Variations on the $S_n$-module $Lie_n$

Abstract

We define, for each subset $S$ of primes, an $S_n$-module $Lie_n^S$ with interesting properties. When $S=\emptyset,$ this is the well-known representation $Lie_n$ of $S_n$ afforded by the free Lie algebra. The most intriguing case is $S=\{2\},$ giving a decomposition of the regular representation as a sum of {exterior} powers of modules $Lie_n^{(2)}.$ This is in contrast to the theorems of Poincar\'e-Birkhoff-Witt and Thrall which decompose the regular representation into a sum of symmetrised $Lie$ modules. We show that nearly every known property of $Lie_n$ has a counterpart for the module $Lie_n^{(2)},$ suggesting connections to the cohomology of configuration spaces via the character formulas of Sundaram and Welker, to the Eulerian idempotents of Gerstenhaber and Schack, and to the Hodge decomposition of the complex of injective words arising from Hochschild homology, due to Hanlon and Hersh. For arbitrary $S,$ the symmetric and exterior powers of the module $Lie_n^S$ allow us to deduce Schur positivity for a new class of multiplicity-free sums of power sums.