arXiv subjects

Nathaniel Thiem

Publications and source records attributed to Nathaniel Thiem.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

A categorification of the Malvenuto--Reutenauer algebra via a tower of groups

There is a long tradition of categorifying combinatorial Hopf algebras by the modules of a tower of algebras (or even better via the representation theory of a tower of groups). From the point of view of combinatorics, such a categorification supplies canonical bases, inner products, and a natural avenue to prove positivity results. Recent ideas in supercharacter theory have made fashioning the representation theory of a tower of groups into a Hopf structure more tractable. This paper applies such a program to the Malvenuto--Reutenauer Hopf algebra. In particular, we design functors on the representation theory of a tower of $p$-groups that realize the Hopf structure of the Malvenuto--Reutenauer algebra in such a way that its well-known fundamental basis corresponds to a supercharacter basis.

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arXiv2021

Hopf structures in the representation theory of direct products

Combinatorial Hopf algebras give a linear algebraic structure to infinite families of combinatorial objects, a technique further enriched by the categorification of these structure via the representation theory of families of algebras. This paper examines a fundamental construction in group theory, the direct product, and how it can be used to build representation theoretic Hopf algebras out of towers of groups. A key special case gives us the noncommutative symmetric functions NSym, but there are many things that we can say for the general Hopf algebras, including the structure of their character groups and a formula for the antipode.

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arXiv2018

Pattern groups and a poset based Hopf monoid

The supercharacter theory of algebra groups gave us a representation theoretic realization of the Hopf algebra of symmetric functions in noncommuting variables. The underlying representation theoretic framework comes equipped with two canonical bases, one of which was completely new in terms of symmetric functions. This paper simultaneously generalizes this Hopf structure by considering a larger class of groups while also restricting the representation theory to a more combinatorially tractable one. Using the normal lattice supercharacter theory of pattern groups, we not only gain a third canonical basis, but also are able to compute numerous structure constants in the corresponding Hopf monoid, including coproducts and antipodes for the new bases.

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arXiv2018

The structure of normal lattice supercharacter theories

The character theory of finite groups has numerous basic questions that are often already quite involved: enumerating of irreducible characters, their character formulas, point-wise product decompositions, and restriction/induction between groups. A supercharacter theory is a framework for simplifying the character theory of a finite group, while ideally not losing all important information. This paper studies one such theory that straddles the gap between retaining valuable group information while reducing the above fundamental questions to more combinatorial lattice constructions.

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arXiv2015

Supercharacter theories of type $A$ unipotent radicals and unipotent polytopes

Even with the introduction of supercharacter theories, the representation theory of many unipotent groups remains mysterious. This paper constructs a family of supercharacter theories for normal pattern groups in a way that exhibit many of the combinatorial properties of the set partition combinatorics of the full uni-triangular groups, including combinatorial indexing sets, dimensions, and computable character formulas. Associated with these supercharacter theories is also a family of polytopes whose integer lattice points give the theories geometric underpinnings.

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arXiv2015

The combinatorics of $\mathrm{GL}_n$ generalized Gelfand--Graev characters

Introduced by Kawanaka in order to find the unipotent representations of finite groups of Lie type, generalized Gelfand--Graev characters have remained somewhat mysterious. Even in the case of the finite general linear groups, the combinatorics of their decompositions has not been worked out. This paper re-interprets Kawanaka's definition in type $A$ in a way that gives far more flexibility in computations. We use these alternate constructions to show how to obtain generalized Gelfand--Graev representations directly from the maximal unipotent subgroups. We also explicitly decompose the corresponding generalized Gelfand--Graev characters in terms of unipotent representations, thereby recovering the Kostka--Foulkes polynomials as multiplicities.

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arXiv2014

Restrictions of rainbow supercharacters

The maximal subgroup of unipotent upper-triangular matrices of the finite general linear groups are a fundamental family of $p$-groups. Their representation theory is well-known to be wild, but there is a standard supercharacter theory, replacing irreducible representations by super-representations, that gives us some control over its representation theory. While this theory has a beautiful underlying combinatorics built on set partitions, the structure constants of restricted super-representations remain mysterious. This paper proposes a new approach to solving the restriction problem by constructing natural intermediate modules that help "factor" the computation of the structure constants. We illustrate the technique by solving the problem completely in the case of rainbow supercharacters (and some generalizations). Along the way we introduce a new $q$-analogue of the binomial coefficients that depend on an underlying poset.

