We settle the question of where exactly do the reduced Kronecker coefficients lie on the spectrum between the Littlewood-Richardson and Kronecker coefficients by showing that every Kronecker coefficient of the symmetric group is equal to a reduced Kronecker coefficient by an explicit construction. This implies the equivalence of an open problem by Stanley from 2000 and an open problem by Kirillov from 2004 about combinatorial interpretations of these two families of coefficients. Moreover, as a corollary, we deduce that deciding the positivity of reduced Kronecker coefficients is ${\textsf {NP}}$-hard, and computing them is ${{{\textsf {#P}}}}$-hard under parsimonious many-one reductions. Our proof also provides an explicit isomorphism of the corresponding highest weight vector spaces.

For any prime p and S a p-group isomorphic to a Sylow p-subgroup of a rank $2$ simple group of Lie type in characteristic p, we determine all saturated fusion systems supported on S up to isomorphism.

Let $X=GC$ be a group, where C is a cyclic group and G is either a generalized quaternion group or a dihedral group such that $C\cap G=1$. In this paper, X is characterized and, moreover, a complete classification for $X$ is given, provided that G is a generalized quaternion group and C is core-free.

Let G be a finite group and let $\chi $ be an irreducible character of G. The number $|G:\mathrm {ker}\chi |/\chi (1)$ is called the codegree of the character $\chi $. We provide several relations between the structure of G and the codegrees of the characters in a given subset of $\mathrm {Irr}(G)$, where $\mathrm {Irr}(G)$ is the set of all complex irreducible characters of G. For example, we show that if the codegrees of all strongly monolithic characters of G are odd, then G is solvable, analogous to the well-known fact that if all irreducible character degrees of a finite group are odd, then that group is solvable.

In this article, we study rational matrix representations of VZ p-groups (p is any prime). Using our findings on VZ p-groups, we explicitly obtain all inequivalent irreducible rational matrix representations of all p-groups of order $\leq p^4$. Furthermore, we establish combinatorial formulae to determine the Wedderburn decompositions of rational group algebras for VZ p-groups and all p-groups of order $\leq p^4$, ensuring simplicity in the process.

Let G be a finite solvable group. We prove that if $\chi\in{{\operatorname{Irr}}}(G)$ has odd degree and $\chi(1)$ is the minimal degree of the nonlinear irreducible characters of G, then $G/\operatorname{Ker}\chi$ is nilpotent-by-abelian.

We revisit Haiman’s conjecture on the relations between characters of Kazdhan–Lusztig basis elements of the Hecke algebra over $S_n$. The conjecture asserts that, for purposes of character evaluation, any Kazhdan–Lusztig basis element is reducible to a sum of the simplest possible ones (those associated to so-called codominant permutations). When the basis element is associated to a smooth permutation, we are able to give a geometric proof of this conjecture. On the other hand, if the permutation is singular, we provide a counterexample.

We study covering numbers of subsets of the symmetric group $S_n$ that exhibit closure under conjugation, known as normal sets. We show that for any $\epsilon>0$, there exists $n_0$ such that if $n>n_0$ and A is a normal subset of the symmetric group $S_n$ of density $\ge e^{-n^{2/5 - \epsilon }}$, then $A^2 \supseteq A_n$. This improves upon a seminal result of Larsen and Shalev (Inventiones Math., 2008), with our $2/5$ in the double exponent replacing their $1/4$.

Our proof strategy combines two types of techniques. The first is ‘traditional’ techniques rooted in character bounds and asymptotics for the Witten zeta function, drawing from the foundational works of Liebeck–Shalev, Larsen–Shalev, and more recently, Larsen–Tiep. The second is a sharp hypercontractivity theorem in the symmetric group, which was recently obtained by Keevash and Lifshitz. This synthesis of algebraic and analytic methodologies not only allows us to attain our improved bounds but also provides new insights into the behavior of general independent sets in normal Cayley graphs over symmetric groups.

Let G be a finite group. We investigate the structure of finite groups whose irreducible character codegrees are consecutive integers.

Let $\alpha $ be a complex valued $2$-cocycle of finite order of a finite group $G.$ The nth Frobenius–Schur indicator of an irreducible $\alpha $-character of G is defined and its properties are investigated. The indicator is interpreted in general for $n =2$ and it is shown that it can be used to determine whether an irreducible $\alpha $-character is real-valued under the assumption that the order of $\alpha $ and its cohomology class are both $2$. A formula, involving the real $\alpha $-regular conjugacy classes of $G,$ is found to count the number of real-valued irreducible $\alpha $-characters of G under the additional assumption that these characters are class functions.

We settle the noninner automorphism conjecture for finite p-groups ($p> 2$) with certain conditions. Also, we give an elementary and short proof of the main result of Ghoraishi [‘On noninner automorphisms of finite nonabelian p-groups’, Bull. Aust. Math. Soc. 89(2) (2014) 202–209].

