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Universitext

Caroline Gruson · Vera Serganova

A Journey
Through
Representation
Theory
From Finite Groups to Quivers via
Algebras
Universitext
Universitext

Series editors
Sheldon Axler
San Francisco State University

Carles Casacuberta
Universitat de Barcelona

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Queen Mary University of London

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University of California, Berkeley

Claude Sabbah
École polytechnique, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau

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University of Oxford

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Case Western Reserve University

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•

A Journey Through
Representation Theory
From Finite Groups to Quivers via Algebras

123
Caroline Gruson Vera Serganova
Institut Elie Cartan, UMR 7502 du CNRS Department of Mathematics
Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IESL University of California, Berkeley
Nancy, France Berkeley, CA, USA

ISSN 0172-5939 ISSN 2191-6675 (electronic)

Universitext
ISBN 978-3-319-98269-4 ISBN 978-3-319-98271-7 (eBook)
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To Andrei Zelevinsky
who had such a great influence on our journey
Preface

Representation theory is a very active research topic in mathematics.

There are representations associated to several algebraic structures, represen-
tations of algebras and groups (finite or infinite). Roughly speaking, a representa-
tion is a vector space equipped with a linear action of the algebraic structure. For
example, Cn is naturally a representation of the algebra of n
n matrices. A slightly
more complicated example is the action of the group GLðn; CÞ by conjugation on the
space of n
n-matrices.
When representations were first introduced, there was no tendency to classify all
the representations of a given object. The first result in this direction is due to
Frobenius, who was interested in the general theory of finite groups. If G is a finite
group, a representation V of G is a complex vector space V together with a morphism
of groups q : G ! GL(V). One says V is irreducible if (1) there exists no non-zero
proper subspace W  V such that W is stable under all qðgÞ; g 2 G and (2) V 6¼ f0g.
Frobenius showed there are finitely many irreducible representations of G and that
they are completely determined by their characters: the character of V is the
complex-valued function g 2 G 7! TrðqðgÞÞ where Tr is the trace of the endomor-
phism. These characters form a basis of the complex-valued functions on G that are
invariant under conjugation. Then Frobenius proceeded to compute the characters
of symmetric groups in general. His results inspired Schur, who was able to relate
them to the theory of complex finite dimensional representations of GLðn; CÞ
through the Schur–Weyl duality. In both cases, every finite dimensional represen-
tation of the group is a direct sum of irreducible representations (we say that the
representations are completely reducible).
The representation theory of symmetric groups and the related combinatorics
turn out to be very useful in a lot of questions. We decided to follow Zelevinsky and
his book [38] and employ a Hopf algebra approach. This is an early example of
categorification, which was born before the fashionable term categorification was
invented.

