On the determinant of representations of generalized symmetric groups

Abstract

In this paper we study the determinant of irreducible representations of the generalized symmetric groups $\mathbb{Z}_r \wr S_n$. We give an explicit formula to compute the determinant of an irreducible representation of $\mathbb{Z}_r \wr S_n$. Recently, several authors have characterized and counted the number of irreducible representations of a given finite group with nontrivial determinant. Motivated by these results, for given integer $n$, $r$ an odd prime and $\zeta$ a nontrivial multiplicative character of $\mathbb{Z}_r \wr S_n$ with $n<r$, we obtain an explicit formula to compute $N_{\zeta}(n)$, the number of irreducible representations of $\mathbb{Z}_r \wr S_n$ whose determinant is $\zeta$.