In
mathematics, the term permutation representation of a (typically finite)
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 ide ...
can refer to either of two closely related notions: a
representation of
as a group of
permutation
In mathematics, a permutation of a set is, loosely speaking, an arrangement of its members into a sequence or linear order, or if the set is already ordered, a rearrangement of its elements. The word "permutation" also refers to the act or pr ...
s, or as a group of
permutation matrices. The term also refers to the combination of the two.
Abstract permutation representation
A permutation representation of 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 ide ...
on a
set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
is a
homomorphism from
to the
symmetric group of
:
:
The image
is a
permutation group and the elements of
are represented as permutations of
. A permutation representation is equivalent to an
action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
of
on the set
:
:
See the article on
group action for further details.
Linear permutation representation
If
is a
permutation group of degree
, then the permutation representation of
is the
linear representation of
:
which maps
to the corresponding
permutation matrix (here
is an arbitrary
field
Field may refer to:
Expanses of open ground
* Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes
* Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport
* Battlefield
* Lawn, an area of mowed grass
* Meadow, a grass ...
).
That is,
acts on
by permuting the standard basis vectors.
This notion of a permutation representation can, of course, be composed with the previous one to represent an arbitrary abstract group
as a group of permutation matrices. One first represents
as a permutation group and then maps each permutation to the corresponding matrix. Representing
as a permutation group acting on itself by
translation, one obtains the
regular representation.
Character of the permutation representation
Given a group
and a finite set
with
acting on the set
then the
character of the permutation representation is exactly the number of fixed points of
under the action of
on
. That is
the number of points of
fixed by
.
This follows since, if we represent the map
with a matrix with basis defined by the elements of
we get a permutation matrix of
. Now the character of this representation is defined as the trace of this permutation matrix. An element on the diagonal of a permutation matrix is 1 if the point in
is fixed, and 0 otherwise. So we can conclude that the trace of the permutation matrix is exactly equal to the number of fixed points of
.
For example, if
and
the character of the permutation representation can be computed with the formula
the number of points of
fixed by
.
So
:
as only 3 is fixed
:
as no elements of
are fixed, and
:
as every element of
is fixed.
References
Representation theory of finite groups
Permutation groups
External links
*https://mathoverflow.net/questions/286393/how-do-i-know-if-an-irreducible-representation-is-a-permutation-representation
{{Abstract-algebra-stub