1.

Character tables
April 23, Character tables.

1.1. We now have tools available to determine the irreducible represen-

tations. The data will collected in character tables. We will be using
the third, so far unproven, statement of the beautiful theorem proven
earlier. I hope this will not be to confusing, but I wanted to get to
some concrete examples before diving further into theoretical proofs.

1.2. The dihedral group D3 . We start with determine the irre-

ducible representations of the dihedral gropu D3 , which is a group
we have studied earlier. The group consists of six elements, and these
are grouped into three conjugacy classes C1 = {1}, C2 = {y, xy, x2 y}
and C3 = {x, x2 } where x represents rotation with 2π/3, and y is the
reflection. The only solutions to the equation |G| = d21 + · · · + d2r is
6 = 1 + 1 + 4. Therefore the dihedral group D3 has three irreducible
representations, two of dimension one, and one of dimension two.
A group G has always the trival one dimensional representation, ρ1 ,
sending every g ∈ G to 1. The other one-dimensional we have seen is
the sign representation of the symmetric group S3 = D3 . Let us call this
representation ρ2 , where ρ2 (g) = sign(g) = ±1. Any one-dimensional
representation is irreducible.
The two-dimensional representation discussed in () we call ρ3 . The
character χ3 of that representation has the values χ3 (g) = (2, 0, −1)
when evaluated on the three different conjugacy classes. This gives
that
1
hχ3 , χ3 i = (1 · 2 · 2 + 3 · 0 · 0 + 2(−1) · (−1)) = 1,
6
and consequently the representation is irreducible. The character table
of D3 is the following

(1) (3) (2)

1 y x
χ1 1 1 1
χ2 1 -1 1
χ3 2 0 -1
Table 1. Character table for D3

In the table we have on first row representatives for the different

conjugacy classes together with, in parantheses, the cardinality of that
particular conjugacy class. The characters are written on first column,
and in the table we see their values on each conjugacy class.
1
2

1.3. The cyclic group C3 . The cyclig group of three elements C3 =

{1, x, x2 } is abelian, hence each conjugacy class consists of one element
only. Therefore we have that C3 has three one dimensional irreducible
representations. Apart from the trivial √ representation we get one de-
termined by sending x to ζ = 12 (−1 + 3i), a cube root of 1. And the
last one we get by sending x to ζ 2 . This gives the character table

(1) (1) (1)

1 x x2
χ1 1 1 1
χ2 1 ζ ζ2
χ3 1 ζ 2 ζ
Table 2. Character table for C3

As 1 + ζ + ζ 2 = 0, we get that hχ1 , χ2 i = hχ1 , χ3 i = 0. Since ζ = ζ 2

we also have that
1 1
hχ2 , χ3 i = (1 · 1 + ζ · ζ 2 + ζ 2 · ζ) = (1 + ζ + ζ 2 ) = 0.
3 3
Thus the listed three characters are the irreducible ones, and the table
above is indeed the character table of C3

1.4. Character table for A4 . The tetraheder group A4 has 12 ele-

ments. Using the notation from (), we let the group element x cor-
respond to rotation with 2π/3 around one vertex, and then there is
y1 , y2 , y3 corresponding to rotation of π around the edges where the
coordinate axes i = 1, 2, 3 meets the midpoint. Let y = y1 , and then
the conjugacy classes of A4 are C1 , Cx , Cx2 , Cy . Since there are four
conjugacy classes we find the only solution to 12 = d21 + d22 + d23 + d24 is
with 12 = 1 + 1 + 1 + 32 . The Class Equation is 12 = 1 + 4 + 4 + 3,
and this gives the cardinalities of the different conjugacy classes.
The tetraheder group has a subgroup H of order 4. This group is
generated by y1 and y2 , and forms a group isomorphic to the Klein
4-group. Note that y3 = y1 y2 . One checks that xyi x−1 = yi+1 , where
the indices are counted modulo 3. It then follows that H is a normal
subgroup, and that the quotient group A4 /H = C3 . This gives that
any representation of C3 will give a representation of A4 by composition
with the canonical map A4 −→ A4 /H. Such a representation will send
elements of H to the identity element.
We have above described the character table of C3 which enables us
to describe the first three rows of the character table of A4 , pictured
below. To complete the table we need to determine the values of χ4 =
(3, a, b, c). Since we have that
hχ4 , χ4 i = (32 + 4aa + 4bb + 3cc)/12 = 1
 3

