Superinduction for pattern groups

Abstract

It is well known that the representation theory of the finite group of unipotent upper-triangular matrices U[subscript n] over a finite field is a wild problem. By instead considering approximately irreducible representations (supercharacters), one obtains a rich combinatorial theory analogous to that of the symmetric group, where we replace partition combinatorics with set-partitions. This paper studies Diaconis–Isaacs' concept of superinduction in pattern groups. While superinduction shares many desirable properties with usual induction, it no longer takes characters to characters. We begin by finding sufficient conditions guaranteeing that superinduction is in fact induction. It turns out for two natural embeddings of U[subscript m] in U[subscript n], superinduction is induction. We conclude with an explicit combinatorial algorithm for computing this induction analogous to the Pieri-formulas for the symmetric group.