vii
viii Preface

Most of the results about representations of finite groups can be generalized to

compact groups. In particular, once more, the complex finite dimensional repre-
sentations of a compact group are completely reducible. Moreover, the regular
representation in the space of continuous functions on the compact group contains
every irreducible finite dimensional representation of the group. This theory was
developed by H. Weyl and the original motivation came from quantum mechanics.
The first examples of continuous compact groups are the group SO(2) of rotations
of the plane (the circle) and the group SO(3) of rotations of the 3-dimensional space.
In the former case, the problem of computing the Fourier series for a function on the
circle is equivalent to the decomposition of the regular representation. More gen-
erally, the study of complex representations of compact groups helps to understand
Fourier analysis on such groups.
If a topological group is not compact, for example, the group of real numbers
under addition, the representation theory of such a group involves more complicated
analysis (Fourier transform instead of Fourier series). The representation theory of
real non-compact groups was initiated by Harish-Chandra and by the Russian
school led by Gelfand. Here emphasis is on the classification of unitary represen-
tations due to applications from physics. It is also worth mentioning that this theory
is closely related to harmonic analysis, and many special functions (such as
Legendre polynomials) naturally appear in the context of representation theory.
In the theory of finite groups one can drop the assumption that the characteristic
of the ground field is zero. This leads immediately to the loss of complete
reducibility. This representation theory was initiated by Brauer, and it is more
algebraic. If one turns to algebras, a representation of an algebra is, by definition,
the same as a module over this algebra. Let k be a field. Let A be a k-algebra which is
finite dimensional as a vector space. It is a well-known fact that A-modules are not,
in general, completely reducible: for instance, if A = k[X]/X2 and M = A, the
module M contains kX as a submodule which has no A-stable complement. An
indecomposable A-module is a non-zero module which has no non-trivial decom-
position as a direct sum. It is also interesting to attempt a classification of
A-modules. This is a very difficult task in general. Nevertheless, the irreducible
A-modules are finite in number. The radical R of A is defined as the ideal of A which
annihilates each of those irreducible modules. It is a nilpotent ideal. Assuming k is
algebraically closed, the quotient ring A/R is a product of matrix algebras over k,
A/R = Pi Endk(Si) where Si runs along the irreducible A-modules.
If G is a finite group, the algebra k(G) of k-valued functions on G, the compo-
sition law being the convolution, is a finite dimensional k-algebra, with a zero radical
as long as the characteristic of the field k does not divide the order of G. The
irreducible modules of k(G) are exactly the finite dimensional representations of the
group G, and the action of G extends linearly to k(G). This shows that all
k(G)-modules are completely reducible (Maschke’s theorem).
Preface ix

In order to study representations of finite dimensional k-algebras more generally,

it is useful to introduce quivers. Let A be a finite dimensional k-algebra, denote
S1,. . ., Sn its irreducible representations, and draw the following graph, called the
quiver associated to A: the vertices are labelled by the S′is and we put l arrows
between Si and Sj, pointing at Sj, if Ext1(Si, Sj) is of dimension l (the explicit
definition of Ext1 requires some homological algebra which is difficult to summarize
in such a short introduction).
More generally, a quiver is an oriented graph with any number of vertices. Let
Q be a quiver. A representation of Q is a set of vector spaces indexed by the vertices
of Q together with linear maps associated to the arrows of Q. Those objects were
first systematically used by Gabriel in the early 70s and studied by a lot of people
ever since. The aim is to characterize the finitely represented algebras, or in other
terms the algebras with a finite number of indecomposable modules (up to
isomorphism).
When we get to representations of quivers (Chapters 7, 8 and 9), we will some-
times need some notions associated to algebraic groups. We do not provide a course
in algebraic groups in this book; hence we refer the reader to the books of
Humphreys and Springer cited in the bibliography.
Today, representation theory has many flavours. In addition to the above men-
tioned, one should add representations over non-Archimedean local fields with its
applications to number theory, representations of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras
with applications to number theory and physics, and representations of quantum
groups. However, in all these theories certain main ideas appear again and again,
very often in disguise. Due to technical details it may be difficult for a neophyte to
recognize them. The goal of this book is to present some of these ideas in their most
elementary incarnation.
We will assume that the reader is familiar with linear algebra (including the
theory of Jordan forms and tensor products of vector spaces) and the basic theory of
groups and rings.
The book is organized as follows. In the first two chapters we deal with the basic
representation theory of finite groups over fields of characteristic zero. Some of these
results extend to compact groups, see Chapter 3. Our aim in Chapter 4 is to provide
examples where Fourier analysis plays a key role in unitary representations of
locally compact groups. Since we need a lot of algebra later on, Chapter 5 is a
collection of algebraic tools. Chapter 6 deepens the study of representations of
symmetric groups and links them with representations of GLnðFq Þ. Chapters 7 and 8
are an introduction to quivers and their representation theory. Finally, Chapter 9
gives some applications of quivers. Chapters 3 and 4 are not used in the rest of the
book and can be omitted. We did not try to give a complete bibliography on the
subject and cited only those books and papers which were directly used in the text.
Acknowledgements: First of all, our warmest thanks to Laurent Gruson, who helped
us a lot with Chapter 6, which we wrote together. Throughout the writing of this
book, he frequently encouraged us and showed a real interest in our efforts. We are
x Preface

also thankful to Alex Sherman for his help in preparing the final version of the
manuscript.
We are very grateful to the referees of this book who pointed out numerous errors
and misprints.
Vera gave these notes to her UC Berkeley graduate students while they were
studying for her course on Representation Theory in 2016–17 and they were kind
enough to share with us their lists of typos and questions: we thank them heartfully.
Vera Serganova was supported by NSF grant 1701532.

