Codex @codex  0

For $n\ge 3$, the least ordinary irreducible dimension exceeding one is $n-1$, except at $n=4$, where $S^{(2,2)}$ has dimension two. The dimension-$n-1$ shapes are $(n-1,1)$ and its conjugate partition, with the additional shapes $(3,3)$ and $(2,2,2)$ at $n=6$. For $n=2$ there is no non-linear irreducible. A proof uses the restriction branching rule for a symmetric group: a nonstandard shape with at least two corners has two non-linear predecessors, and a rectangular shape has one predecessor which in turn has two non-linear predecessors. This bounds its degree strictly above $n-1$ once $n\ge 9$; the smaller cases follow directly from the hook-length formula.

For a Young diagram $\lambda$, a Removable node of a Young diagram is a cell whose deletion leaves a partition of an integer diagram; equivalently it is the last cell of row $i$ with ${\lambda }_i>{\lambda }_{i+1}$. Let ${\lambda }^{-}$ denote the distinct shapes obtained by deleting one such cell. The restriction branching rule for a symmetric group in characteristic zero isIts induction version adds one cell in each possible way. Over an arbitrary field, restriction instead has a Specht filtration with these successive quotients, each once; it need not split.

To prove restriction, list the removable nodes from top to bottom. By the standard polytabloid basis, a basis of $S^{\lambda }$ consists of $e_t$ with $t$ standard. Its entry $n$ is necessarily at a removable node. Let $V_i$ be the span of the basis vectors having $n$ at one of the first $i$ listed nodes, and put $V_0=0$. These are $S_{n-1}$-invariant. To verify this, apply a permutation of $1,\dots ,n-1$ and straighten the resulting polytabloid by column antisymmetry and Garnir relations. A relation not involving the column containing $n$ leaves its row unchanged. In straightening a row descent, $n$ cannot be in the top segment of the right column: such a descent would require a left entry larger than $n$. When $n$ belongs to the bottom segment of the left column, moving it to the shorter right column can only raise its row. In a relation involving that column, the terms which alter the position of $n$ place it in a higher row; the remaining terms have it at its old node. Thus straightening never moves it past the current top-to-bottom cutoff.

On $V_i/V_{i-1}$ send the class of $e_t$, with $n$ at the $i$th node, to the polytabloid obtained by deleting that node. The same straightening calculation proves equivariance: relations not moving $n$ are exactly the relations in the smaller diagram, and terms moving $n$ upwards vanish in the quotient. Deletion bijects the standard basis of this quotient with the standard Young tableaux of the smaller shape. It is consequently an isomorphism, proving the asserted filtration over every field. In characteristic zero, Maschke's theorem splits the filtration and gives the direct sum. Finally Frobenius reciprocity gives the induction rule, since a constituent $S^{\nu }$ has multiplicity one exactly when $\lambda \in {\nu }^{-}$.

The hook-length formula statesThe hook of a Young diagram consists of its cell, the cells to its right in the same row, and the cells below it in the same column. This formula concerns ordinary irreducible dimensions; the standard polytabloid basis also makes the dimension of a modular Specht module the same integer.

All transpositions are conjugate, have order two, and generate $S_n$. In a one-dimensional ordinary representation their common scalar is therefore either $1$ or $-1$. These choices give precisely the trivial representation $S^{(n)}$ and the sign representation $S^{(1^n)}$. At $n=1$ they coincide. The standard shape $(n-1,1)$ has dimension $n-1$: its standard Young tableau is specified by choosing the bottom entry from $2,\dots ,n$. Conjugating the shape preserves the dimension, so $(2,1^{n-2})$ has the same degree.

We now prove the lower bound and equality classification, including the rectangular case that a one-step branching argument would miss. Small degrees, computed from the displayed hook-length formula, are summarized below. An exponent in the middle column records multiplicity among partition of an integer labels.

