geometric representation theory
representation, 2-representation, ∞-representation
Grothendieck group, lambda-ring, symmetric function, formal group
principal bundle, torsor, vector bundle, Atiyah Lie algebroid
Eilenberg-Moore category, algebra over an operad, actegory, crossed module
Be?linson-Bernstein localization?
group cohomology, nonabelian group cohomology, Lie group cohomology
cohomology with constant coefficients / with a local system of coefficients
differential cohomology
Given a linear representation of a finite group on a finite-dimensional vector space , this induces an associated vector bundle over the classifying space . The characteristic classes of this vector bundle, notably it Chern classes or Pontryagin, are hence entirely determined by the linear representation, and may be associated with it.
Under the identification of the representation ring with the equivariant K-theory of the point (see there) and the Atiyah-Segal completion map
one may ask for Chern classes of the K-theory class expressed in terms of the actual character of the representation .
(…)
There is a closed formula at least for the first Chern class (Atiyah 61, appendix):
For 1-dimensional representations their first Chern class is their image under the canonical isomorphism from 1-dimensional characters in to the group cohomology and further to the ordinary cohomology of the classifying space :
More generally, for -dimensional linear representations their first Chern class is the previously defined first Chern-class of the line bundle corresponding to the -th exterior power of . The latter is a 1-dimensional representation, corresponding to the determinant line bundle :
(Atiyah 61, appendix, item (7))
More explicitly, via the formula for the determinant as a polynomial in traces of powers (see there) this means that the first Chern class of the -dimensional representation is expressed in terms of its character as
For example, for a representation of dimension this reduces to
(see also e.g. tom Dieck 09, p. 45)
Let be a finite cyclic group of odd order and let be its regular representation. Then the first Chern class vanishes:
The underlying set of constitutes the canonical linear basis of . Moreover, this carries a canonical linear order . With respect to this ordering, the action of each group element is by a cyclic permutation. Since for odd number of elements the signature of a cyclic permutation is , it follows that for every group element
This shows that the character of equals that of the trivial representation
Let be a finite group, let the ground field to be the complex numbers.
Then by the Brauer induction theorem every virtual representation
has a presentation as a virtual combination of induced representations of 1-dimensional representations:
Of course this expansion is not unique.
According to Symonds 91, p. 4 & Prop. 2.4, there is a natural choice for this expansion, and for this there holds a splitting principle for the corresponding Chern classes summarized in the total Chern class (formal sum of all Chern classes)
as follows:
where
the transfer maps
are from Evens 63, bottom of p. 7,
the -s are the Euler characteristics of certain CW-complexes, described in Symonds 91, p. 3.
Here over the brace we used that the are 1-dimensional, so that at most their first Chern class may be non-vanishing.
Notice that the transfer maps (3) are multiplicative under cup product (Evens 63, prop. 4), whence Symonds 91 refers to them as the “mutliplicative transfer”.
Michael Atiyah, Appendix of Characters and cohomology of finite groups, Publications Mathématiques de l’IHÉS, Volume 9 (1961) , p. 23-64 (numdam)
Leonard Evens, A Generalization of the Transfer Map in the Cohomology of Groups, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society Vol. 108, No. 1 (Jul., 1963), pp. 54-65 (doi:10.1090/S0002-9947-1963-0153725-1, jstor:1993825)
Leonard Evens, On the Chern Classes of Representations of Finite Groups, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. 115 (Mar., 1965), pp. 180-193 (doi:10.2307/1994264)
F. Kamber, Philippe Tondeur, Flat Bundles and Characteristic Classes of Group-Representations, American Journal of Mathematics, Vol. 89, No. 4 (Oct., 1967), pp. 857-886 (doi:10.2307/2373408)
Ove Kroll, An Algebraic Characterisation of Chern Classes of Finite Group Representations, Bulletin of the LMS, Volume19, Issue3 May 1987 Pages 245-248 (doi:10.1112/blms/19.3.245)
J. Gunarwardena, B. Kahn, C. Thomas, Stiefel-Whitney classes of real representations of finite groups, Journal of Algebra Volume 126, Issue 2, 1 November 1989, Pages 327-347 (doi:10.1016/0021-8693(89)90309-8)
Arnaud Beauville, Chern classes for representations of reductive groups (arXiv:math/0104031)
Last revised on May 15, 2019 at 14:09:49. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.