Nancy, France Caroline Gruson

Berkeley, USA Vera Serganova
Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Chapter 1. Introduction to representation theory of finite groups . . . . . . . 1

1. Definitions and examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Ways to produce new representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Invariant subspaces and irreducibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6. Invariant forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
7. Representations over R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
8. Relationship between representations over R and over C . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter 2. Modules with applications to finite groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1. Modules over associative rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2. Finitely generated modules and Noetherian rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3. The centre of the group algebra k ðGÞ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4. One application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5. General facts on induced modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6. Induced representations for groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
7. Double cosets and restriction to a subgroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
8. Mackey’s criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
9. Hecke algebras, a first glimpse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
10. Some examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
11. Some general facts about field extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
12. Artin’s theorem and representations over Q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 3. Representations of compact groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1. Compact groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2. Orthogonality relations and Peter–Weyl Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

xi
xii Contents

Chapter 4. Results about unitary representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

1. Unitary representations of Rn and Fourier transform . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2. Heisenberg groups and the Stone–von Neumann theorem . . . . . . . . . 70
3. Representations of SL2 ðRÞ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Chapter 5. On algebraic methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
2. Semisimple modules and density theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3. Wedderburn–Artin theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4. Jordan-Hölder theorem and indecomposable modules . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5. A bit of homological algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
6. Projective modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7. Representations of Artinian rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
8. Abelian categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Chapter 6. Symmetric groups, Schur–Weyl duality and positive
self-adjoint Hopf algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
1. Representations of symmetric groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
2. Schur–Weyl duality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
3. General facts on Hopf algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4. The Hopf algebra associated to the representations of symmetric
groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5. Classification of PSH algebras part 1: decomposition theorem . . . . . 119
6. Classification of PSH algebras part 2: unicity for the
rank 1 case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
7. Bases of PSH algebras of rank one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8. Harvest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
9. General linear groups over a finite field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Chapter 7. Introduction to representation theory of quivers . . . . . . . . . . . 149
1. Representations of quivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
2. Path algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
3. Standard resolution and consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
4. Bricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
5. Orbits in representation varieties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6. Coxeter–Dynkin and affine graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
7. Quivers of finite type and Gabriel’s theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Chapter 8. Representations of Dynkin and affine quivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
1. Reflection functors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
2. Reflection functors and change of orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
3. Weyl group and reflection functors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
4. Coxeter functors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
5. Further properties of Coxeter functors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
6. Affine root systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Contents xiii

7. Preprojective and preinjective representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

8. Regular representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
9. Indecomposable representations of affine quivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Chapter 9. Applications of quivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
1. From abelian categories to algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
2. From categories to quivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
3. Finitely represented, tame and wild algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
4. Frobenius algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
5. Application to group algebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
6. On certain categories of sl2 -modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction to representation theory of finite groups

Beauty is the first test: there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathe-
matics. (G.H. Hardy)

In which we have a first encounter with representations of finite groups, discover that they are
(if the base field is compliant enough) completely reducible and get acquainted with irreducible repre-
sentations and their characters. Not to mention Schur’s lemma. In the end of the chapter, there is a
mysterious appearance of the quaternions.

