Character Theory and the Davenport Constant

Jesse Ireland
MATH 4F90 Project
April 25, 2012
Brock University
Department of Mathematics
Professor: Dr. Yualin Li
1
Character Theory and the Davenport Constant
Jesse Ireland
April 25, 2012
1 Abstract
Representation theory is a means by which abstract groups can be treated as concrete
objects. A well-known theorem due to Cayley tells us that every group can be imbedded
as a subgroup of S
n
where n is the order of G. Furthermore, S
n
is ismorphic to a
subgroup of GL(n, K), the general linear group, so we can represent any abstract group
as a group of matrices. This in essence, is representation theory. Character theory
is a branch of modern algebra that comes directly from representation theory. This
paper is an introduction to representations and characters of groups with the goal of
applying the theory to nding the Davenport constant. It begins with a very quick
review of some concepts from algebra that may be unfamiliar, followed by an introduction
to representation theory. We continue with the development of character theory and
an introduction to character tables. Finally, we take a look at some novel methods
of applying character theory to the Davenport constant problem, an open problem in
modern algebra. This paper should be accessible to anyone familiar with basic, to
intermediate group theory, elementary ring theory and a background in linear algebra.
Key Words: Representation Theory, Character Theory, Group Algebras, The Davenport
Constant
2 Introduction
In the very early stages of the development of group theory only a small number
of classes of groups were known. The permutation group was almost synonymous with
the term group prior to the formulation of an abstract denition by the mathematician
Arthur Cayley in 1854. The idea of a group didnt catch on right away and it took about
30 years before our modern denition was formulated. Another 25 years later the idea
of representing abstract groups in a more concrete sense was put forth by F. Klein. By
representing an abstract group as something concrete such as a group of permutations
or a linear group, these groups can be explored further than the abstract representation
allows. Once representation theory was developed it paved the way for characters to be
dened. The character of a representation is a deceptively simple yet powerful idea and
2
will be explored in this paper. First, we need some elementary concepts before getting
to representation theory..
2.1 Some Needed Algebra
We begin this section by dening R-modules and then showing how they are related to
vector spaces.
Denition 2.1.1 R-Modules
Let R be a ring. An abelian group M (written additively) is called an (left) R-Module
(or a left module over R) if for each element a R and each m M there is a product
am M such that:
(i) (a +b)m = am+bm,
(ii) a(m
1
+m
2
) = am
1
+am
2
,
(iii) a(bm) = (ab)m,
(iv) 1m = m,
for all a, b R and m, m
1
, m
2
M.
Denition 2.1.2 Generating Set
A set S = s
i

iI
of elements of an R-module M is called a set of generators of M
if M = RS =

n
i=1
x
i
s
i
, where n N and x
i
R.
Denition 2.1.3 Linear Independence
A set S = s
i

iI
of elements of an R-module M is called linearly independent if, for
any (nite) linear combination of elements of S with coecients in R:
r
1
s
1
+r
2
s
2
+ +r
t
s
t
= 0
implies r
1
= r
2
= = r
t
= 0.
Denition 2.1.4 Basis
A set S = s
i

iI
of elements of an R-module M is called a basis of M over R (or
R-basis) if it is a linearly indepentent set of generators.
Denition 2.1.5 Free Module
An R-module is called free if it has a basis.
If we impose a restriction on our ring in the denition of R-module, namely that the
ring be a eld, then the module is, by denition, a vector space. Vector spaces have
some very nice properties that are not shared by modules. An example of this is given
3
any linearly independent set of vectors, it can always be extended to a basis. This is
not the case with modules. Another example is that given any set of generators of a
vector space, a subset of the generating set is a basis. Again, this is not true in the more
general module.
If we impose a further condition on the Abelian group and a certain condition on the
ring we can construct an R-algebra. We do this now.
Denition 2.1.6 R-Algebra
Let R be a commutative ring. An R-module A is called an R-algebra if there is a mul-
tiplication, dened in A, such that, with the addition given in A and this multiplication,
A is a ring and such that the following condition holds:
r(ab) = (ra)b = a(rb),
for all r R, and all a, b A.
We now take a look at a special type of ring that is constructed using a group and a
ring together.
Denition 2.1.7 Group Ring
Let R be a ring and G a group (written multiplicitively) then the set of nite sums
RG =
_
_
_

gG
a
g
g : a
g
R
_
_
_
,
is a ring under the following operatins:
(i) (

gG
a
g
g) + (

gG
b
g
g) =

gG
(a
g
+b
g
)g
(ii) (

gG
a
g
g)(

hG
b
h
h) =

gG,hG
(a
g
b
h
)gh
This ring is called the group ring of G over R.
We can also very easily make RG into an R-module and in turn, an R-algebra. To do
this simply dene a product of elements in RG by elements in R by
(

gG
a
g
g) =

gG
(a
g
)g,
and this makes RG into an R-module. In the case where R is a commutative ring, we
have that RG is an R-algebra.
We now have the basic theory that we need in order to look at some representation
theory.
4
3 Representation Theory
In this section we shall look at representations of groups. First, we see two equivalent
denitions of group representations, one concrete and one abstract, and then we continue
using the concrete one as it is better suited to our purpose.
Denition 3.0.1 (Linear) Representation
Let G be a group, R be a commutative ring, and V be a free R-module of nite rank.
A representation of G over R, with representation space V , is a group homomorphism
T : G GL(V ), where GL(V ) denotes the group of R-automorphisms of V . The rank
of V is called the degree of the representation T and will be denoted by deg(T). We
shall denote by T
g
the image of g under the mapping T.
Denition 3.0.2 Matrix Representation
Let G be a group, and let R be a commutative ring. A matrix representation of
G over R of degree n is a group homomorphism : G GL(n, R), where GL(n, R)
denotes the group of n n non-singular matrices over R under the operation of matrix
multiplication.
Since we can dene an isomorphism : GL(V ) GL(n, R), when we x a basis of
V , T is a matrix representation and
1
is a representation so these two types of
representations are analogous. Let us now consider an example.
Example 3.0.3 Let C
n
be the cyclic group of order n given by C
n
= a : a
n
= 1. We
can dene n representations of C
n
of the form : C
n
GL(1, C) given by : a
i