The structure of groups in which every element has prime power order (CP-groups) is extensively studied. We first investigate the properties of group $G$ such that each element of $G\setminus N$ has prime power order. It is proved that $N$ is solvable or every non-solvable chief factor $H/K$ of $G$ satisfying $H\leq N$ is isomorphic to $PSL_2(3^f)$ with $f$ a 2-power. This partially answers the question proposed by Lewis in 2023, asking whether $G\cong M_{10}$? Furthermore, we prove that if each element $x\in G\backslash N$ has prime power order and ${\bf C}_G(x)$ is maximal in $G$, then $N$ is solvable. Relying on this, we give the structure of group $G$ with normal subgroup $N$ such that ${\bf C}_G(x)$ is maximal in $G$ for any element $x\in G\setminus N$. Finally, we investigate the structure of a normal subgroup $N$ when the centralizer ${\bf C}_G(x)$ is maximal in $G$ for any element $x\in N\setminus {\bf Z}(N)$, which is a generalization of results of Zhao, Chen, and Guo in 2020, investigating a special case that $N=G$ for our main result. We also provide a new proof for Zhao, Chen, and Guo's results above.

Let $p \geq 5$ be a prime number, and let $G = {\mathrm {SL}}_2(\mathbb {Q}_p)$. Let $\Xi = {\mathrm {Spec}}(Z)$ denote the spectrum of the centre Z of the pro-p Iwahori–Hecke algebra of G with coefficients in a field k of characteristic p. Let $\mathcal {R} \subset \Xi \times \Xi $ denote the support of the pro-p Iwahori ${\mathrm {Ext}}$-algebra of G, viewed as a $(Z,Z)$-bimodule. We show that the locally ringed space $\Xi /\mathcal {R}$ is a projective algebraic curve over ${\mathrm {Spec}}(k)$ with two connected components and that each connected component is a chain of projective lines. For each Zariski open subset U of $\Xi /\mathcal {R}$, we construct a stable localising subcategory $\mathcal {L}_U$ of the category of smooth k-linear representations of G.

Let $\Gamma $ be a finite group, let $\theta $ be an involution of $\Gamma $ and let $\rho $ be an irreducible complex representation of $\Gamma $. We bound ${\operatorname {dim}} \rho ^{\Gamma ^{\theta }}$ in terms of the smallest dimension of a faithful $\mathbb {F}_p$-representation of $\Gamma /\operatorname {\mathrm {Rad}}_p(\Gamma )$, where p is any odd prime and $\operatorname {\mathrm {Rad}}_p(\Gamma )$ is the maximal normal p-subgroup of $\Gamma $.

This implies, in particular, that if $\mathbf {G}$ is a group scheme over $\mathbb {Z}$ and $\theta $ is an involution of $\mathbf {G}$, then the multiplicity of any irreducible representation in $C^\infty \left( \mathbf {G}(\mathbb {Z}_p)/ \mathbf {G} ^{\theta }(\mathbb {Z}_p) \right)$ is bounded, uniformly in p.

We find an upper bound for the number of groups of order n up to isomorphism in the variety ${\mathfrak {S}}={\mathfrak {A}_p}{\mathfrak {A}_q}{\mathfrak {A}_r}$, where p, q and r are distinct primes. We also find a bound on the orders and on the number of conjugacy classes of subgroups that are maximal amongst the subgroups of the general linear group that are also in the variety $\mathfrak {A}_q\mathfrak {A}_r$.

Let $E/F$ be a quadratic unramified extension of non-archimedean local fields and $\mathbb H$ a simply connected semisimple algebraic group defined and split over F. We establish general results (multiplicities, test vectors) on ${\mathbb H} (F)$-distinguished Iwahori-spherical representations of ${\mathbb H} (E)$. For discrete series Iwahori-spherical representations of ${\mathbb H} (E)$, we prove a numerical criterion of ${\mathbb H} (F)$-distinction. As an application, we classify the ${\mathbb H} (F)$-distinguished discrete series representations of ${\mathbb H} (E)$ corresponding to degree $1$ characters of the Iwahori-Hecke algebra.

We give new descriptions of the Bruhat order and Demazure products of affine Weyl groups in terms of the weight function of the quantum Bruhat graph. These results can be understood to describe certain closure relations concerning the Iwahori–Bruhat decomposition of an algebraic group. As an application towards affine Deligne–Lusztig varieties, we present a new formula for generic Newton points.

Let G be a finite group. A subgroup A of G is said to be S-permutable in G if A permutes with every Sylow subgroup P of G, that is, $AP=PA$. Let $A_{sG}$ be the subgroup of A generated by all S-permutable subgroups of G contained in A and $A^{sG}$ be the intersection of all S-permutable subgroups of G containing A. We prove that if G is a soluble group, then S-permutability is a transitive relation in G if and only if the nilpotent residual $G^{\mathfrak {N}}$ of G avoids the pair $(A^{s G}, A_{sG})$, that is, $G^{\mathfrak {N}}\cap A^{sG}= G^{\mathfrak {N}}\cap A_{sG}$ for every subnormal subgroup A of G.