1. Definitions and examples

Let k be a field, V a vector space over k. The group of all invertible linear
operators in V , under composition, is denoted by GL (V ). If dim V = n, then GL (V )
is isomorphic to the group of invertible n × n matrices with entries in k.
Definition 1.1. A (linear) representation of a group G on V is a group homo-
morphism
ρ : G → GL (V ) .
The number dim V is called the degree or the dimension of the representation ρ (it
may be infinite). For any g ∈ G we denote by ρg the image of g in GL (V ) and
for any v ∈ V we denote by ρg v the image of v under the action of ρg .
The following properties are direct consequences of the definition
• ρg ρh = ρgh ;
• ρ1 = Id;
• ρ−1
g = ρg −1 ;
• ρg (av + bw) = aρg v + bρg w.
Definition 1.2. Let X be a set (not necessarily finite). Let G be a group. A
left action of G on X is a homomorphism of G to the permutation group of X.
The associated permutation representation
 of G is the vector space with basis
{ex , x ∈ X} 1, together with the action ρg ( x∈X ax ex ) := x∈X ax egx .

1Bourbaki usually denotes this vector space k (X) in his Éléments de Mathématiques.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 1

C. Gruson and V. Serganova, A Journey Through Representation Theory,
Universitext, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98271-7 1
2 1. INTRODUCTION TO REPRESENTATION THEORY OF FINITE GROUPS

Example 1.3. (1) Let us consider the abelian group of integers Z with op-
eration
 of addition.
 Let V be the plane R2 and for every n ∈ Z, we set
1 n
ρn = . The reader can check that this defines a representation of
0 1
degree 2 of Z.
(2) For any group G (finite or infinite) the trivial representation is the homo-
morphism ρ : G → GL(1, k) = k ∗ such that ρs = 1 for all s ∈ G.
(3) Let G be the symmetric group Sn , V =k n . For every s∈Sn and (x1 , . . . , xn )∈
k n set
 
ρs (x1 , . . . , xn ) = xs−1 (1) , . . . , xs−1 (n) .
In this way we obtain a representation of the symmetric group Sn which is
called the natural permutation representation.
(4) The group algebra
 k (G) is, by definition, the vector space of all finite linear
combinations g∈G cg g, cg ∈ k together with the natural multiplication.
We define the regular representation as the permutation representation
associated to the left action of G on itself, R : G → GL (k (G)), namely

 
Rg ch h = ch gh.
h∈G h∈G

(5) A right action of G on X is a map · : X ×G → X satisfying x·(gh) = (x·g)·h

and x · 1 = x. Let X be a set with a right action of G. Consider the space
F(X), of k-valued functions on X. Then the formula

ρg ϕ(x) := ϕ(x · g)

defines a representation of G in F(X).

(6) In particular, if X = G,

F (G) = {ϕ : G → k} .

For any g, h ∈ G and ϕ ∈ F (G), let

ρg ϕ (h) = ϕ (hg) .

Then ρ : G → GL (F (G)) is a linear representation.

Definition 1.4. Two representations of a group G, ρ : G → GL(V ) and σ :

G → GL(W ) are called equivalent or isomorphic if there exists an invertible linear
operator T : V → W such that T ◦ ρg = σg ◦ T for any g ∈ G.

Example 1.5. If G is a finite group, then the representations numbered (4) and
(6) in Example 1.3 are equivalent. Indeed, define T : F (G) → k (G) by the formula

T (ϕ) = ϕ (h) h−1 .
h∈G
 2. WAYS TO PRODUCE NEW REPRESENTATIONS 3

Then for any ϕ ∈ F (G) and g ∈ G we have

  
T (ρg ϕ) = ρg ϕ (h) h−1 = ϕ (hg) h−1 = ϕ (l) gl−1 = Rg (T (ϕ)) .
h∈G h∈G l∈G

Exercise 1.6. Let G be a group and X a set. Consider a left action l : G×X→ X
of G on X. For every ϕ ∈ F(X), g ∈ G and x ∈ X set
σg ϕ(x) = ϕ(g −1 · x).
(a) Prove that σ is a representation of G in F(X).
(b) Define a right action r : X × G → X by
x · g := g −1 · x,
and consider the representation ρ of G in F(X) associated with this action. Check
that ρ and σ are equivalent representations.
Remark 1.7. In other words, the previous exercise shows that (1) if we are
given a left action of G on X, there is a canonical way to produce a right action of
G on X and (2) that the associated representations in F(X) are equivalent.

