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Category: representations

The $\mathbb{F}_1$ World Seminar

For some time I knew it was in the making, now they are ready to launch it:

The $\mathbb{F}_1$ World Seminar, an online seminar dedicated to the “field with one element”, and its many connections to areas in mathematics such as arithmetic, geometry, representation theory and combinatorics. The organisers are Jaiung Jun, Oliver Lorscheid, Yuri Manin, Matt Szczesny, Koen Thas and Matt Young.

From the announcement:

“While the origins of the “$\mathbb{F}_1$-story” go back to attempts to transfer Weil’s proof of the Riemann Hypothesis from the function field case to that of number fields on one hand, and Tits’s Dream of realizing Weyl groups as the $\mathbb{F}_1$ points of algebraic groups on the other, the “$\mathbb{F}_1$” moniker has come to encompass a wide variety of phenomena and analogies spanning algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, arithmetic, combinatorics, representation theory, non-commutative geometry etc. It is therefore impossible to compile an exhaustive list of topics that might be discussed. The following is but a small sample of topics that may be covered:

Algebraic geometry in non-additive contexts – monoid schemes, lambda-schemes, blue schemes, semiring and hyperfield schemes, etc.
Arithmetic – connections with motives, non-archimedean and analytic geometry
Tropical geometry and geometric matroid theory
Algebraic topology – K-theory of monoid and other “non-additive” schemes/categories, higher Segal spaces
Representation theory – Hall algebras, degenerations of quantum groups, quivers
Combinatorics – finite field and incidence geometry, and various generalizations”

The seminar takes place on alternating Wednesdays from 15:00 PM – 16:00 PM European Standard Time (=GMT+1). There will be room for mathematical discussion after each lecture.

The first meeting takes place Wednesday, January 19th 2022. If you want to receive abstracts of the talks and their Zoom-links, you should sign up for the mailing list.

Perhaps I’ll start posting about $\mathbb{F}_1$ again, either here, or on the dormant $\mathbb{F}_1$ mathematics blog. (see this post for its history).

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de Bruijn’s pentagrids (2)

Last time we’ve seen that de Bruijn’s pentagrids determined the vertices of Penrose’s P3-aperiodic tilings.

These vertices can also be obtained by projecting a window of the standard hypercubic lattice $\mathbb{Z}^5$ by the cut-and-project-method.

We’ll bring in representation theory by forcing this projection to be compatible with a $D_5$-subgroup of the symmetries of $\mathbb{Z}^5$, which explains why Penrose tilings have a local $D_5$-symmetry.



The symmetry group of the standard $n$-dimensional hypercubic lattice
\[
\mathbb{Z} \vec{e}_1 + \dots + \mathbb{Z} \vec{e}_n \subset \mathbb{R}^n \]
is the hyperoctahedral group of all signed $n \times n$ permutation matrices
\[
B_n = C_2^n \rtimes S_n \]
in which all $n$-permutations $S_n$ act on the group $C_2^n = \{ 1,-1 \}^n$ of all signs. The signed permutation $n \times n$ matrix corresponding to an element $(\vec{a},\pi) \in B_n$ is given by
\[
T_{ij} = T(\vec{a},\pi)_{ij} = a_j \delta_{i,\pi(j)} \]
The represenation theory of $B_n$ was worked out in 1930 by the British mathematician and clergyman Alfred Young




We want to do explicit calculations in $B_n$ using a computational system such as GAP, so it is best to describe $B_n$ as a permutation subgroup of $S_{2n}$ via the morphism
\[
\tau((\vec{a},\pi))(k) = \begin{cases} \pi(k)+n \delta_{-1,a_k}~\text{if $1 \leq k \leq n$} \\
\pi(k-n)+n(1-\delta_{-1,a_{k-n}})~\text{if $n+1 \leq k \leq 2n$} \end{cases} \]
the image is generated by the permutations
\[
\begin{cases}
\alpha = (1,2)(n+1,n+2), \\
\beta=(1,2,\dots,n)(n+1,n+2,\dots,2n), \\
\gamma=(n,2n)
\end{cases}
\]
and to a permutation $\sigma \in \tau(B_n) \subset S_{2n}$ we assign the signed permutation $n \times n$ matrix $T_{\sigma}=T(\tau^{-1}(\pi))$.