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arXiv2013

Antipode and Primitive elements in the Hopf Monoid of Super Characters

From a recent paper, we recall the Hopf monoid structure on the supercharacters of the unipotent uppertriangular groups over a finite field. We give cancelation free formula for the antipode applied to the bases of class functions and power sum functions, giving new cancelation free formulae for the standard Hopf algebra of supercharacters and symmetric functions in noncommuting variables. We also give partial results for the antipode on the supercharacter basis, and explicitly describe the primitives of this Hopf monoid.

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arXiv2012

Hopf monoids from class functions on unitriangular matrices

We build, from the collection of all groups of unitriangular matrices, Hopf monoids in Joyal's category of species. Such structure is carried by the collection of class function spaces on those groups, and also by the collection of superclass function spaces, in the sense of Diaconis and Isaacs. Superclasses of unitriangular matrices admit a simple description from which we deduce a combinatorial model for the Hopf monoid of superclass functions, in terms of the Hadamard product of the Hopf monoids of linear orders and of set partitions. This implies a recent result relating the Hopf algebra of superclass functions on unitriangular matrices to symmetric functions in noncommuting variables. We determine the algebraic structure of the Hopf monoid: it is a free monoid in species, with the canonical Hopf structure. As an application, we derive certain estimates on the number of conjugacy classes of unitriangular matrices.

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arXiv2012

A supercharacter table decomposition via power-sum symmetric functions

We give an $AB$-factorization of the supercharacter table of the group of $n\times n$ unipotent upper triangular matrices over $\FF_q$, where $A$ is a lower-triangular matrix with entries in $\ZZ[q]$ and $B$ is a unipotent upper-triangular matrix with entries in $\ZZ[q^{-1}]$. To this end we introduce a $q$ deformation of a new power-sum basis of the Hopf algebra of symmetric functions in noncommutative variables. The factorization is obtain from the transition matrices between the supercharacter basis, the $q$-power-sum basis and the superclass basis. This is similar to the decomposition of the character table of the symmetric group $S_n$ given by the transition matrices between Schur functions, monomials and power-sums. We deduce some combinatorial results associated to this decomposition. In particular we compute the determinant of the supercharacter table.

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arXiv2011

Supercharacters, symmetric functions in noncommuting variables, and related Hopf algebras

We identify two seemingly disparate structures: supercharacters, a useful way of doing Fourier analysis on the group of unipotent uppertriangular matrices with coefficients in a finite field, and the ring of symmetric functions in noncommuting variables. Each is a Hopf algebra and the two are isomorphic as such. This allows developments in each to be transferred. The identification suggests a rich class of examples for the emerging field of combinatorial Hopf algebras.

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arXiv2011

The negative q-binomial

Interpretations for the q-binomial coefficient evaluated at -q are discussed. A (q,t)-version is established, including an instance of a cyclic sieving phenomenon involving unitary spaces.

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arXiv2009

Nonzero coefficients in restrictions and tensor products of supercharacters of $U_n(q)$

The standard supercharacter theory of the finite unipotent upper-triangular matrices $U_n(q)$ gives rise to a beautiful combinatorics based on set partitions. As with the representation theory of the symmetric group, embeddings of $U_m(q)\subseteq U_n(q)$ for $m\leq n$ lead to branching rules. Diaconis and Isaacs established that the restriction of a supercharacter of $U_n(q)$ is a nonnegative integer linear combination of supercharacters of $U_m(q)$ (in fact, it is polynomial in $q$). In a first step towards understanding the combinatorics of coefficients in the branching rules of the supercharacters of $U_n(q)$, this paper characterizes when a given coefficient is nonzero in the restriction of a supercharacter and the tensor product of two supercharacters. These conditions are given uniformly in terms of complete matchings in bipartite graphs.