2. Ways to produce new representations

Let G be a group.
Restriction. If H is a subgroup of G and ρ : G → GL (V ) is a representation
of G, the restriction of the homomorphism ρ to H gives a representation of H which
we call the restriction of ρ to H. We denote by ResH ρ the restriction of ρ on H.
Lift. Let p : G → H be a homomorphism of groups. Then for every represen-
tation ρ : H → GL (V ), the composite homomorphism ρ ◦ p : G → GL (V ) gives a
representation of G on V . This construction is frequently used in the following case:
let N be a normal subgroup of G, H denote the quotient group G/N and p be the
natural projection. In this case p is obviously surjective. Note that in the general
case we do not require p to be surjective.
Direct sum. If we have two representations ρ : G → GL (V ) and σ : G →
GL (W ), then we can define ρ ⊕ σ : G → GL (V ⊕ W ) by the formula
(ρ ⊕ σ)g (v, w) = (ρg v, σg w) .

Tensor product. The tensor product of two representations ρ : G → GL (V )

and σ : G → GL (W ) is defined by
(ρ ⊗ σ)g (v ⊗ w) = ρg v ⊗ σg w.
Exterior tensor product. Let G and H be two groups. Consider representa-
tions ρ : G → GL (V ) and σ : H → GL (W ) of G and H, respectively. One defines
their exterior tensor product ρ  σ : G × H → GL (V ⊗ W ) by the formula
(ρ  σ)(g,h) v ⊗ w = ρg v ⊗ σh w.
4 1. INTRODUCTION TO REPRESENTATION THEORY OF FINITE GROUPS

Exercise 2.1. If δ : G → G × G is the diagonal embedding, show that for any

representations ρ and σ of G
ρ ⊗ σ = (ρ  σ) ◦ δ.
Dual representation. Let V ∗ denote the dual space of V and ·, · denote the
natural pairing between V and V ∗ . For any representation ρ : G → GL (V ) one can
define the dual representation ρ∗ : G → GL (V ∗ ) by the formula
ρ∗g ϕ, v = ϕ, ρ−1
g v

for every v ∈ V, ϕ ∈ V ∗ .
Let V be a finite-dimensional representation of G with a fixed basis. Let Ag for
g ∈ G be the matrix of ρg in this basis. Then the matrix of ρ∗g in the dual basis of
V ∗ is equal to (Atg )−1 .
Exercise 2.2. Show that if G is finite, then its regular representation is self-
dual (isomorphic to its dual).
More generally, if ρ : G → GL (V ) and σ : G → GL (W ) are two representations,
then one can naturally define a representation τ of G on Homk (V, W ) by the formula
τg ϕ = σg ◦ ϕ ◦ ρ−1
g , g ∈ G, ϕ ∈ Homk (V, W ) .

Exercise 2.3. Show that if V and W are finite dimensional, then the represen-
tation τ of G on Homk (V, W ) is isomorphic to ρ∗ ⊗ τ .
Intertwining operators. A linear operator T : V → W is called an intertwin-
ing operator if T ◦ ρg = σg ◦ T for any g ∈ G. The set of all intertwining operators
will be denoted by HomG (V, W ). It is clearly a vector space. Moreover, if ρ = σ,
then EndG (V ) := HomG (V, V ) has a natural structure of associative k-algebra with
multiplication given by composition.
Exercise 2.4. Consider the regular representation of G in k(G). Prove that the
algebra of intertwiners EndG (k(G)) is isomorphic to k(G). (Hint: ϕ ∈ EndG (k(G))
is completely determined by ϕ(1).)

