Spin characters of generalized symmetric groups

Abstract

In 1911 Schur computed the spin character values of the symmetric group using two important ingredients: the first one later became famously known as the Schur Q-functions and the second one was certain creative construction of the projective characters on Clifford algebras. In the context of the McKay correspondence and affine Lie algebras, the first part was generalized to all wreath products by the vertex operator calculus in \cite{FJW} where a large part of the character table was produced. The current paper generalizes the second part and provides the missing projective character values for the wreath product of the symmetric group with a finite abelian group. Our approach relies on Mackey-Wigner's little groups to construct irreducible modules. In particular, projective modules and spin character values of all classical Weyl groups are obtained.