i
,
0 i n 1, where denotes an n
th
root of unity. The degree of this representation
is 1 since the group is mapped to a group of 11 matrices.
By changing the type of root of unity in the above example we obtain dierent
types of representations. If we take to be 1 then we obtain what is called the trivial
representation since every element is mapped the identity of GL(1, C). On the other hand
if we take to be a primitive root of unity then we get a dierent type of representation,
a so-called faithful representation. To see what this means we must rst dene the kernel
of a representation.
Denition 3.0.4 Kernel of a Representation
Let be a representation of a group G over a ring, R. Then the kernel of the
representation is given by
ker() = g G : (g) = I
n
.
Now, we call a representation faithful if the kernel is the set consisting of only the
identity element of G. We next consider the concept of equivalent representations.
5
Denition 3.0.5 Equivalent Matrix Representations
Two matrix representations A : G GL(n, K) and B : G GL(n, K) of a group G
over a eld K are said to be equivalent if there exists an invertible matrix, Q GL(n, K)
such that A
g
= QB
g
Q
1
, for all g G.
Denition 3.0.6 Reducibility and Irreducibility
A matrix representation T : G GL(n, K) is called reducible if there exists a matrix
U GL(n, K) such that, for all g G, we have that the matrix UT
g
U
1
is of the form
UT
g
U
1
=
_
A(g) B(g)
0 C(g)
_
.
Also if the above condition holds then each matrix T
g
is similar to a matrix of the form
UT
g
U
1
=
_
D(g) 0
0 E(g)
_
.
Furthermore, the functions dened by g A(g) and g C(g) as well as the functions
dened by g D(g) and g E(g) are all representations.
A representation is called irreducible if the representation space V admits no proper
T-invariant subspaces. That is if there is no subspace W V such that T
g
(W) W.
This is just another way of stating that you cant nd a basis such that the matrices are
of the form described above.
We shall now give a very important technical result about the number of irreducible
representations that will be extremely important in our discussion of character theory.
Theorem 3.0.7 Let G be a nite group and let K be a splitting eld for G. Then
KG
r

i=1
M
n
i
(K),
where r is the number of conjugacy classes of G. Hence, the number of irreducible,
non-equivalent, representations of G over K is also r and we have that
[G[ =
r

i=1
n
2
i
.
Before continuing on to group characters we shall look at a special representation.
Example 3.0.8 The Regular Representation
The regular FG-module is constructed from the group algebra as follows. Let V =
FG, so that V is a vector space of dimension n = [G[ over a eld F. For all u,v V ,
F, and g, h G we have
vg V
6
v(gh) = (vg)h
v1 = v
(v)g = (vg)
(u +v)g = ug +vg
hence V is an FG-module.
Now we can dene the regular FG-module as well as the the regular representation.
Denition 3.0.9 The Regular FG-module and The Regular Representation
Let G be a nite group and F be R or C. The vector space FG, with the natural
multiplication vg, v V , g G, is called the regular FG-module.
The matrix representation g [g]
B
(where [g]
B
denotes the coordinate vector of g in
FG) obtained by using the basis B = g
1
, g
2
, . . . g
n
of FG is called the regular repre-
sentation of G over F.
So the regular representation is a faithful representation of degree [G[.
4 Group Characters
4.1 Basic Concepts and Denitions
The notion of a character was introduced by the mathematician G. Frobenius with
inspiration from R. Dedekind [4]. We shall now consider characters but we will dene
them in terms of CG-modules and focus on matrix representations. Before dening what
a character is however, it would be prudent to recall the trace of a matrix and a couple
of its properties.
Denition 4.1.1 Trace
Let M = (a
ij
) be an nn matrix. Then the trace of M is given by
tr(M) =
n

i=1
a
ii
Provided that the entries of two matrices A, and B are from a commutative ring we
have tr(AB) = tr(BA). Also it is good to note that in general tr(AB) ,= tr(A) tr(B).
The rst relation is very important because it tells us that given a linear transformation
T, the trace of T is independent of the basis. This is easily seen as
tr(Q
1
TQ) = tr(Q
1
(TQ)) = tr(Q
1
QT) = tr(T).
7
Denition 4.1.2 Character
Let G be a group, F a eld, and V a free FG-module over F. Let T : G GL(V ) be
a representation of G over F. Then, the character, of G aorded by the representation
T is the mapping : G F dened by (g) = tr(T
g
), g G. If the representation T
is irreducible (reducible) then is called an irreducible (reducible) character.
The paragraph preceding the denition shows that the character is independent of the
basis, B.
Denition 4.1.3 Degree
If is the character of the CG-module, V , then the dimension of V is called the
degree of .
From here on we shall mostly restrict ourselves to complex representations. Lets
consider an example of the characters of a nite abelian group of rank 2.
Example 4.1.4 Let G = a, b : a
l
= b
m
= 1, ab = ba. Then, if we let
a
= e
2i
l
and

b
= e
2i
m
we can construct the following mappings for a and b:

a0
: a
i
1
b0
: b
i
1

a1
: a
i

i
a

b1
: b
i

i
b
.
.
.
.
.
.

a(l1)
: a
i

li
a

b(m1)
: b
i

mi
b
Now we can dene lm = [G[ representations that are irreducible and non-equivalent
from these mappings as follows:

00
(a
i
b
j
) =
a0
(a
i
)
b0
(a
j
)

01
(a
i
b
j
) =
a0
(a
i
)
b1
(a
j
)
.
.
.

xy
(a
i
b
j
) =
ax
(a
i
)
by
(a
j
)
where 0 x l 1 and 0 y m 1. Since all of these representations are of
degree one the image of each element under the mapping is identical to the character.
Also, the reader should notice that we have constructed [G[ representations of degree
one, hence every irreducible representation of an abelian group of rank 2 is of degree
one. This will become important later on when we look at the Davenport constant.
We next give another result relating characters and CG-modules.
8
Theorem 4.1.5 Isomorphic CG-modules have the same character.
Proof Suppose V and W are isomorphic CG-modules. Then there exists a basis B
1
of V and a basis B
2
of W such that
[g]
B
1
= [g]
B
2
for all g G
Consequently, tr[g]
B
1
=tr[g]
B
2
for all g G, and so V and W have the same character.

Denition 4.1.6 Reducibility and Irreducibility

We say that is a character of G if is the character of some CG-module. Further-
more, is an irreducible (reducible) character of G if is the character of an irreducible
(reducible) CG-module.
Let us consider now an example to illustrate these denitions.
Example 4.1.7 Let G = D
8
= a, b : a
4
= b
2
= 1, bab
1
= a
1
with the representa-
tion
: G GL(2, C) dened by : a
i
b
j
A
i
B
j
where
A =
_
0 1
1 0
_
B =
_
1 0
0 1
_
Then we have the following table showing, explicitly, the mapping of elements under
and the character of . Notice the entry corresponding to (1) shows the degree of the
representation is two. This is as it should be since we are considering a mapping into
GL(2, C).
g 1 a a
2
a
3
(g)
_
1 0
0 1
_ _
0 1
1 0
_ _
1 0
0 1
_ _
0 1
1 0
_
(g) 2 0 -2 0
g b ab a
2
b a
3
b
(g)
_
1 0
0 1
_ _
0 1
1 0
_ _
1 0
0 1
_ _
0 1
1 0
_
(g) 0 0 0 0

We should note here that in general the character is not a homomorphism but if
deg() = 1 then it is in fact a homomorphism. Characters of degree 1 are called linear
characters and the character corresponding to the trivial representation is called the
trivial character of G or the principal character of G. We next show that the character
is constant on each conjugacy class.
9
Theorem 4.1.8 Let x, y G and y be a conjugate of x in G. Then (x) = (y).
Proof Since y is a conjugate of x in G, we have y = gxg
1
for some g G. Hence,
(y) = tr(T
y
) = tr(T
g
T
x
T
g
1) = tr(T
x
) = (x)
hence if x belongs to the same conjugacy class as y then (x) = (y).
We now look at an important fact regarding the character of the the identity element
of G.
Theorem 4.1.9 Let be the character of a CG-module V , then (1) = dim(V )
Proof Let n = dimV , and let B be a basis of V . Then the matrix [1]
B
of the identity
element 1 relative to B is equal to I
n
, the n n identity matrix. Consequently
(1) = tr[1]
B
= tr(I
n
) = n
hence, (1) = dimV .
We shall now state without proof three more properties of the values of characters.
Theorem 4.1.10 Let be the character of a CG-module V and suppose g G and g
has order m. Then,
(1) (g) is a sum of mth roots of unity;
(2) (g
1
) = (g);
(3) (g) is a real number if g is conjugate to g
1
.
We now give a natural denition of the kernel of a character.
Denition 4.1.11 Kernel
If is a character of G, then the kernel of denoted Ker(), is dened by
Ker() = g G : (g) = (1).
This denition also coincides with the denition of the kernel of a representation
in that Ker() = Ker(). This is true since (g) = n if and only if : g I
n
and
ker() = g G : (g) = I
n
.
Denition 4.1.12 Regular Character
The regular character is the character of the regular CG-module and it is denoted
by
reg
.
10
Theorem 4.1.13 If
reg
is the regular character then

reg
(1) = [G[, and

reg
(g) = 0 if g ,= 1
Proof Let g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
n
be the elements of G, and let B be the basis g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
n
of CG. By Theorem 4.1.9
reg
= dim(CG) = [G[.
Now let g G with g ,= 1. Then for 1 i n, we have g
i
g = g
j
for some j with j ,= i.
Therefore the ith row of the matrix [g]
B
has zeros in every place except column j; in
particular, the ii-entry is zero for all i. It follows that

reg
(g) = tr[g]
B
= 0.

We shall nish this section with an example that will illustrate the ideas presented
so far.
Example 4.1.14 Let G = D
6
= a, b : a
3
= b
2
= 1, bab
1
= a
1
. For the sake
of brevity, we shall not derive the irreducible representations but rather list them. The
three (Theorem 3.1.7 shows us there are only three) irreducible representations are given
by

1
: a (1),
1
: b (1)

2
: a (1),
2
: b (1)

3
: a
_
0
0
1
_
,
3
: b
_
0 1
1 0
_
where = e
2i
3
. Tabulating the irreducible characters together with the regular
character gives the table
g 1 a a
2
b ab a
2
b

1
1 1 1 1 1 1

2
1 1 1 1 1 1

3
2 1 1 0 0 0

reg
(g) 6 0 0 0 0 0
The reader should notice a few things about this table. The characters take on the
same values for conjugate group elements as mentioned before. Also note the kernel of
each representation, hence
3
and the regular representation are faithful while
1
and

2
are not. Finally, notice that
reg
=
1
+
2
+ 2
3
. This is no coincidence. We shall
explore this in greater detail in the next section.
11
4.2 Character Tables
In this section we shall dene the character table and explore dierent ways to calculate
irreducible characters without having to construct the corresponding CG-modules.
Denition 4.2.1 Class Function
A mapping : G C is called a class function if is constant of the conjugacy
classes of G, that is, if x = g
1
yg for x, y, g G implies (x) = (y).
Now Theorem 4.1.8 tells us that characters, and hence, linear combinations of char-
acters, are class functions. The next theorem shows the converse is also the case.
Theorem 4.2.2 Every class function : G C can be uniquely expressed in the form
=
r

i=1
a
i

i
, a
i
C, 1 i r,
where
i
belong to a set of irreducible, non-equivalent characters. Thus,
1
,
2
, . . . ,
r

is a basis of the C-vector space of all class functions of G over C.