We use GAP to set up $B_5$ from these generators and determine all its conjugacy classes of subgroups. It turns out that $B_5$ has no less than $953$ different conjugacy classes of subgroups.

gap> B5:=Group((1,2)(6,7),(1,2,3,4,5)(6,7,8,9,10),(5,10));
Group([ (1,2)(6,7), (1,2,3,4,5)(6,7,8,9,10), (5,10) ])
gap> Size(B5);
3840
gap> C:=ConjugacyClassesSubgroups(B5);;
gap> Length(C);
953

But we are only interested in the subgroups isomorphic to $D_5$. So, first we make a sublist of all conjugacy classes of subgroups of order $10$, and then we go through this list one-by-one and look for an explicit isomorphism between $D_5 = \langle x,y~|~x^5=e=y^2,~xyx=y \rangle$ and a representative of the class (or get a ‘fail’ is this subgroup is not isomorphic to $D_5$).

gap> C10:=Filtered(C,x->Size(Representative(x))=10);;
gap> Length(C10);
3
gap> s10:=List(C10,Representative);
[ Group([ (2,5)(3,4)(7,10)(8,9), (1,5,4,3,2)(6,10,9,8,7) ]),
Group([ (1,6)(2,5)(3,4)(7,10)(8,9), (1,10,9,3,2)(4,8,7,6,5) ]),
Group([ (1,6)(2,7)(3,8)(4,9)(5,10), (1,2,8,4,10)(3,9,5,6,7) ]) ]
gap> D:=DihedralGroup(10); gap> IsomorphismGroups(D,s10[1]);
[ f1, f2 ] -> [ (2,5)(3,4)(7,10)(8,9), (1,5,4,3,2)(6,10,9,8,7) ]
gap> IsomorphismGroups(D,s10[2]);
[ f1, f2 ] -> [ (1,6)(2,5)(3,4)(7,10)(8,9), (1,10,9,3,2)(4,8,7,6,5) ]
gap> IsomorphismGroups(D,s10[3]);
fail
gap> IsCyclic(s10[3]);
true

Of the three (conjugacy classes of) subgroups of order $10$, two are isomorphic to $D_5$, and the third one to $C_{10}$. Next, we have to transform the generating permutations into signed $5 \times 5$ permutation matrices using the bijection $\tau^{-1}$.
\[
\begin{array}{c|c}
\sigma & (\vec{a},\pi) \\
\hline
(2,5)(3,4)(7,10)(8,9) & ((1,1,1,1,1),(2,5)(3,4)) \\
(1,5,4,3,2)(6,10,9,8,7) & ((1,1,1,1,1)(1,5,4,3,2)) \\
(1,6)(2,5)(3,4)(7,10)(8,9) & ((-1,1,1,1,1),(2,5)(3,4)) \\
(1,10,9,3,2)(4,8,7,6,5) & ((-1,1,1,-1,1),(1,5,4,3,2))
\end{array}
\]
giving the signed permutation matrices
\[
\begin{array}{c|cc}
& x & y \\
\hline
A & \begin{bmatrix}
0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\
1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix} &
\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix} \\
\hline
B & \begin{bmatrix}
0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & -1 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\
-1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix} &
\begin{bmatrix}
-1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\
0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\
0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix}
\end{array}
\]
$D_5$ has $4$ conjugacy classes with representatives $e,y,x$ and $x^2$. the
character table of $D_5$ is
\[
\begin{array}{c|cccc}
& (1) & (2) & (2) & (5) \\
& 1_a & 5_1 & 5_2 & 2_a \\
D_5 & e & x & x^2 & y \\
\hline
T & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 \\
V & 1 & 1 & 1 & -1 \\
W_1 & 2 & \tfrac{-1+ \sqrt{5}}{2} & \tfrac{-1 -\sqrt{5}}{2} & 0 \\
W_2 & 2 & \tfrac{-1 -\sqrt{5}}{2} & \tfrac{-1+\sqrt{5}}{2} & 0
\end{array}
\]
Using the signed permutation matrices it is easy to determine the characters of the $5$-dimensional representations $A$ and $B$
\[
\begin{array}{c|cccc}
D_5 & e & x & x^2 & y \\
\hline
A & 5 & 0 & 0 & 1 \\
B & 5 & 0 & 0 & -1
\end{array}
\]
decomosing into $D_5$-irreducibles as
\[
A \simeq T \oplus W_1 \oplus W_2 \quad \text{and} \quad B \simeq V \oplus W_1 \oplus W_2 \]
Representation $A$ realises $D_5$ as a rotation symmetry group of the hypercube lattice $\mathbb{Z}^5$ in $\mathbb{R}^5$, and next we have to find a $D_5$-projection $\mathbb{R}^5=A \rightarrow W_1 = \mathbb{R}^2$.