we get that a = b = 0, and that c = ±1. Using that hχ1 , χ4 i = 0 gives

that c = −1. Thus, the completed table looks like

(1) (4) (4) (3)

1 x x2 y
χ1 1 1 1 1
χ2 1 ζ ζ2 1
χ3 1 ζ 2 ζ 1
χ4 3 0 0 −1
Table 3. Character table for A4

If we now look at our standard representation A4 −→ GL3 (C) send-

ing x to the matrix Rx , and yi to the matrix Ri , with i = 1, 2, 3. Then
we see that χ4 is the character of that particular representation.
1.5. Character table for S4 . The Class Equation of S4 we have
described earlier (), and is 24 = 1 + 3 + 6 + 6 + 8. The group have five
conjugacy classes, C1 , Ca , Cb , Cc , Cd . The 1 is the identity element, and
a = (12)(34) the product of two orbits of length 2, there are 3 of these.
We let b = (12) an orbit of length two (6 of these) and c = (1234) an
orbit of length 4 (there are six of these), and finally we let d = (123)
an orbit of lenght 3 (there are 8 of these).
We know two one-dimensional representations, the trivial one ρ1 and
the signature ρ2 . The values of ρ1 is constant 1, whereas the values of
ρ2 on the conjugacy classes are (1, 1, −1, −1, 1).
As S4 is the symmetry group of the cube we have the standard
representation ρ3 : S4 −→ Gl3 (C). We place the cube with center in
origo, and coordinate axes through three of its faces. We label the lines
through the vertices and through the center of the cube as x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 .
Then, the matrices
       
−1 0 0 0 0 1 0 −1 0 0 0 1
A =  0 1 0  , B = 0 −1 0 , C = 1 0 0 , D = 1 0 0
0 0 −1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0
represent the conjugacy classes Ca , Cb , Cc , Cd respectively. And we have
that values of the character χ3 on the conjugacy classes as (3, −1, −1, 1, 0).
We have that hχ3 , χ3 i = 1, so the character is irreducible.
The equation 24 = 1 + 1 + 9 + d24 + d25 has the unique solution
d4 = 3 and d5 = 2. Thus the irreducible characters we so far have
not determined are of dimension 3 and dimension 2. Let the values
of χ4 be (3, α, β, γ, δ). The orthogonality with χ1 and χ2 implies that
γ = −β. Then the condition that hχ4 , χ4 i = 1 gives that β 6= 0 because
9+3αα+8δδ = 24 has no solution. It follows that χ4 = (3, −1, 1, −1, 0).
Finally we determine the values of χ5 = (2, α, β, γ, δ). Orthogonality
with χ1 and χ2 gives γ = −β, whereas orthogonality with χ3 and
4

χ4 gives β = γ. Thus β = γ = 0. Then hχ5 , χ5 i = 1 gives that

|α| = 2 and |δ| = 1. The orthogonality relations then finally gives that
χ5 = (2, 2, 0, 0, −1).

(1) (3) (6) (6) (8)

1 a b c d
χ1 1 1 1 1 1
χ2 1 1 -1 -1 1
χ3 3 -1 -1 1 0
χ4 3 -1 1 -1 0
χ5 2 2 0 0 -1
Table 4. Character table for S4

1.6. Exercises: Character tables.

(1) Determine the character table of D6
(2) Show that S4 has a normal subgroup N such that the quotient
group is D3 . Use the representations of D3 to realize the two-
dimensional irreducible representation of S3 .
(3) Can you realize the ”other” irreducible three-dimensional rep-
resentation ρ4 of S4 ?