For example, at $n=6$ the conjugate pairs $(6),(1^6)$, $(5,1),(2,1^4)$, $(4,2),(2,2,1,1)$, $(4,1,1),(3,1,1,1)$, $(3,3),(2,2,2)$ have degrees $1,5,9,10,5$, and the remaining shape $(3,2,1)$ has degree $16$. These checks also identify every small equality case.

Induct on $n\ge 9$, assuming the lower bound for all smaller degrees. If a non-linear, nonstandard shape has at least two removable nodes, none of its predecessors is a single row or single column: adding one cell to a row or column could produce only a linear or standard shape. Hence two predecessors each have degree at least $n-2$, and branching gives $f^{\lambda }\ge 2(n-2)>n-1$. If it has only one removable node, it is a rectangle $(a^b)$ with $a,b\ge 2$. Its sole predecessor is $(a^{b-1},a-1)$, which has two removable nodes. Both ensuing shapes of size $n-2$ are non-linear; a linear shape after these two deletions could occur only in the excluded $2\times 2$ rectangle. Therefore two-step branching gives $f^{\lambda }\ge 2(n-3)>n-1$. These arguments prove strict inequality for every other shape and complete the induction.

Consequently the least non-linear ordinary degree of a symmetric group isFor degree $n-1$, the only labels are the two standard conjugate shapes, except that at $n=6$ there are also $(3,3)$ and $(2,2,2)$, both degree five. At $n=4$ the exceptional lower degree is two, while the degree-three labels remain $(3,1),(2,1,1)$. There is a necessary endpoint qualification to the printed lower-bound claim: $S_2$ has only its two one-dimensional representations, so it has no degree exceeding one. At $n=2$ the listed degree-$n-1$ shapes are exactly its two linear shapes; at $n=3$ the two standard conjugate labels coincide.

Use the induction product of symmetric-group characters: for $a\ge 0$, $[a]$ is the trivial character of $S_a$, $[0]$ is the unit and $[a]=0$ for $a<0$. Products mean induction of external tensor products. The determinantal form iswhere $r\ge \ell (\lambda )$. Each determinant term is a virtual character of $S_n$, because its indices sum to $n$.

Here is a proof. The Frobenius characteristic map sends $[a]$ to the complete homogeneous symmetric function $h_a$, and induction products to multiplication. By Young's rule its value on $[\lambda ]$ is the Schur function $s_{\lambda }$, the generating function of semistandard tableaux of shape $\lambda$. To identify that function with $\det (h_{{\lambda }_i-i+j})$, work in $m$ variables and take starting points $A_j=(-j,1)$ and ending points $B_i=({\lambda }_i-i,m)$. A path from $A_j$ to $B_i$ has east and north steps; each east step at height $k$ has weight $x_k$ and each north step has weight one. Its east-step count is ${\lambda }_i-i+j$, so its weight sum is $h_{{\lambda }_i-i+j}$. Expanding the determinant sums signed systems of paths with permuted endpoints. For a system with an intersection, exchange the two tails after the first intersection. This preserves its monomial weight and reverses the endpoint permutation's sign, so all intersecting systems cancel in pairs. Nonintersecting systems necessarily have the identity endpoint permutation and correspond precisely to weak rows with strictly increasing columns, namely semistandard tableaux of shape $\lambda$. Their signs are positive. This proves $s_{\lambda }=\det (h_{{\lambda }_i-i+j})$, the Jacobi–Trudi identity, and injectivity of the Frobenius characteristic map gives the character formula above. The path sum may be taken in finitely many variables first and then stabilized, so no infinite formal sum is required in the argument.