Proof We know from Theorem 3.7 that if the number of irreducible representations
of G over C is r, then the number of conjugacy classes of G is also r. We shall denote
these classes by C
1
, C
2
, . . . C
r
. Also, denote by E
i
: G C the class function such that
E
i
(a) = 1 if a C
i
and E
i
(a) = 0 otherwise, 1 i r. Then, it is easily seen that the
set E
1
, . . . , E
r
is a basis of the vector space of all class functions. Hence, the dimension
of this space is precisely r and the result will follow if we show that
1
, . . . ,
r
is a
linearly independent set. Assume, by way of contradiction, that there exist coecients

i
C, 1 i r such that

r
i=1

i
= 0. Let e
1
, . . . , e
r
be the primitive central
idempotents of CG. Then, we have that:
0 =
_
r

i=1

i
_
(e
j
) =
r

i=1

i
(e
j
) =
j
deg(T
j
),
thus
j
= 0, 1 j r.
Here it should be noted that given a class function of the form
=
r

i=1
a
i

i
, a
i
C, 1 i r,
is a character if and only if ,= 0, a
i
Z, a
i
0, 1 i r. The characters
i
such
that the corresponding coecient a
i
is non-zero are called the constituents of .
We shall now show this in the case of the regular character.
12
Example 4.2.3 Let G be a nite group of order n. We shall denote by : G C the
regular character, which is aorded by the regular representation of G over C that was
constructed earlier. Let
CG
r

i=1
M
n
i
(C)
be the decomposition of CG as a direct sum of simple components. If I
i
C
n
i
is
the irreducible CG-module corresponding to the i
th
simple component, we see that, as
CG-modules, we have that
M
n
i
(C) I
i
I
i
. .
n
i
times
and hence
CG I
1
I
1
. .
n
1
times
I
r
I
r
. .
n
r
times
If T
i
denotes the irreducible representation of G over C corresponding to I
i
, and
i
its
corresponding character, 1 i r, then we can write the regular representation T of G
over C as:
T =
r

i=1
n
i
T
i
Computing the trace of each side we get
=
r

i=1
n
i

i
.
Since n
i
=deg(T
i
) =
i
(1), this can be written as
=
r

i=1

i
(1)
i
.
Hence the aforementioned sum in the example of D
6
.
We are now in a position to describe the character table of a group. Since the number
of irreducible complex representations, and hence the number of irreducible characters,
is equal to the number of conjugacy classes of a group, by tabulating the irreducible
characters together with a class representative of each conjugacy class we obtain an
n n array or matrix. This gives the character table of a group.
Denition 4.2.4 Let
1
, . . . ,
k
be the irreducible characters of G and let g
1
, . . . g
k
be
representatives of the conjugacy classes of G. The k k matrix whose ij-entry is
i
(g
j
)
is called the character table of G.
To illustrate this denition we simply note that the conjugacy classes of D
6
are
C
1
= 1, C
2
= a, a
2
, and C
3
= b, ab, a
2
b and so the character table of D
6
is
13
g 1 a b

1
1 1 1

2
1 1 1

3
2 1 0
We shall now develop a couple of methods of constructing character tables without
explicit construction of the corresponding CG-modules. The rst thing we shall do is
construct an inner product of characters. This will be very helpful for deconstructing
reducible characters in terms of known irreducible characters, determining if a given
character is irreducible, and to ll in a partially known character table. To this end,
we shall start with a more general theorem and construct an inner product using the
theorem.
Theorem 4.2.5 Generalized Orthogonality Relation
Let h be an element in a nite group G. For every pair of irreducible characters
i
,

j
, we have that
1
[G[

gG

j
(gh)
i
(g
1
) =
ij

i
(h)

j
(1)
,
where
ij
denotes the Kronecker delta; ie.
ii
= 1 and
ij
= 0 if i ,= j.
Proof See [4] Theorem 5.1.14.
We now state two useful consequences of the Generalized Orthogonality Relation.
These two relations are very helpful in the construction of character tables. The rst
follows quickly from the theorem by taking g = 1 and recalling that the character is a
class function. The second can be proved by taking two matrices, A and B say, with
A = (a
ij
) where a
ij
=
i
(a
j
) and B = (b
ij
) where b
ij
=
C
i
|G|

j
(a
i
) and a
h
as below,
then using the fact that the character is a class function and then nally using the rst
relation.
Corollary 4.2.6 Let
1
, . . . ,
k
be the irreducible characters of G and let a
1
, . . . , a
k
be representatives of the conjugacy classes of G. Then the following relations hold for
any r, s 1, . . . , k.
The row orthogonality relations:
k

i=1

r
(a
i
)
s
(a
i
)
[C
G
(a
i
)[
=
ij
.
14
The column orthogonality relations:
k

i=1

i
(a
r
)
i
(a
s
) =
rs
[C
G
(a
r
)[.
where [C
G
(g)[ denotes the index of the centralizer in G.
We now dene a useful notation that also tells us a little about the structure of the
space of class functions from G to C, namely the inner product of characters.
Denition 4.2.7 Let and be characters of a group G. Then the inner product of
and is given by
, =
1
[G[