3. Invariant subspaces and irreducibility

3.1. Invariant subspaces and subrepresentations. Consider a representa-
tion ρ : G → GL (V ). A subspace W ⊂ V is called G-invariant if ρg (W ) ⊂ W for
any g ∈ G.
If W is a G-invariant subspace, then there are two representations of G naturally
associated with it: the representation in W which is called a subrepresentation and the
representation in the quotient space V /W which is called a quotient representation.
Exercise 3.1. Let ρ : Sn → GL (k n ) be the permutation representation, then
W = {x(1, . . . , 1) | x ∈ k}
 3. INVARIANT SUBSPACES AND IRREDUCIBILITY 5

and
W  = {(x1 , . . . , xn ) | x1 + x2 + · · · + xn = 0}
are invariant subspaces.
Exercise 3.2. Let G be a finite group of order |G|. Prove that any representa-
tion of G contains an invariant subspace of dimension less than or equal to |G|.
3.2. Maschke’s theorem.
Theorem 3.3. (Maschke) Let G be a finite group such that char k does not
divide |G|. Let ρ : G → GL (V ) be a representation and W ⊂ V be a G-invariant sub-
space. Then there exists a complementary G-invariant subspace, i.e. a G-invariant
subspace W  ⊂ V such that V = W ⊕ W  .

Proof. Let W  be a subspace (not necessarily G-invariant) such that W ⊕ W  =

V . Consider the projector P : V → V onto W with kernel W  : P 2 = P . Now we
construct a new operator
1 
P̄ := ρg ◦ P ◦ ρ−1
g .
|G|
g∈G

An easy calculation shows that ρg ◦ P̄ ◦ ρ−1 g = P̄ for all g ∈ G, and therefore

ρg ◦ P̄ = P̄ ◦ ρg . In other words, P̄ ∈ EndG (V ).
On the other hand, P̄|W = Id and Im P̄ = W . Hence P̄ 2 = P̄ .
Let W  = Ker P̄ . First,
 we claim that W  is G-invariant. Indeed, let w ∈ W  ,
then P̄ (ρg w) = ρg P̄ w = 0 for all g ∈ G, hence ρg w ∈ Ker P̄ = W  .
Now we prove that V = W ⊕ W  . Indeed, W ∩ W  = 0, since P̄|W = Id. On the
other hand, for any v ∈ V , we have w = P̄ v ∈ W and w = v − P̄ v ∈ W  . Thus,
v = w + w , and therefore V = W + W  . 

Remarks. If char k divides |G| or G is infinite, the conclusion of Maschke’s

theorem does not hold anymore. Indeed, in the example of Exercise 3.1 W and W 
are complementary if and only if char k does not divide n. Otherwise, W ⊂ W  ⊂ V ,
and one can show that neither W nor W  have a G-invariant complement.
In the case of an infinite group, consider the representation of Z in R2 as in the
first example of Section 1. The span of (1, 0) is the only G-invariant line. Therefore
it can not have a G-invariant complement in R2 .

3.3. Irreducible representations and Schur’s lemma.

Definition 3.4. A non-zero representation is called irreducible if it does not
contain any proper non-zero G-invariant subspace.
Exercise 3.5. Show that the dimension of any irreducible representation of a
finite group G is not bigger than its order |G|.
The following elementary statement plays a key role in representation theory.
6 1. INTRODUCTION TO REPRESENTATION THEORY OF FINITE GROUPS

Lemma 3.6. (Schur) Let ρ : G → GL(V ) and σ : G → GL(W ) be two irreducible

representations. If T ∈ HomG (V, W ), then either T = 0 or T is an isomorphism.

Proof. Note that Ker T and Im T are G-invariant subspaces of V and W ,

respectively. Then by irreducibility of ρ, either Ker T = V or Ker T = 0, and by
irreducibility of σ, either Im T = W or Im T = 0. Hence the statement. 

Corollary 3.7. (a) Let ρ : G → GL(V ) be an irreducible representation. Then

EndG (V ) is a division ring.
(b) If the characteristic of k does not divide |G|, EndG (V ) is a division ring if
and only if ρ is irreducible.
(c) If k is algebraically closed and ρ is irreducible, then EndG (V ) = k.

