Cartan Invariants of Symmetric Groups and Iwahori-Hecke Algebras

Abstract

Külshammer, Olsson and Robinson conjectured that a certain set of numbers determined the invariant factors of the $\ell$-Cartan matrix for $S_n$ (equivalently, the invariant factors of the Cartan matrix for the Iwahori-Hecke algebra $\mathcal{H}_n(q)$, where $q$ is a primitive $\ell$th root of unity). We call these invariant factors Cartan invariants. In a previous paper, the second author calculated these Cartan invariants when $\ell=p^r$, $p$ prime, and $r\leq p$ and went on to conjecture that the formulae should hold for all $r$. Another result was obtained, which is surprising and counterintuitive from a block theoretic point of view. Namely, given the prime decomposition $\ell=p_1^{r_1}... p_k^{r_k}$, the Cartan matrix of an $\ell$-block of $S_n$ is a product of Cartan matrices associated to $p_i^{r_i}$-blocks of $S_n$. In particular, the invariant factors of the Cartan matrix associated to an $\ell$-block of $S_n$ can be recovered from the Cartan matrices associated to the $p_i^{r_i}$-blocks. In this paper, we formulate an explicit combinatorial determination of the Cartan invariants of $S_n$--not only for the full Cartan matrix, \emph{but for an individual block}. We collect evidence for this conjecture, by showing that the formulae predict the correct determinant of the $\ell$-Cartan matrix. We then go on to show that Hill's conjecture implies the conjecture of KOR.