gG
(g)(g).
It is easy to verify that , does in fact satisfy the axioms of an inner product and
that not only does the set of irreducible characters form a basis, but the basis is in fact
an orthonormal basis as evident from the above corollary. In short we have , = 0
and , = 1 for distinct irreducible characters , and . It is good to note that while
the two relations are dierent they contain the exact same information. That is whatever
information we can obtain using one relation we can also obtain the same information
using the other one. The only dierence is that a calculation may be simplied by using
one over the other. We shall now use a couple of examples to illustrate the usefulness of
the orthogonality relations as well as the inner product.
Example 4.2.8 Suppose we have obtained all of the linear characters of some group
G of order 12 with exactly four conjugacy classes with representatives g
1
, g
2
, g
3
, g
4
and
the partial character table is as below.
g
i
g
1
g
2
g
3
g
4
[C
G
(g
i
)[ 12 4 3 3

1
1 1 1 1

2
1 1
2

3
1 1
2

4
where = e
2i
3
. Since the entries in the rst column are the degrees of the irreducible
characters they are positive integers. Hence by the column orthogonality relation we
15
have,
1
2
+ 1
2
+ 1
2
+
4
(1)
2
= 12

4
(1)
2
= 9

4
(1) = 3
Next we can use the rst column to obtain the entries in the rest of the columns using
4

i=1

i
(g
1
)
i
(g
r
) = 0 with r = 2, 3, 4
These computations give the rest of the character table to be
g
i
g
1
g
2
g
3
g
4
[C
G
(g
i
)[ 12 4 3 3

1
1 1 1 1

2
1 1
2

3
1 1
2

4
3 -1 0 0
We next consider a method by which we can decompose characters and in turn CG-
modules. We will not prove this or even explore this in much detail rather the idea
here is to introduce this method and simply claim that it works in general. We shall
demonstrate this by decomposing the regular character of D
6
.
Example 4.2.9 Let G = D
6
. Then G has three irreducible characters, which we shall
denote by
1
,
2
,
3
. Since the set of irreducible characters is a basis for the space of
class functions from D
6
to C we can write
reg
= d
1

1
+d
2

2
+d
3

3
. Now we can use
the inner product to nd each d
i
.

reg
,
1
=
1
[G[

gG

reg
(g)
1
(g) =
3

i=1
1
[C
G
(g
i
)[

reg
(g
i
)
1
(g
i
) =
1
6

reg
(1)
1
(1) = 1
computing d
2
, and d
3
we get

reg
,
2
=
2
(1) = 1

reg
,
3
=
3
(1) = 2
This gives
reg
=
1
+
2
+ 2
3
as we had previously. Since we will not prove this we
just note that this works because the inner product acts as a projection since these are
just vectors in a vector space.
16
The last thing we will do in our development of character theory is show a method to
nd all of the linear characters of a group G. We will rst show how to use factor groups
of a group G to help construct the character table of G. Then, using a particular factor
group, we can construct all linear characters of a group. This method is useful because
in general the character table of a factor group of a group G is easier to construct than
the character table of G itself. This portion is a little more advanced so we shall only
provide an outline of the main proof and instead direct the reader to [3] for the full
proof.
Theorem 4.2.10 Assume N G, and let be a character of G/N. Dene : G C
by
(g) = (gN) g G.
Then is a character of G, and and have the same degree.
Proof Let : G/N GL(n, C) be a representation of G/N with character . The
function : G GL(n, C) that is given by the composition
g gN (gN) g G
is a homomorphism from G to GL(n, C). Thus is a representation of G. The character
of satises
(g) = tr((g)) = tr((gN)) = (gN)
for all g G. Moreover, (1) (N), so and have the same degree.
Denition 4.2.11 If N G and is a character of G/N, then the character of G
that is given by
(g) = (gN) g G
is called the lift of to G.
Now that we have dened the lift of a character we shall jump right to the main
result as it is a very technical process to get to it and is beyond the scope of this paper.
Before the statement of the main theorem recall the derived subgroup is the smallest
normal subgroup with abelian factor group. It is given by G

= [g, h] : g, h G where
[g, h] = ghg
1
h
1
.
Theorem 4.2.12 The linear characters of G are precisely the lifts to G of the irre-
ducible characters of G/G

. In particular, the number of distinct linear characters of G

is equal to [G/G

[, and so divides [G[.

The main ideas in the proof rely on the fact that G/G

is abelian and that the

irreducible characters of an abelian group are all linear hence the lifts of G/G

are all
linear characters. The next part relies on the fact that irreducible characters of a factor
17
group G/N correspond to irreducible characters of G that have N in there kernel and
that if is a linear character of G, then G

Ker hence the lifts of G/G

give all of the

linear characters of G.
We end this section with the construction of a character table using this method.
Example 4.2.13 Let G = Q
8
= a, b : a
4
= 1, b
2
= a
2
, b
1
ab = a
1
, the quaternion
group of order 8. It is easy to see that the conjugacy classes are C
1
= 1, C
2
= a
2
,
C
2
= a, a
3
, C
2
= b, a
2
b, C
2
= ab, a
3
b and with a bit of work we can nd that
G

= 1, a
2
. This gives G/G

= G

, aG

, bG

, abG

C
2
C
2
. Using the fact that
abelian groups admit only linear characters, it is easy to see that the character table of
G/G

is
g
i
G

aG

bG

abG

1
1 1 1 1

2
1 1 -1 -1

3
1 -1 1 -1

4
1 -1 -1 1
Lifting the characters of G/G

eectively means that we insert [G

[ columns and C

C
rows where C and

C denote the number of conjugacy classes of G and G

respectively.
Hence we get for the character table of G
g
i
1 a
2
a b ab
[C
G
(g
i
)[ 8 8 4 4 4

