restriction to an inertia group is trivial exactly when that extension is unramified at the corresponding place.

The cyclotomic character is defined by $g(\zeta )={\zeta }^{\kappa (g)}$ on compatible $p$-power roots of unity. On the full cyclotomic tower of $\mathbb{Q}$, it identifies the Galois group with ${\mathbb{Z}}_p^{\times }$. Its finite-order part is the Teichmüller character and its pro-$p$ part acts through $1+p{\mathbb{Z}}_p$, or $1+4{\mathbb{Z}}_2$.

The Tate twist $M(1)$ multiplies a Galois representation's action by the cyclotomic character. Here ${\mathbb{Z}}_p(1)$ is the inverse limit of $p$-power roots of unity under power maps. For a one-variable Iwasawa module, twisting changes characteristic power series by the corresponding change in the generator's action.

Invariant theory studies functions and tensors unchanged by a group action. For a linear representation, the polynomial invariant ring records invariant polynomial functions on the representation space. Tensor invariants and commuting algebra actions connect it with Schur–Weyl duality.

For a group acting linearly on $W$, act on the coordinate ring by $(g\cdot f)(w)=f(g^{-1}w)$. The polynomial invariant ring is the fixed subalgebra $\mathbb{C}[W{]}^G$. It inherits the degree grading. Even over the complex numbers it need not be a unique factorization domain, as the quadratic cone invariant ring demonstrates.

Let $\zeta =e^{\pi i/n}$ and let the binary dihedral group act on ${\mathbb{C}}^2$ by $(x,y)\mapsto (\zeta x,{\zeta }^{-1}y)$ and $(x,y)\mapsto (-y,x)$. For $n\ge 2$, the invariantspresent the invariant ring as $\mathbb{C}[U,V,W]/(W^2-V{U}^2+4V^{n+1})$. First take the cyclic invariants $A=x^{2n},B=y^{2n},C=xy$ with $AB=C^{2n}$. The residual involution interchanges $A,B$ and negates $C$, so invariant normal forms are polynomials in $A+B,C^2$ plus $C(A-B)$ times such polynomials. For $n=3$ the group has order twelve and the equation is $W^2-V{U}^2+4V^4=0$.

The scalar sign action of a cyclic group of order two on ${\mathbb{C}}^2$ has invariant ring $\mathbb{C}[X^2,XY,Y^2]\cong \mathbb{C}[a,b,c]/(ac-b^2)$. It is not factorial: $a,b,c$ are pairwise nonassociate irreducibles, since every nonconstant invariant has degree at least two, while $ac=b^2$ gives two distinct factorizations.

If a finite group has no nontrivial homomorphism to ${\mathbb{C}}^{\times }$, its polynomial invariant ring is a unique factorization domain. Factor an invariant in the ambient polynomial ring and collect its irreducible factors into orbit products. Each orbit product transforms by a linear character, hence is invariant. It is prime in the invariant ring, and the invariant factorization is a product of these primes.

A finite group permutes the associate classes of irreducible polynomial factors of an invariant. The product of one representative from each orbit transforms by a scalar character of the group. If that character is trivial, the product is invariant. Its transitive factor orbit makes it prime in the invariant ring: an invariant polynomial divisible by one orbit factor is divisible by all of them.

For the permutation action on $n$ coordinates with $n\ge 2$, every alternating-group invariant is a symmetric polynomial plus the Vandermonde product $\Delta$ times a symmetric polynomial. Thus the invariant ring is $\mathbb{C}[e_1,\dots ,e_n,Z]/(Z^2-D(e_1,\dots ,e_n))$, where $D$ is the discriminant polynomial. The two summands are independent over the symmetric polynomial ring.

For a group representation of $G$ and a subgroup $H$, restriction keeps the vector space and lets only the elements of $H$ act. It is denoted ${\mathrm{Res}}_H^{G}V$.

The regular group representation of a finite group over the complex numbers contains each irreducible representation with multiplicity equal to its dimension. Consequently the sum of the squared dimensions is the group order. Once a list of distinct irreducibles exhausts this sum, it is complete.

An intertwiner between group representations $\rho$ on $V$ and $\sigma$ on $W$ is a linear map $A:V\to W$ satisfying $A\rho (x)=\sigma (x)A$ for every group element. The Schur lemma controls these maps between irreducible representations.

A matrix coefficient of a finite-dimensional group representation is a scalar function obtained by applying a linear functional to the translate of a fixed vector. In a chosen basis these functions include $x\mapsto \rho (x{)}_{ij}$. For a finite group, the Schur orthogonality relations make the scaled coefficients of all inequivalent unitary irreducible representations an orthonormal basis of its scalar functions.

For inequivalent chosen unitary irreducible representations of a finite group, uniform expectation givesThe Kronecker deltas in the first case refer to entries in the same chosen basis. Averaging an intertwiner and applying the Schur lemma proves the formula; summing diagonal entries gives character orthogonality.