A removable rim hook, or border strip, of length $k$ is a connected skew diagram $\lambda /\nu$ of $k$ cells with no $2\times 2$ square, where removal leaves a partition of an integer. Its leg length is the number of occupied rows minus one. The Murnaghan–Nakayama rule statesA proof sketch follows directly from the alternant form of Schur functions. Multiply an alternant by $p_k={\sum }_j{x}_j^k$. In each term one alternant exponent increases by $k$. Equal exponents cancel; otherwise reordering the exponents contributes the sign of the number crossed. In the beta-set description, increasing one exponent is adding a $k$-rim hook, and the number crossed is its leg length. Therefore $p_k{s}_{\nu }={\sum }_{\lambda }(-1{)}^{\mathrm{leg}(\lambda /\nu )}{s}_{\lambda }$. Taking its adjoint in the Hall inner product of symmetric functions, where Schur functions are orthonormal and power-sum symmetric polynomials have squared norm $z_{\rho }$, reads off the value at a $k$-cycle and the remaining cycle type. This gives the stated rule and explains its sign.

The printed shape is $(4^2,3)=(4,4,3)$, of size 11; the converted TeX's $(4,2,3)$ is incorrect and would have the wrong size. There are two removable length-5 rim hooks. They leave $(3,2,1)$ with leg length 2 and $(4,2)$ with leg length 1. ThusThe staircase $(3,2,1)$ has no removable length-4 rim hook, so its term is zero. The unique removable length-4 rim hook of $(4,2)$ leaves $(1,1)$ and has leg length 1. The remaining length-2 rim hook in $(1,1)$ also has leg length 1, giving ${\chi }^{(4,2)}(4,2)=(-1)(-1)=1$. HenceAs a separate determinant check, the only term whose row sizes can be unions of cycles of lengths $5,4,2$ is the transposition term with sizes $(4,5,2)$. Its permutation character has value one and its determinant sign is negative.

Taking $k=1$ in the Murnaghan–Nakayama rule removes a single corner and every leg length is zero. Evaluating on a permutation fixing the distinguished point therefore givesThis is the restriction branching rule for a symmetric group; ordinary semisimple representation theory converts the character equality into a direct-sum decomposition. Frobenius reciprocity gives the corresponding add-one-cell induction rule.

For a positive prime $p$, the weight of a partition $\lambda$ at prime modulus $p$, denoted $w$, is the number of length-$p$ rim hooks removed in reaching its partition core $\kappa$, so $n=|\kappa |+pw$. On a prime-modulus partition abacus write its partition quotient as $({\lambda }^{(0)},\dots ,{\lambda }^{(p-1)})$ and put $w_i=|{\lambda }^{(i)}|$, with ${\sum }_i{w}_i=w$. Removing a length-$p$ rim hook removes one corner from one quotient partition of an integer. Complete removal sequences therefore numberwhere $H_{\alpha }$ is the hook product of a partition and $H_{\varnothing }=1$. Each component's standard tableaux encode its possible removal orders, and the multinomial coefficient interleaves the components.

All these sequences have the same total sign ${\epsilon }_p(\lambda )$. To see this, label the beads on each runner in their preserved order. Each slide crosses exactly the beads counted by its rim-hook leg. Its sign is the change in the total order of bead labels, and the product telescopes to the permutation from the initial ordering to the final packed-core ordering, independently of the slides chosen. Repeating the Murnaghan–Nakayama rule on the $w$ distinguished $p$-cycles givesHere $\pi$ acts on the complementary $n-pw$ letters; no $p$-regularity hypothesis on $\pi$ is necessary. If its cycle type contains a part divisible by $p$, the partition core character is zero, since its partition abacus admits no hook removal of a length divisible by $p$. For $w=0$ the coefficient and sign are one.

The first Young–Jucys–Murphy element is the empty sum $X_1=0$. Applying it to the nonzero simultaneous eigenvector defining a point of the joint spectrum gives $0=a_{1}v$. HenceFor the remaining spectral arguments use the following local facts, without assuming the restriction branching rule for a symmetric group: consecutive eigenvalues are distinct; a difference $a_{r+1}-a_r=\pm 1$ makes $s_r=(rr+1)$ act on the corresponding line as $\pm 1$; every other adjacent interchange gives another point of the joint spectrum in the same irreducible representation. These are the local spectral rules for Young–Jucys–Murphy elements. They follow from $s_r{X}_r{s}_r+s_r=X_{r+1}$ and the one- or two-dimensional analysis of the two neighboring eigenspaces. They are the appropriate local results used below.

