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Lecture

Representation Theory: Finite Subgroups of SU(2)

In course

MATH-335: Coxeter groups

Study groups generated by reflections ...

Description

This lecture covers the elements of representation theory and character theory of finite groups, focusing on the establishment of a correspondence between finite subgroups of SU(2) and certain simply laced graphs of Coxeter type. The instructor explains the standard representation of finite subgroups, irreducible representations, and character theory for finite groups. The lecture also delves into the scalar product in the space of class functions, the basis in the space of class functions, and the McKay graph of a finite subgroup of SU(2).

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Instructor

Anna Lachowska

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Mathematics

Algebra: Representation theory

Related concepts (32)

Irreducible representation

In mathematics, specifically in the representation theory of groups and algebras, an irreducible representation or irrep of an algebraic structure is a nonzero representation that has no proper nontrivial subrepresentation , with closed under the action of . Every finite-dimensional unitary representation on a Hilbert space is the direct sum of irreducible representations. Irreducible representations are always indecomposable (i.e. cannot be decomposed further into a direct sum of representations), but the converse may not hold, e.

Representation theory

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 essence, a representation makes an abstract algebraic object more concrete by describing its elements by matrices and their algebraic operations (for example, matrix addition, matrix multiplication).

Finite group

In abstract algebra, a finite group is a group whose underlying set is finite. Finite groups often arise when considering symmetry of mathematical or physical objects, when those objects admit just a finite number of structure-preserving transformations. Important examples of finite groups include cyclic groups and permutation groups. The study of finite groups has been an integral part of group theory since it arose in the 19th century.

Modular representation theory

Modular representation theory is a branch of mathematics, and is the part of representation theory that studies linear representations of finite groups over a field K of positive characteristic p, necessarily a prime number. As well as having applications to group theory, modular representations arise naturally in other branches of mathematics, such as algebraic geometry, coding theory, combinatorics and number theory.

Representation theory of finite groups

The representation theory of groups is a part of mathematics which examines how groups act on given structures. Here the focus is in particular on operations of groups on vector spaces. Nevertheless, groups acting on other groups or on sets are also considered. For more details, please refer to the section on permutation representations. Other than a few marked exceptions, only finite groups will be considered in this article. We will also restrict ourselves to vector spaces over fields of characteristic zero.

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