As a complex representation $A \downarrow_{C_5}$ decomposes as a direct sum of $1$-dimensional representations
\[
A \downarrow_{C_5} = V_1 \oplus V_{\zeta} \oplus V_{\zeta^2} \oplus V_{\zeta^3} \oplus V_{\zeta^4} \]
where $\zeta = e^{2 \pi i /5}$ and where the action of $x$ on $V_{\zeta^i}=\mathbb{C} v_i$ is given by $x.v_i = \zeta^i v_i$. The $x$-eigenvectors in $\mathbb{C}^5$ are
\[
\begin{cases}
v_0 = (1,1,1,1,1) \\
v_1 = (1,\zeta,\zeta^2,\zeta^3,\zeta^4) \\
v_2 =(1,\zeta^2,\zeta^4,\zeta,\zeta^3) \\
v_3 = (1,\zeta^3,\zeta,\zeta^4,\zeta^2) \\
v_4 = (1,\zeta^4,\zeta^3,\zeta^2,\zeta)
\end{cases}
\]
The action of $y$ on these vectors is given by $y.v_i = v_{5-i}$ because
\[
x.(y.v_i) = (xy).v_i=(yx^{-1}).v_i=y.(x^{-1}.v_i) = y.(\zeta^{-i} v_i) = \zeta^{-1} (y.v_i) \]
and therefore $y.v_i$ is an $x$-eigenvector with eigenvalue $\zeta^{5-i}$. As a complex $D_5$-representation, the factors of $A$ are therefore
\[
T = \mathbb{C} v_0, \quad W_1 = \mathbb{C} v_1 + \mathbb{C} v_4, \quad \text{and} \quad W_2 = \mathbb{C} v_2 + \mathbb{C} v_3 \]
But we want to consider $A$ as a real representation. As $\zeta^j = cos(\tfrac{2 \pi j}{5})+i~sin(\tfrac{2 \pi j}{5}) = c_j + i s_j$ hebben we can take the vectors in $\mathbb{R}^5$
\[
\begin{cases}
\frac{1}{2}(v_1+v_4) = (1,c_1,c_2,c_3,c_4)= u_1 \\
-\frac{1}{2}i(v_1-v_4) = (0,s_1,s_2,s_3,s_4) = u_2 \\
\frac{1}{2}(v_2+v_3) = (1,c_2,c_4,c1,c3)= w_1 \\
-\frac{1}{2}i(v_2-v_3) = (0,s_2,s_4,s_1,s_3)= w_2
\end{cases}
\]
and $A$ decomposes as a real $D_5$-representation with
\[
T = \mathbb{R} v_0, \quad W_1 = \mathbb{R} u_1 + \mathbb{R} u_2, \quad \text{and} \quad W_2 = \mathbb{R} w_1 + \mathbb{R} w_2 \]
and if we identify $\mathbb{C}$ with $\mathbb{R}^2$ via $z \leftrightarrow (Re(z),Im(z))$ we can describe the $D_5$-projection morphism $\pi_{W_1}~:~\mathbb{R}^5=A \rightarrow W_1=\mathbb{R}^2$ via
\[ (y_0,y_1,y_2,y_3,y_4) \mapsto y_0+y_1 \zeta + y_2 \zeta^2 + y_3 \zeta^3 + y_4 \zeta^4 = \sum_{i=0}^4 y_i (c_i,s_i) \]
Note also that $W_1$ is the orthogonal complement of $T \oplus W_2$, so is equal to the linear subspace in $\mathbb{R}^5$ determined by the three linear equations
\[
\begin{cases}
\sum_{i=0}^4 x_i = 0 \\
\sum_{i=0}^4 c_{2i} x_i = 0 \\
\sum_{i=0}^4 s_{2i} x_i = 0
\end{cases}
\]