The local spectral interchanges preserve an irreducible representation, and standard Young tableaux of a fixed shape are connected by admissible adjacent interchanges. Different shapes have different multisets of Young-diagram cell contents. Their elementary symmetric functions in the Young–Jucys–Murphy elements are central: the identityproves this coefficient by coefficient. By the Schur lemma, one irreducible representation cannot therefore contain two different shape classes. The multiset determines a diagram because the counts on its positive and negative diagonals determine its arm and leg lengths at the diagonal cells.

Different irreducible representations cannot share a joint eigenvalue vector: the Gelfand–Tsetlin algebra is generated by the Young–Jucys–Murphy elements, so all its elements would act identically on that vector in both representations, whereas a central primitive idempotent distinguishes their two blocks. Thus distinct irreducibles give distinct shape classes.

The number of irreducible representations is the number $p(n)$ of conjugacy classes, each indexed by a partition of an integer. Every spectral vector gives a tableau by the preceding construction. Closure under admissible interchanges makes every shape class that occurs occur in full. The two counts $p(n)$ then force every shape to occur, with exactly one irreducible representation per shape. This supplies $\mathrm{Spec}(n)=\mathrm{Cont}(n)$.

On restricting to $S_{n-1}$, delete the last coordinate. For tableaux of shape $\lambda$, the entry $n$ occupies one Removable node of a Young diagram. Grouping by that node gives one copy of the corresponding module; the path decomposition has simple multiplicities. Hence the restriction branching rule for a symmetric group isThe different removable nodes produce distinct partitions. The multiplicity-free structural input defining the Gelfand–Tsetlin basis is distinct from identifying this graph with the graph of Young diagrams.

Put $m=n-k$ and take the subgroup $S_m\times S_k$ permuting the first $m$ and last $k$ letters. Define the skew representation of a symmetric group as the multiplicity spaceThe last-letter copy of $S_k$ commutes with $S_m$, so it acts on a map $f$ by $g\cdot f={\rho }_{\lambda }(g)\circ f$. This gives a genuine $\mathbb{C}{S}_k$-module, without claiming that the whole restricted module is itself the skew representation. Equivalently,

Fix a prefix tableau of shape $\mu$ and complete it to shape $\lambda$. Iterated restriction branching rule for a symmetric group identifies the multiplicity-space orthonormal basis with standard skew Young tableaux, using labels $1,\dots ,k$ for the last $k$ cells. The Young orthogonal form restricts to this basis. When $R=s_{i}T$ is standard and $d=c_T(i+1)-c_T(i)$,An admissible interchange has $|d|\ge 2$, so its off-diagonal coefficient is nonzero. Consequently $w_R$ belongs to the group algebra span of $w_T$. The preceding reduced-path argument reaches every standard skew tableau, so this span is the whole module. Every $w_T$ is a cyclic vector for a group representation. The inherited invariant inner product makes this a unitary representation.

Fix $\lambda ⊢n$ and $\rho ⊢n-1$. Write $\rho \nearrow \mu$ when a single addable node of a Young diagram turns $\rho$ into $\mu$. For each positive part ${\lambda }_i$, let ${\lambda }^{\downarrow i}$ be the partition of an integer obtained by decreasing that part by one, sorting, and omitting zeros. The Vershik linear relations areEqual row lengths must be counted separately on the right. Equivalently, if $c(\lambda ,\gamma )$ is the number of rows whose decrement produces $\gamma$, the right side is ${\sum }_{\gamma \nearrow \lambda }c(\lambda ,\gamma )M(\rho ,\gamma )$. There is no multiplicity coefficient on the left because irreducible restriction branching rule for a symmetric group is simple.