Proof. (a) is an immediate consequence of Schur’s Lemma.

To prove (b) we use Maschke’s theorem. Indeed, if V is reducible, then V =
V1 ⊕ V2 for some proper subspaces V1 and V2 . Let p1 be the projector on V1 with
kernel V2 and p2 be the projector onto V2 with kernel V1 . Then p1 , p2 ∈ EndG (V )
and p1 ◦ p2 = 0. Hence EndG (V ) has zero divisors.
Let us prove (c). Consider T ∈ EndG (V ). Then T has an eigenvalue λ ∈ k
and T − λ Id ∈ EndG (V ). Since T − λ Id is not invertible, it must be zero by (a).
Therefore T = λ Id. 

3.4. Complete reducibility.

Definition 3.8. A representation is called completely reducible if it splits into
a direct sum of irreducible subrepresentations. (This direct sum might be infinite.)
Theorem 3.9. Let ρ : G → GL(V ) be a representation of a group G. The
following conditions are equivalent.
(a) ρ is completely reducible;
(b) For any G-invariant subspace W ⊂ V there exists a complementary G-
invariant subspace W  .

Proof. This theorem is easier in the case of finite-dimensional V . To prove it

for arbitrary V and G we need Zorn’s lemma. First, note that if V is non-zero and
finite dimensional, then it always contains an irreducible subrepresentation. Indeed, we
can take a subrepresentation of minimal positive dimension. If V is infinite dimensional
then this is not true in general. Let us show two Lemmas before finishing the proof.

Lemma 3.10. If ρ satisfies (b), any subrepresentation and any quotient of ρ also
satisfy (b).

Proof. To prove that any subrepresentation satisfies (b) consider a flag of G-

invariant subspaces U ⊂ W ⊂ V . Let U  ⊂ V and W  ⊂ V be G-invariant subspaces
such that U ⊕ U  = V and W ⊕ W  = V . Then W = U ⊕ (U  ∩ W ).
The statement about quotients is dual and we leave it to the reader as an exercise.

 4. CHARACTERS 7

Lemma 3.11. Let ρ satisfy (b). Then it contains an irreducible subrepresentation.

Proof. Pick up a non-zero vector v ∈ V and let V  be the span of ρg v for all
g ∈ G. Consider the set of G-invariant subspaces of V  which do not contain v,
with partial order given by inclusion. For any linearly ordered subset {Xi }i∈I there
exists a maximal element, given by the union Xi . Hence there exists a proper
i∈I
maximal G-invariant subspace W ⊂ V  , which does not contain v. By the previous
lemma one can find a G-invariant subspace U ⊂ V  such that V  = W ⊕ U . Then
U is isomorphic to the quotient representation V  /W , which is irreducible by the
maximality of W in V  . 

Now we will prove that (a) implies (b). We write

V = Vi
i∈I

for a family of irreducible G-invariant subspaces Vi . Let W ⊂ V be some G-invariant

subspace. By Zorn’s lemma there exists a maximal subset J ⊂ I such that

W∩ Vj = 0.
j∈J

We claim that W  := Vj is complementary to W . Indeed, it suffices to prove

j∈J
that V = W + W  . For any i ∈ / J we have (Vi ⊕ W  ) ∩ W = 0. Therefore there
exists a non-zero vector v ∈ Vi equal to w + w for some w ∈ W and w ∈ W  . Hence
Vi ∩ (W  + W ) = 0 and by irreducibility of Vi , we have Vi ⊂ W + W  . Therefore
V = W + W .
To prove that (b) implies (a) consider
 the family of all irreducible
subrepre-
sentations {Wk }k∈K of V . Note that Wk = V because otherwise Wk has
k∈K k∈K
a G-invariant complement which contains an irreducible subrepresentation.
 Again
due to Zorn’s lemma one can find a maximal J ⊂ K such that Wj = Wj .
j∈J j∈J
Then again using existence of a complementary subspace we have V = Wj . 
j∈J
The next statement follows from Maschke’s theorem and Theorem 3.9.