Okay, now take the Rhombic tiling corresponding to the regular pentagrid defined by $\gamma_0, \dots, \gamma_4$ satisfying $\sum_{i=0}^4 \gamma_i = 0$. Let $\vec{k}=(k_0,\dots,k_4) \in \mathbb{Z}^5$ and define the open hypercube $H_{\vec{k}}$ corresponding to $\vec{k}$ as the set of points
\[
(x_0,\dots,x_4) \in \mathbb{R}^5~:~\forall 0 \leq i \leq 4~:~k_i – 1 < x_i < k_i \] From the vector $\vec{\gamma} = (\gamma_0,\dots,\gamma_4)$ determining the Rhombic tiling we define the $2$-dimensional plane $P_{\vec{\gamma}}$ in $\mathbb{R}^5$ given by the equations \[ \begin{cases} \sum_{i=0}^4 x_i = 0 \\ \sum_{i=0}^4 c_{2i} (x_i - \gamma_i) = 0 \\ \sum_{i=0}^4 s_{2i} (x_i - \gamma_i) = 0 \end{cases} \] The point being that $P_{\vec{\gamma}}$ is the linear plane $W_1$ in $\mathbb{R}^5$ translated over the vector $\vec{\gamma}$, so it is parallel to $W_1$. Here's the punchline:

de Bruijn’s theorem: The vertices of the Rhombic tiling produced by the regular pentagrid with parameters $\vec{\gamma}=(\gamma_0,\dots,\gamma_4)$ are the points
\[
\sum_{i=0}^4 k_i (c_i,s_i) \]
with $\vec{k}=(k_0,\dots,k_4) \in \mathbb{Z}^5$ such that $H_{\vec{k}} \cap P_{\vec{\gamma}} \not= \emptyset$.

To see this, let $\vec{x} = (x_0,\dots,x_4) \in P_{\vec{\gamma}}$, then $\vec{x}-\vec{\gamma} \in W_1$, but then there is a vector $\vec{y} \in \mathbb{R}^2$ such that
\[
x_j – \gamma_j = \vec{y}.\vec{v}_j \quad \forall~0 \leq j \leq 4 \]
But then, with $k_j=\lceil \vec{y}.\vec{v}_j + \gamma_j \rceil$ we have that $\vec{x} \in H_{\vec{k}}$ and we note that $V(\vec{y}) = \sum_{i=0}^4 k_i \vec{v}_i$ is a vetex of the Rhombic tiling associated to the regular pentagrid parameters $\vec{\gamma}=(\gamma_0,\dots,\gamma_4)$.

Here we used regularity of the pentagrid in order to have that $k_j=\vec{y}.\vec{v}_j + \gamma_j$ can happen for at most two $j$’s, so we can manage to vary $\vec{y}$ a little in order to have $\vec{x}$ in the open hypercube.

Here’s what we did so far: we have identified $D_5$ as a group of rotations in $\mathbb{R}^5$, preserving the hypercube-lattice $\mathbb{Z}^5$ in $\mathbb{R}^5$. If the $2$-plane $P_{\vec{\gamma}}$ is left stable under these rotations, then because rotations preserve distances, also the subset of lattice-points
\[
S_{\vec{\gamma}} = \{ (k_0,\dots,k_4)~|~H_{\vec{k}} \cap P_{\vec{\gamma}} \not= \emptyset \} \subset \mathbb{Z}^5 \]
is left stable under the $D_5$-action. But, because the map
\[
(k_0,\dots,k_4) \mapsto \sum_{i=0}^4 k_i (c_i,s_i) \]
is the $D_5$-projection map $\pi : A \rightarrow W_1$, the vertices of the associated Rhombic tiling must be stable under the $D_5$-action on $W_1$, meaning that the Rhombic tiling should have a global $D_5$-symmetry.