For chosen inequivalent unitary irreducible representations $\rho ,\sigma$ of a finite group and a $d_{\rho }\times d_{\sigma }$ matrix $M$, the average ${\mathbb{E}}_x\rho (x)M\sigma (x{)}^{\ast }$ is zero when $\rho \ne \sigma$. For $\rho =\sigma$, it is $(\mathrm{tr}M/d_{\rho })I$. This follows from the Schur lemma, since the average intertwines the two group representations. Equivalent representations in different bases require the corresponding intertwiner; the identity-matrix formula assumes literally the same representative.

A vector $v$ is cyclic for a group representation $\rho :G\to GL(V)$ if the linear span of $\{\rho (g)v:g\in G\}$ is all of $V$. Equivalently $v$ generates $V$ as a module over the group algebra. Its projection to the invariant subspace generates that subspace, so a cyclic representation of a finite group has at most one copy of the trivial representation.

In a unitary representation of a finite group, if a cyclic vector $v$ satisfies $\rho (g)v=av$ for some $a\ne 1$, then there are no invariant vectors. Indeed the averaging orthogonal projection $P=|G{|}^{-1}{\sum }_h\rho (h)$ satisfies $P\rho (g)=P$, so $Pv=aPv=0$. All translates of $v$ also project to zero, and they span the representation.

Restriction of an irreducible representation to a subgroup is multiplicity-free when its semisimple representation decomposition has no repeated irreducible summands. Over the complex numbers, for finite groups, this is equivalent to the restricted module's endomorphism algebra being commutative. This follows by writing that algebra as a product of matrix algebras of sizes equal to the multiplicities.

A pseudoreal complex representation is isomorphic to its conjugate but has an invariant antilinear map squaring to minus the identity. Such group representations admit antisymmetric invariant bilinear forms and can support half-hypermultiplets in four-dimensional extended supersymmetry.

A field $k$ is a splitting field for a finite group $G$ if every simple module over its group algebra $kG$ is absolutely simple: it remains simple over every extension field. Equivalently, the quotient by the Jacobson radical is a product of full matrix algebras over $k$. In characteristic $p$, containing all $m$th roots of unity, where $|G|=p^{a}m$ and $p\nmid m$, is sufficient. This is the modular splitting-field theorem; it is substantially stronger than merely having eigenvalues for one chosen group element.

For representations $V$ and $W$ of a group $G$, the tensor product representation is the tensor product $V\otimes W$ with diagonal action

A $(j,k)$ tensor has one fundamental representation factor for every upper index and a dual factor for every lower index. Under $A\in SU(n)$, upper factors transform by $A$ and lower factors by $A^{-1}$; unitarity identifies the latter with conjugate fundamental matrices. Thus complex conjugation exchanges $(j,k)$ and $(k,j)$. Index permutations and contraction with an invariant tensor commute with the action, producing invariant subspaces and decomposition maps.

An invariant tensor is fixed by every element of the represented group, so it spans or belongs to a trivial group representation. The special unitary group preserves its identity tensor and the upper and lower volume tensors. Such tensors make tensor contraction equivariant and permit invariant inner products and real structures.

The tensor-product weight diagram has six distinct nonzero differences of the three defining weights and a zero weight of multiplicity three. Identify the tensor product with endomorphisms of ${\mathbb{C}}^3$ under conjugation. Its scalar line is a singlet, while the traceless matrices give the irreducible adjoint octet, with two zero weights. The root commutators connect all of the traceless matrix units, proving irreducibility rather than inferring it solely from a drawing.

If $G$ acts on a vector space $W$, it acts on $\mathrm{End}(W)$ by conjugation:Under $\mathrm{End}(W)\cong W\otimes W^{\ast }$, this is the tensor product of group representations $W\otimes W^{\ast }$.

The trivial representation sends every group element to the identity linear map.

A scalar representation is the one-dimensional trivial representation: every group element acts as the identity. Scalar polarization labels are unchanged by the relevant rotation group.

The vector representation is the defining action of a matrix group on the vector space on which its matrices act. For an orthogonal or Lorentz group, it preserves the corresponding symmetric bilinear form.

A matrix representation is a group representation together with a basis, so each group element is represented by an invertible matrix and multiplication is represented by matrix multiplication.

An invariant subspace of a linear map $A:V\to V$ is a vector subspace $W\subseteq V$ satisfying $A(W)\subseteq W$. For a group representation, invariance means $\rho (g)W\subseteq W$ for every represented group element $g$.

A nonzero representation is reducible when it has a nonzero proper invariant subspace; otherwise it is an irreducible representation.

A representation is semisimple when it is a direct sum of irreducible representations. Equivalently, every invariant subspace has an invariant complement.