The Sign Lemma
As we move towards proving the useful properties of Specht modules, we will find the following collection of results helpful. Through them all, let be a subgroup, and also consider the
-invariant inner product on
for which the distinct Young tabloids form an orthonormal basis.
First, if , then
where is the alternating sum of the elements of
. The proof basically runs the same as when we showed that
where
has shape
.
Next, for any vectors we have
Indeed, we can calculate
where we have used the facts that , and that as
runs over a group, so does
.
Next, if the swap , then we have the factorization
for some . To see this, consider the subgroup
, and pick a transversal. That is, write
as a disjoint union:
but then we can write the alternating sum
as we stated.
Finally, if is some tableau with
and
in the same row, and if the swap
, then
Our hypothesis tells us that . We can thus use the above factorization to write

[...] of the Sign Lemma The results we showed last time have a few immediate consequences we will have use [...]
Pingback by Corollaries of the Sign Lemma « The Unapologetic Mathematician | December 31, 2010 |
[...] entries in tells us that we must have some pair of and in the same row of . Thus the swap . The sign lemma then tells us that . Since this is true for every summand of , it is true for [...]
Pingback by Properties of Garnir Elements from Tableaux 1 « The Unapologetic Mathematician | January 18, 2011 |
[...] we’ve used the sign lemma. So any two polytabloids coming from tableaux in the same column equivalence class are scalar [...]
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[...] the other hand, assume in the same column of . Then . But then the sign lemma tells us that is a factor of , and thus [...]
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