Sadly, the only plane $P_{\vec{\gamma}}$ left stable under all rotations of $D_5$ is when $\vec{\gamma} = \vec{0}$, which is an exceptionally singular pentagrid. If we project this situation we do indeed get an image with global $D_5$-symmetry




but it is not a Rhombic tiling. What’s going on?

Because this post is already dragging on for far too long (TL;DR), we’ll save the investigation of projections of singular pentagrids, how they differ from the regular situation, and how they determine multiple Rhombic tilings, for another time.

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Kasha-eating dragons

This semester I’m teaching a first course in representation theory. On campus, IRL! It’s a bit strange, using a big lecture room for a handful of students, everyone wearing masks, keeping distances, etc.



So far, this is their only course on campus, so it has primarily a social function. The breaks in between are infinitely more important than the lectures themselves. I’d guess breaks take up more than one third of the four hours scheduled.

At first, I hoped to make groups and their representations relevant by connecting to the crisis at hand, whence the the symmetries of Covid-19 post, and the Geometry of Viruses series of posts.

Not a great idea. I guess most of us are by now over-saturated with Corona-related news, and if students are allowed to come to campus just one afternoon per week, the last thing they want to hear about is, right, Covid.

So I need to change tactics. By now we’ve reached the computation of character tables, and googling around I found this MathOverflow-topic: Fun applications of representations of finite groups.

The highest rated answer, by Vladimir Dotsenko, suggests a problem attributed to Kirillov:

An example from Kirillov’s book on representation theory: write numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6 on the faces of a cube, and keep replacing (simultaneously) each number by the average of its neighbours. Describe (approximately) the numbers on the faces after many iterations.

A bit further down the list, the Lecture notes on representation theory by Vera Serganova are mentioned. They start off with a variation of Kirillov’s question (and an extension of it to the dodecahedron):

Hungry knights. There are n hungry knights at a round table. Each of them has a plate with certain amount of food. Instead of eating every minute each knight takes one half of his neighbors servings. They start at 10 in the evening. What can you tell about food distribution in the morning?

Breakfast at Mars. It is well known that marsians have four arms, a standard family has 6 persons and a breakfast table has a form of a cube with each person occupying a face on a cube. Do the analog of round table problem for the family of marsians.

Supper at Venus. They have five arms there, 12 persons in a family and sit on the faces of a dodecahedron (a regular polyhedron whose faces are pentagons).

Perhaps the nicest exposition of the problem (and its solution!) is in the paper Dragons eating kasha by Tanya Khovanova.

Suppose a four-armed dragon is sitting on every face of a cube. Each dragon has a bowl of kasha in front of him. Dragons are very greedy, so instead of eating their own kasha, they try to steal kasha from their neighbors. Every minute every dragon extends four arms to the four neighboring faces on the cube and tries to get the kasha from the bowls there. As four arms are fighting for every bowl of
kasha, each arm manages to steal one-fourth of what is in the bowl. Thus each
dragon steals one-fourth of the kasha of each of his neighbors, while at the same
time all of his own kasha is stolen. Given the initial amounts of kasha in every
bowl, what is the asymptotic behavior of the amounts of kasha?

I can give them quick hints to reach the solution:

  • the amounts of kasha on each face gives a vector in $\mathbb{R}^6$, which is an $S_4$-representation,
  • calculate the character of this kasha-representation,
  • use the character table of $S_4$ to decompose the representation into irreducibles,
  • identify each of the irreducible factors as instances in the kasha-representation,
  • check that the food-grabbing operation is an $S_4$-morphism,
  • remember Schur’s lemma, and compute the scaling factors on each irreducible component,
  • conclude!

But, I can never explain it better than Khovanova’s treatment of the kasha-eating dragons problem.

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