In
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, especially in the fields of
group theory
In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups.
The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...
and
representation theory of groups
Representation may refer to:
Law and politics
*Representation (politics), political activities undertaken by elected representatives, as well as other theories
** Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a ...
, a class function is a
function on a
group
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...
''G'' that is constant on the
conjugacy class
In mathematics, especially group theory, two elements a and b of a group are conjugate if there is an element g in the group such that b = gag^. This is an equivalence relation whose equivalence classes are called conjugacy classes. In other ...
es of ''G''. In other words, it is invariant under the
conjugation map on ''G''. Such functions play a basic role in
representation theory
Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebra, abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their element (set theory), elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies Module (mathematics), ...
.
Characters
The
character of a
linear representation
Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies modules over these abstract algebraic structures. In essen ...
of ''G'' over a
field ''K'' is always a class function with values in ''K''. The class functions form the
center of the
group ring
In algebra, a group ring is a free module and at the same time a ring, constructed in a natural way from any given ring and any given group. As a free module, its ring of scalars is the given ring, and its basis is the set of elements of the gi ...
''K''
'G'' Here a class function ''f'' is identified with the element
.
Inner products
The set of class functions of a group with values in a field form a -
vector space
In mathematics and physics, a vector space (also called a linear space) is a set (mathematics), set whose elements, often called vector (mathematics and physics), ''vectors'', can be added together and multiplied ("scaled") by numbers called sc ...
. If is finite and the
characteristic of the field does not divide the order of , then there is an
inner product
In mathematics, an inner product space (or, rarely, a Hausdorff pre-Hilbert space) is a real vector space or a complex vector space with an operation called an inner product. The inner product of two vectors in the space is a scalar, ofte ...
defined on this space defined by
where denotes the order of and the overbar denotes conjugation in the field . The set of
irreducible characters of forms an
orthogonal basis
In mathematics, particularly linear algebra, an orthogonal basis for an inner product space V is a basis for V whose vectors are mutually orthogonal. If the vectors of an orthogonal basis are normalized, the resulting basis is an ''orthonormal b ...
. Further, if is a
splitting field
In abstract algebra, a splitting field of a polynomial with coefficients in a field is the smallest field extension of that field over which the polynomial ''splits'', i.e., decomposes into linear factors.
Definition
A splitting field of a polyn ...
for for instance, if is
algebraically closed
In mathematics, a field is algebraically closed if every non-constant polynomial in (the univariate polynomial ring with coefficients in ) has a root in . In other words, a field is algebraically closed if the fundamental theorem of algebra h ...
, then the irreducible characters form an
orthonormal basis
In mathematics, particularly linear algebra, an orthonormal basis for an inner product space V with finite Dimension (linear algebra), dimension is a Basis (linear algebra), basis for V whose vectors are orthonormal, that is, they are all unit vec ...
.
When is a
compact group
In mathematics, a compact (topological) group is a topological group whose topology realizes it as a compact topological space (when an element of the group is operated on, the result is also within the group). Compact groups are a natural gen ...
and is the field of
complex number
In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the for ...
s, the
Haar measure
In mathematical analysis, the Haar measure assigns an "invariant volume" to subsets of locally compact topological groups, consequently defining an integral for functions on those groups.
This Measure (mathematics), measure was introduced by Alfr� ...
can be applied to replace the finite sum above with an integral:
When {{mvar, K is the real numbers or the complex numbers, the inner product is a
non-degenerate
In mathematics, specifically linear algebra, a degenerate bilinear form on a vector space ''V'' is a bilinear form such that the map from ''V'' to ''V''∗ (the dual space of ''V'') given by is not an isomorphism. An equivalent definition when ' ...
Hermitian {{Short description, none
Numerous things are named after the French mathematician Charles Hermite (1822–1901):
Hermite
* Cubic Hermite spline, a type of third-degree spline
* Gauss–Hermite quadrature, an extension of Gaussian quadrature me ...
bilinear form
In mathematics, a bilinear form is a bilinear map on a vector space (the elements of which are called '' vectors'') over a field ''K'' (the elements of which are called '' scalars''). In other words, a bilinear form is a function that is linea ...
.
See also
*
Brauer's theorem on induced characters
References
*
Jean-Pierre Serre
Jean-Pierre Serre (; born 15 September 1926) is a French mathematician who has made contributions to algebraic topology, algebraic geometry and algebraic number theory. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1954, the Wolf Prize in 2000 and the inau ...
, ''Linear representations of finite groups'',
Graduate Texts in Mathematics
Graduate Texts in Mathematics (GTM) () is a series of graduate-level textbooks in mathematics published by Springer-Verlag. The books in this series, like the other Springer-Verlag mathematics series, are yellow books of a standard size (with va ...
42, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1977.
Group theory