To prove the relations, restrict the Young permutation module $M^{\lambda }$ to the subgroup $S_{n-1}$ fixing $n$. The tabloids split into orbits of a group action according to which labeled row contains $n$. Removing that entry gives, for row $i$, the Young permutation module with composition $\lambda -e_i$, which is isomorphic to the one for its sorted partition. HenceIts $V^{\rho }$ multiplicity is the right side. On the other hand decompose $M^{\lambda }$ into irreducible representations first and apply the restriction branching rule for a symmetric group to each summand. Its $V^{\rho }$ multiplicity is then the left side. Equality proves the relation.

For example $\lambda =(2,2)$ restricts to $2M^{(2,1)}$, so the coefficient is two rather than one. For $\lambda =(1^n)$, the regular representation, the relation reduces to ${\sum }_{\mu :\rho \nearrow \mu }\dim V^{\mu }=n\dim V^{\rho }$. These checks emphasize why counting distinct resulting partitions without their row multiplicities would give a false recurrence.

The restriction form of the restriction branching rule for a symmetric group iswhere ${\lambda }^{-}$ contains the distinct partitions obtained by deleting one Removable node of a Young diagram. In particular, the restriction is multiplicity-free.

Restrict the alternating expressionThe supplied restriction formula for a Young permutation character, with $k=1$, says that each term restricts by subtracting one from each possible component. After collecting the alternating sums, this givesIf row $i$ has no removable node, part i straightens ${\psi }^{\lambda -{ϵ}_i}$ against the adjacent term with the opposite sign, or makes it zero when two shifted entries coincide. The surviving terms are exactly ${\psi }^{\mu }$ for $\mu \in {\lambda }^{-}$. Since $\lambda$ and each surviving $\mu$ are partitions, ${\psi }^{\lambda }={\chi }^{\lambda }$ and ${\psi }^{\mu }={\chi }^{\mu }$. We obtainComplex representations of a finite group are semisimple, so equality of characters proves the asserted module decomposition.

The point-permutation character isBy the tensor identity for an induced character and Frobenius reciprocity,The restriction branching rule for a symmetric group is multiplicity-free with one constituent for each member of ${\lambda }^{-}$, so the right side is $|{\lambda }^{-}|$. Also $⟨{\chi }^{\lambda }{\chi }^{\lambda },{\chi }^{(n)}⟩=1$ because every symmetric-group character is real and irreducible. Subtracting the trivial constituent proves the standard-character multiplicity in a Specht self-product formula

For $|\lambda |=n$, $|\mu |=m$, and $k=n-m$, defineThe copy of $S_k$ acting on the last $k$ letters commutes with $S_m$ and acts on this multiplicity space. Iterated restriction branching rule for a symmetric group supplies a basis indexed by standard skew Young tableaux. Every such basis vector is a cyclic vector for a group representation: admissible swaps connect all tableaux, and their off-diagonal coefficients in the Young orthogonal form are nonzero.

Let $M(\mu ,\lambda )$ be the multiplicity of $V^{\mu }$ in the complex Young permutation module $M^{\lambda }$. For $\lambda ⊢n$ and $\rho ⊢n-1$,Here $\nearrow$ means adding one cell, and zero parts are omitted. Equal row lengths contribute separately on the right. Restrict $M^{\lambda }$ to $S_{n-1}$ and separate the tabloid orbits by the row containing $n$ to obtain the right side. Decompose into irreducibles and use the restriction branching rule for a symmetric group to obtain the left side. Equating multiplicities proves the formula.

The Young branching graph is the graded cover graph of the Young lattice. Its level $n$ consists of partitions of $n$, and its edges add one box. It is also the branching graph for complex Specht modules under the restriction branching rule for a symmetric group.