1
1 1 1 1

2
1 1 -1 -1

3
1 -1 1 -1

4
1 -1 -1 1

5
Since a
2
G

the column corresponding to a

2
is the same as the column corre-
sponding to 1 for the linear characters. Then the orthogonality relations can be used to
construct the rest of the table and we get
g
i
1 a
2
a b ab
[C
G
(g
i
)[ 8 8 4 4 4

1
1 1 1 1 1

2
1 1 1 -1 -1

3
1 1 -1 1 -1

4
1 1 -1 -1 1

5
2 -2 0 0 0
18
5 The Davenport Constant
5.1 Finding the Davenport Constant
The Davenport constant was proposed by H. Davenport in 1966. It is an open problem
in modern algebra that has proved quite dicult to solve. We shall not discuss the
applications of the Davenport constant but rather look at methods to determine the
value of the constant for dierent groups. The Davenport constant is only dened for
nite Abelian groups but there is a generalization of the Davenport constant for arbitrary
groups. Before getting into this section, however, there is a bit of terminology that we
need. It should be noted that the rank of a nite Abelian group is the number of cyclic
components in the decomposition under the Fundmental Theorem of Finite Abelian
Groups. Also, a set consisting of one generator of each of the cyclic components of a
nite Abelian group will be refered to as a basis. Now, we can move on to the Davenport
constant.
Denition 5.1.1 The Davenport Constant
Let G be a nite Abelian group. Dene s = D(G) to be the smallest positive integer
such that, for any sequence g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
s
(repetition allowed) of group elements, there
exist indices
1 i
1
< < i
t
s
or which g
i
1
g
i
2
g
i
t
= 1. D(G) is called the Davenport constant.
The Fundamental Theorem of Finite Abelian Groups shows us that we can always
dene a nite Abelian group to be a group under the operation of addition. This means
that the Davenport constant problem can be written in the form of a zero-sum sequence
problem. The Davenport constant is related as such to the zero-sum constant proposed
by Erdos, Ginzburg, and Ziv.
There are not many classes of groups for which the Davenport constant is know but we
now take a look at some of the groups for which the constant is know.
Theorem 5.1.2 The Davenport constant of Z
n
, D(Z
n
), is n.
Proof If G = g : g
n
= 1 then the sequence g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
n1
, where g
i
= g has no
subsequence of product 1 since [g[ > n 1. Hence D(Z
n
) n.
Let g
i
1
, g
i
2
, . . . , g
i
n
be a sequence of length n. Now consider the n products given by:
p
j
=
n

j=1
p
i
j
Thus we have p
j
g for all j and hence n elements of g. If the p
j
are distinct then
one of them is 1. Otherwise, p
l
= p
k
for some k > l. Thus, multiplying by g
l
yields
1 = g
i
l+1
g
i
k
, a subsequence of product 1. Hence, D(Z
n
) n. Thus D(Z
n
) = n.
19
So, the Davenport constant problem is solved for cyclic groups. Another very simple
class of group is the nite p-groups. It turns out that the Davenport constant problem
is rather simple to solve in this case as well. We next look at a lemma that we shall
need in order to prove what the value of the Davenport constant is for nite Abelian
p-groups.
Lemma 5.1.3 Let G = Z
p
e
1 Z
p
e
2 Z
p
e
r . If g
1
, . . . , g
k
Gand k 1+

r
(p
e
i
1),
then
(1 g
1
)(1 g
2
) . . . (1 g
k
) 0 (mod p).
Proof Let x
1
, x
2
, . . . , x
r
be a basis for G so that each x
i
has order p
e
i
. If, for some i,
g
i
= uv, we may, in a sense, decompose the product
J = (1 g
1
) (1 g
k
)
to the form
J = (1g
1
) (1g
i1
)(1u)(1g
i+1
) (1g
k
)+u(1g
1
) (1g
i1
)(1v)(1g
i+1
) (1g
k
)
using the identity
1 uv = (1 u) +u(1 v).
Since each g
i
is the product of the basis elements x
j
we may, be repeated applying this
decomposition, arrive at the following expression for J.
J =

where each g

G and each J

is a product of the form

J

= (1 x
1
)
f
1
(1 x
2
)
f
2
(1 x
r
)
f
r
.
In the product we also fave that each f
i
is a nonnegative integer and

r
f
i
= k. Now,
since k 1 +

r
(p
e
i
1) we have

r
f
i
1 +

r
(p
e
i
1), hence we must have at least
one f
i
p
e
i
. But
(1 x
i
)
p
e
1
0.
Thus, J

0 (mod p) for each , and this completes the proof.

We are now ready to prove the theorem due to Olsen on the Davenport constant for
nite p-groups.
Theorem 5.1.4 (Olsen) Let G = Z
p
e
1 Z
p
e
2 Z
p
e
r . Then D(G) = 1+

r
i=1
(p
e
i

1).
20
Proof First, let x
1
, x
2
, . . . , x
r
be a basis for G so that each x
i
has order p
e
i
. Now if
we form the sequence in which each x
i
occurs p
e
i
1 times, then it is clear that this
sequence has no subsequence with product 1. Hence, D(G) 1 +

(p
e
i
1).
For the other direction, look at all subsequences of g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
k
that have product g.
Let E
g
be the number of subsequences with product g of even length and let O
g
be the
number of subsequences with product g of odd length. Using the lemma we get:
E
g
O
g

