CU Algebraic Lie Theory Seminar

Supercharacter Theories of GL_n(F_q)

Justin Keller, CU

April 26, 2011

Math 220

2-3pm

Abstract

A supercharacter theory is an approximation to the usual character theory of a group. Even very coarse approximations still contain useful information about the group and have been exploited in situations when the full character table is unknown. We describe some of the ways that supercharacter theories arise in the context of the general linear group over a finite field.