Relations between values and zeros of irreducible characters of symmetric groups

Abstract

We prove certain polynomial relations between the values of complex irreducible characters of general finite symmetric groups. We use it to find some sets of conjugacy classes such that no finite symmetric group has a complex irreducible character that vanishes at every class in the set. In particular, we show that if $n$ satisfies certain conditions, then $S_n\setminus \{1\}$ cannot be covered by the set of zeros of three irreducible characters. We also prove that the values of character of $2$-defect zero can be expressed as rational functions in $n$, and build a recursive algorithm to find these rational functions. As another application, we improve a result by A. Miller on identification of irreducible characters by checking small number of values.