_
0 (mod p) if g ,= 1
1 (mod p) if g = 1
To see this is the case expand the expression in the lemma to get

gG
1 + (E
g
O
g
) g 0 mod p.
Were interested in when g = 1 and we notice that we cannot have E(1) = O(1) = 0
and the theorem is proved.
Another one of the few classes for which the Davenport constant is known is the
groups of rank two. To prove the theorem concerning the Davenport constant of groups
of rank two we require a lemma. But rst, a denition.
Denition 5.1.5 The elementary Abelian p-group if order p
k
is the group
Z
p
Z
p
Z
p
. .
k times
under the usual operation.
Lemma 5.1.6 Let E be the elementary abelian p-group of order p
2
(p prime). If
g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
s
E and s 3p 2, then there exists indices 1 i
1
< i
2
< < i
t
s
with 1 t p such that g
i
1
g
i
2
g
i
t
= 1.
Proof The previous theorem gives D(P) = 1 +k(p 1) if P is the elementary Abelian
p-group of order p
k
. Now, embed E into the elementary Abelian group F of order p
3
.
Let x F, but x / E. Since D(F) = 3p 2, some subsequence of xg
1
, xg
2
, . . . , xg
s
has
product 1. Since x has order p (otherwise x E) we must have that the subsequence
with product 1 must be of length p or 2p. That is (after a rearrangement of subscripts)
g
1
g
2
g
ep
= 1 where e = 1 or e = 2. If e = 1 then we are nished so, let e = 2. But the
sequence g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
2p
has a proper subsequence with product 1 since D(E) = 2p 1.
Thus, the sequence contains a subsequence of length not exceeding p with product 1.
We now present the theorem due to Olsen giving the value of the Davenport constant
of nite abelian groups of rank two.
21
Theorem 5.1.7 Let G = H K be the direct product of Abelian groups H and K
of orders h and k, respectively, where h[k. If g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
s
G and s h +k 1, then
g
i
1
g
i
2
g
i
t
= 1 for some 1 i
1
< < i
t
s.
Proof We proceed by induction on the order of H, h. We have already proved the case
in which h = 1 in Theorem 4.1.3. So, assume that h > 1 and let p be a prime divisor
of h. Then we also have that p[k. Let H
1
be a subgroup of H and K
1
be a subgroup
of K with [H : H
1
] = [K : K
1
] = p. Let h = ph
1
and k = pk
1
. Also let Q = H
1
K
1
.
We assume that the theorem is true for Q = H
1
K
1
. Note here that the factor group
G/Q E and by our assumption on the value of s we have
s h +k 1
= p(h
1
+k
1
2) + 2p 1
p(2 + 1 2) + 2p 1
= 3p 1
3p 2
Considering the image of the sequence g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
s
under the natural homomorphism
from G to G/Q we get a sequence of length greater than or equal to 3p 2 in G/Q E
and thus there is a subsequence of length at most p with product 1 by Lemma 4.1
This means that there is a subsequence of g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
s
in G with product q
1
Q since
the kernel of the natural homomorphism is Q. Now continuing this process with other
elements of Q we can construct pair-wise disjoint subsets S
1
, S
2
, . . . , S
u1
of the index
set 1,2,. . . ,s of sizes 1 [S
j
[ p, such that

iS
j
g
i
= q
j
,
so that q
j
Q and where u 1 = h
1
+ k
1
2. Since the length of each sequence
S
1
, S
2
, . . . , S
u1
is at most p we have at least 2p 1 indices left since s p(h
1
+ k
1

2) +2p 1. Now since D(E) = 2p 1 there is a subset S
u
of the remaining indices such
that

iS
u
g
i
= q
u
Q.
Since u = h
1
+k
1
1, some subsequence of q
1
, q
2
, . . . , q
u
has product 1. This completes
the proof.
We have proved what the value of the Davenport constant is for a few classes of
Abelian groups. These are actually most of the groups for which the Davenport constant
is known. It is in general, very dicult to determine the Davenport constant for a group.
To deal with this issue mathematicians study the problem from a slightly dierent angle
to help develop insight into the problem and make progress toward determining the value
of the constant. There is a good deal of research dedicated to bounding the Davenport
constant from above and this is the focus of the last section of this paper.
22
5.2 Estimating the Davenport Constant
The nal result we shall look at is an application of character theory to the problem of
bounding the Davenport constant of the groups
G = Z
r
n
= Z
n
Z
n
Z
n
. .
r factors
that was developed by Vesselin Dimitrov in [1]. So returning to character theory, we
recall that for an Abelian group G of order n there are n conjugacy classes hance there are
n characters by Theorem 3.1.7. Now since

n
i=1

i
(1)
2
= n we must have
i
(1) = 1 for
all i, that is, an Abelian group admits only linear characters. As mentioned previously
this means that the characters of Abelian groups are group homomorphisms. These
homomorphisms can be extended extended to be ring homomorphisms in the following
way. Dene : KG C

to be a ring homomorphism by its inherent properties as a

group homomorphism together with the property

_
_

gG
k
g
g
_
_
=

gG
k
g
(g).
Now, if we let

G = Hom(G, F

) be the set of equivalence classes of irreducible repre-

sentations of G then we can prove the following:
Theorem 5.2.1 Let CG. Then, = 0 if and only if () = 0 for all characters,


