More Like this

1. Irreducible characters of even degree and normal Sylow 2-subgroups

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305004116000669  

   HUNG, NGUYEN NGOC; TIEP, PHAM HUU (March 2017, Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society)

   Abstract The classical Itô-Michler theorem on character degrees of finite groups asserts that if the degree of every complex irreducible character of a finite group G is coprime to a given prime p , then G has a normal Sylow p -subgroup. We propose a new direction to generalize this theorem by introducing an invariant concerning character degrees. We show that if the average degree of linear and even-degree irreducible characters of G is less than 4/3 then G has a normal Sylow 2-subgroup, as well as corresponding analogues for real-valued characters and strongly real characters. These results improve on several earlier results concerning the Itô-Michler theorem. 

   more » « less
2. Representations and Tensor Product Growth

   https://doi.org/10.1093/imrn/rnac172  

   Larsen, Michael; Shalev, Aner; Tiep, Pham Huu (July 2022, International Mathematics Research Notices)

   Abstract The deep theory of approximate subgroups establishes three-step product growth for subsets of finite simple groups $$G$$ of Lie type of bounded rank. In this paper, we obtain two-step growth results for representations of such groups $$G$$ (including those of unbounded rank), where products of subsets are replaced by tensor products of representations. Let $$G$$ be a finite simple group of Lie type and $$\chi $$ a character of $$G$$. Let $$|\chi |$$ denote the sum of the squares of the degrees of all (distinct) irreducible characters of $$G$$ that are constituents of $$\chi $$. We show that for all $$\delta>0$$, there exists $$\epsilon>0$$, independent of $$G$$, such that if $$\chi $$ is an irreducible character of $$G$$ satisfying $$|\chi | \le |G|^{1-\delta }$$, then $$|\chi ^2| \ge |\chi |^{1+\epsilon }$$. We also obtain results for reducible characters and establish faster growth in the case where $$|\chi | \le |G|^{\delta }$$. In another direction, we explore covering phenomena, namely situations where every irreducible character of $$G$$ occurs as a constituent of certain products of characters. For example, we prove that if $$|\chi _1| \cdots |\chi _m|$$ is a high enough power of $|G|$, then every irreducible character of $$G$$ appears in $$\chi _1\cdots \chi _m$$. Finally, we obtain growth results for compact semisimple Lie groups. 

   more » « less
3. Almost all wreath product character values are divisible by given primes

   https://doi.org/10.5802/alco.313  

   Dong, Brandon; Graff, Hannah; Mundinger, Joshua; Rothstein, Skye; Vescovo, Lola (January 2024, Algebraic Combinatorics)

   For a finite group G with integer-valued character table and a prime p, we show that almost every entry in the character table of G (wreath) S_N is divisible by p as N approaches infinity. This result generalizes the work of Peluse and Soundararajan on the character table of S_N. . 

   more » « less
4. Bounding p-Brauer characters in finite groups with two conjugacy classes of p-elements

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11856-024-2613-1  

   Hung, Nguyen Ngoc; Sambale, Benjamin; Tiep, Pham Huu (September 2024, Israel Journal of Mathematics)

   Abstract Letk(B₀) andl(B₀) respectively denote the number of ordinary andp-Brauer irreducible characters in the principal blockB₀of a finite groupG. We prove that, ifk(B₀)−l(B₀) = 1, thenl(B₀) ≥p− 1 or elsep= 11 andl(B₀) = 9. This follows from a more general result that for every finite groupGin which all non-trivialp-elements are conjugate,l(B₀) ≥p− 1 or elsep= 11 and$$G/{{\bf{O}}_{{p^\prime }}}(G) \cong C_{11}^2\, \rtimes\,{\rm{SL}}(2,5)$$ $G/O_{p^{\prime }}\left(G\right)\cong C_{11}^2⋊\text{SL}(2,5)$. These results are useful in the study of principal blocks with few characters. We propose that, in every finite groupGof order divisible byp, the number of irreducible Brauer characters in the principalp-block ofGis always at least$$2\sqrt {p - 1} + 1 - {k_p}(G)$$ $2\sqrt{p-1}+1-k_p\left(G\right)$, wherek_p(G) is the number of conjugacy classes ofp-elements ofG. This indeed is a consequence of the celebrated Alperin weight conjecture and known results on bounding the number ofp-regular classes in finite groups. 

   more » « less
5. Character Ratios for Exceptional Groups of Lie Type

   https://doi.org/10.1093/imrn/rnz206  

   Liebeck, Martin W.; Tiep, Pham Huu (October 2019, International Mathematics Research Notices)

   Abstract We prove character ratio bounds for finite exceptional groups $G(q)$ of Lie type. These take the form $$\dfrac{|\chi (g)|}{\chi (1)} \le \dfrac{c}{q^k}$$ for all nontrivial irreducible characters $$\chi$$ and nonidentity elements $$g$$, where $$c$$ is an absolute constant, and $$k$$ is a positive integer. Applications are given to bounding mixing times for random walks on these groups and also diameters of their McKay graphs. 

   more » « less