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arXiv2009

$q$-Partition Algebra Combinatorics

We compute the dimension $d_{n,r}(q) = \dim(\IR_q^r)$ of the defining module $\IR_q^r$ for the $q$-partition algebra. This module comes from $r$-iterations of Harish-Chandra restriction and induction on $\GL_n(\FF_q)$. This dimension is a polynomial in $q$ that specializes as $d_{n,r}(1) = n^r$ and $d_{n,r}(0) = B(r)$, the $r$th Bell number. We compute $d_{n,r}(q)$ in two ways. The first is purely combinatorial. We show that $d_{n,r}(q) = \sum_λf^λ(q) m_r^λ$, where $f^λ(q)$ is the $q$-hook number and $m_r^λ$ is the number of $r$-vacillating tableaux. Using a Schensted bijection, we write this as a sum over integer sequences which, when $q$-counted by inverse major index, gives $d_{n,r}(q)$. The second way is algebraic. We find a basis of $\IR_q^r$ that is indexed by $n$-restricted $q$-set partitions of $\{1,..., r\}$, and we show that there are $d_{n,r}(q)$ of these.

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arXiv2008

Branching rules in the ring of superclass functions of unipotent upper-triangular matrices

It is becoming increasingly clear that the supercharacter theory of the finite group of unipotent upper-triangular matrices has a rich combinatorial structure built on set-partitions that is analogous to the partition combinatorics of the classical representation theory of the symmetric group. This paper begins by exploring a connection to the ring of symmetric functions in non-commuting variables that mirrors the symmetric group's relationship with the ring of symmetric functions. It then also investigates some of the representation theoretic structure constants arising from the restriction, tensor products and superinduction of supercharacters in this context.

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arXiv2007

Restricting supercharacters of the finite group of unipotent uppertriangular matrices

It is well-known that the representation theory of the finite group of unipotent upper-triangular matrices $U_n$ over a finite field is a wild problem. By instead considering approximately irreducible representations (supercharacters), one obtains a rich combinatorial theory analogous to that of the symmetric group, where we replace partition combinatorics with set-partitions. This paper studies the supercharacter theory of a family of subgroups that interpolate between $U_{n-1}$ and $U_n$. We supply several combinatorial indexing sets for the supercharacters, supercharacter formulas for these indexing sets, and a combinatorial rule for restricting supercharacters from one group to another. A consequence of this analysis is a Pieri-like restriction rule from $U_n$ to $U_{n-1}$ that can be described on set-partitions (analogous to the corresponding symmetric group rule on partitions).

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arXiv2007

Superinduction for pattern groups

It is well-known that the representation theory of the finite group of unipotent upper-triangular matrices $U_n$ over a finite field is a wild problem. By instead considering approximately irreducible representations (supercharacters), one obtains a rich combinatorial theory analogous to that of the symmetric group, where we replace partition combinatorics with set-partitions. This paper studies Diaconis--Isaacs' concept of superinduction in pattern groups. While superinduction shares many desirable properties with usual induction, it no longer takes characters to characters. We begin by finding sufficient conditions guaranteeing that super-induction is in fact induction. It turns out for natural embedding of $U_m$ in $U_n$, super-induction is induction. We conclude with an explicit combinatorial algorithm for computing this induction analogous to the Pieri-formulas for the symmetric group.

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arXiv2007

Values of characters sums for finite unitary groups

A known result for the finite general linear group $\GL(n,\FF_q)$ and for the finite unitary group $\U(n,\FF_{q^2})$ posits that the sum of the irreducible character degrees is equal to the number of symmetric matrices in the group. Fulman and Guralnick extended this result by considering sums of irreducible characters evaluated at an arbitrary conjugacy class of $\GL(n,\FF_q)$. We develop an explicit formula for the value of the permutation character of $\U(2n,\FF_{q^2})$ over $\Sp(2n,\FF_q)$ evaluated an an arbitrary conjugacy class and use results concerning Gelfand-Graev characters to obtain an analogous formula for $\U(n,\FF_{q^2})$ in the case where $q$ is an odd prime. These results are also given as probabilistic statements.

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