G.
Proof If = 0 then of course () = 0 for all

G. So, assume () = 0 for every


G. Let =

k
x
x. If we can show that k
x
= 0 for all x G then we are done. Let
g G be arbitrary and let n = [G[. Choose an arbitrary character . Since is a ring
homomorphism we have

xG
k
x
(x) = 0

xG\{g}
k
x
(x)(g
1
) = k
g
Now, if we sum over all characters

G we get
nk
g
=

x=g
k
x
(x)(g
1
)
Re-arranging and applying the column orthogonality relation again gives
nk
g
=

x=g
k
x

G
(x)(g
1
) = 0
23
Hence, k
g
= 0 for every g G since g was chosen arbitrarily. Now, it follows immediately
that = 0, so the theorem has been proven.
We now introduce a new concept but we will not explore it in detail as it is outside
of the scope of this paper. We introduce it simply to show how character theory can
be used to bound the Davenport constant. In what follows v w denotes the usual dot
product. Also we denote by F an algebraically closed eld of characteristic 0.
Denition 5.2.2 Cover
Let M =
_
v
i,j
_
, (1 i m; 1 j n) be an m n matrix with entries in F
k
. A
cover of M is a set T = w
1
, . . . , w
n
of vectors in F
k
such that for each i 1, . . . , m
there exists a j 1, . . . , n with v
i,j
w
j
0, 1. We say that T is a proper cover if
v
i,j
w
j
= 1 for all i and the chosen j.
We illustrate the denition with an example.
Example 5.2.3 Let F = C and M be the following matrix with entries in C
2
.
M =
_
(1, 0) (1, 1) (1 i, i)
(1, 2) (2, 1) (2 3i, 1 + 3i)
_
Then, T = (1, 0), (0, 1), (1, 1) is a proper cover of M. To see this is the case we
compute the dot products v
i,j
w
j
to get the following:
v
1,1
w
1
= (1, 0) (1, 0) = 1
v
2,1
w
1
= (1, 2) (1, 0) = 1
v
1,2
w
2
= (1, 1) (0, 1) = 1
v
2,2
w
2
= (2, 1) (0, 1) = 1
v
1,3
w
3
= (1 i, i) (1, 1) = 1
v
2,3
w
3
= (2 3i, 1 + 3i) (1, 1) = 1

Denition 5.2.4 Let S F

k
be a nite set of elements of F
k
. We say that S admits
an (m,n,k)-cover if all mn matrices M with entries in S have a proper cover.
We are now ready for the nal theorem. This is the main theorem of [1] and it is
included for the sole purpose of giving an example of how one can apply character theory
to the Davenport constant problem.
Theorem5.2.5 Let U
n
be the set of all n
th
roots of unity. If U
n
admits an (n
r
, l, k)-
cover, then lk D
(l)
(Z
r
n
).
24
Proof Since G = Z
r
n
is Abelian, we have that, for each character

G and each
g G, (g) U
n
by Therem 4.1.10. We can therefore view the character table of G
as an n
r
n
r
matrix with elements in U
n
. We need to prove that given kl elements
g
1
, g
2
, . . . , g
kl
G = Z
r
n
, there exist indices i
1
, i
2
, . . . , i
s
with g
i
1
g
i
s
= 1 (s l).
Consider the columns of the character table of G that correspond to the elements
g
1
, . . . , g
kl
. They form an n
r
kl matrix T. Construct an n
r
l matrix

T with el-
ements in U
k
n
, obtained from T by replacing, in each row, the elemenets with indices
jl + 1, . . . , jl +k (0 j k 1) by a k-tuple that will be regarded as an entry of

T.
Since U
n
admits an (n
r
, l, k)-cover,

T admits a cover, say T = v
1
, . . . , v
l
, and let
v
i
= (v
1
i
, v
2
i
, . . . , v
k
i
) U
k
n
.
We now dene
w
i
=
(i1)l+k

j=(i1)l+1
v
j
i
g
j
.
Since T is a proper cover of

T, we have that, for each character

G, there exists
an index i = i() such that (w
i
) = 1.
Now, consider the element
J = (1 w
1
)(1 w
2
) (1 w
l
)
of the group algebra A. We claim that J = 0. Indeed, by Theorem 5.2.1 it suces to
show that (J) = 0 for all irreducible characters . But, as shown above, there always
exists an index i = i() with 1 (w
i
) = 0. Hence, the claim will follow at once if we
show that
(J) =
l

i=1
(1 (w
i
)),
which holds since is a group homomorphism. Now were left with
0 = (1 w
1
)(1 w
2
) (1 w
l
),
from which it follows that there exist indices i
1
, i
2
, . . . , i
s
with g
i
1
g
i
s
= 1.
6 Conclusion
We shall conclude this paper with some nal remarks. First, the reader should now
understand the basic ideas and motivation behind representation theory as well as the
connection to characters theory. The reader should also have an understanding of simple
methods of constructing character tables. The character table was not explored very
thoroughly and the interested reader could continue on to see how the character table
of a group gives a lot of immediate information. Examples of such information include
25
immediate classication of a group as simple or not simple and, moreover, determination
of all normal subgroups. A special case of this is the centre of the group. We can
also determine whether or not a group is solvable, nilpotent or abelian. More advanced
thoery that can be explored in character theory includes induced characters and a tensor
product of characters. Finally, the reader may be interested in exploring the applications
of the Davenport constant. In order to do this, however, a stronger background in
combinatorics and number theory would be very benecial as the level of diculty is
rather higher than the diculty of this paper.
References
[1] Dimitrov, Vesselin. Zero-sum Problems in Finite Groups. Research Science Institues,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007.
[2] Dummit, D. S. & Foote, R. M. Abstract Algebra, 3rd ed. New Jersey: John Wiley
and Sons Inc., 2004.t
[3] James, G. & Liebeck, M. Representations and Characters of Groups, 2nd ed. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
[4] Milies, C. P. & Sehgal, S. K., An Introduction to Group Rings, Dordrecht, The
Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002.
[5] Olson, J. E. A combinatorial problem on nite Abelian groups, I. J. Number Theory
1 (1969), 8-10.
[6] Olson, J. E. A combinatorial problem on nite Abelian groups, II. J. Number Theory
1 (1969), 195-199.
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