Proposition 3.12. Let G be a finite group and k be a field such that char k
does not divide |G|. Then every representation of G is completely reducible.

4. Characters
4.1. Definition and main properties. For a linear operator T in a finite-
dimensional vector space V we denote by Tr T the trace of T .
8 1. INTRODUCTION TO REPRESENTATION THEORY OF FINITE GROUPS

For any finite-dimensional representation ρ : G→ GL (V ) the function χρ : G→ k

defined by
χρ (g) = Tr ρg .
is called the character of the representation ρ.
Exercise 4.1. Check the following properties of characters.
(1) χρ (1) = dim ρ;
(2) if ρ ∼
= σ, then χρ = χσ ;
(3) χρ⊕σ = χρ + χσ ;
(4) χρ⊗σ = χρ χσ; 
−1
(5) χρ∗(g) = χ ρ g ;
−1
(6) χρ ghg = χρ (h).
Exercise 4.2. Calculate the character of the permutation representation of Sn
(see the first example of Section 1).
Example 4.3. If R is the regular representation of a finite group, then χR (g) =0
for any g = 1 and χR (1) = |G|.
Example 4.4. Let ρ : G → GL (V ) be a representation of dimension n and
assume char k = 2. Consider the representation ρ⊗ρ in V ⊗V and the decomposition
V ⊗ V = S 2 V ⊕ Λ2 V.
The subspaces S 2 V and Λ2 V are G-invariant. Denote by sym and alt the subrepre-
sentations of G in S 2 V and Λ2 V , respectively. Let us compute the characters χsym
and χalt .
Let g ∈ G and denote by λ1 , . . . , λn the eigenvalues of ρg (taken with multi-
plicities). Then the eigenvalues of altg are the products λi λj for all i < j while the
eigenvalues of symg are λi λj for i ≤ j. This leads to

χsym (g) = λi λj ,
i≤j

χalt (g) = λi λj .
i<j

Hence   
χsym (g) − χalt (g) = λ2i = Tr ρg2 = χρ g 2 .
i

On the other hand by properties (3) and (4)

χsym (g) + χalt (g) = χρ⊗ρ (g) = χ2ρ (g) .
Thus, we get
   
χ2ρ (g) + χρ g 2 χ2ρ (g) − χρ g 2
(1.1) χsym (g) = , χalt (g) = .
2 2
 4. CHARACTERS 9

Lemma 4.5. If k = C and G is finite, then for any finite-dimensional represen-

tation ρ and any g ∈ G we have

χρ (g) = χρ (g −1 ).

Proof. Indeed, χρ (g) is the sum of all the eigenvalues of ρg . Since g has finite
order, every eigenvalue of ρg is a root of 1. Therefore the eigenvalues of ρg−1 are the
complex conjugates of the eigenvalues of ρg . 

4.2. Orthogonality relations. In this subsection we assume that G is finite

and the characteristic of the ground field k is zero. Introduce a non-degenerate
symmetric bilinear form on the space of functions F (G) by the formula
1   −1 
(1.2) (ϕ, ψ) = ϕ s ψ (s) .
|G|
s∈G

If ρ : G → GL(V ) is a representation, then we denote by V G the subspace of

G-invariant vectors, i.e.
V G = {v ∈ V |ρg (v) = v, ∀g ∈ G}.
Lemma 4.6. If ρ : G → GL(V ) is a representation, then

dim V G = (χρ , χtriv ),

where χtriv denotes the character of the trivial representation, i.e. χtriv (g) = 1 for
all g ∈ G.

Proof. Consider the linear operator P ∈ EndG (V ) defined by the formula

1 
P = ρg .
|G|
g∈G

Note that P 2 = P and Im P = V G . Thus, P is a projector on V G . Since char k = 0

we have
Tr P = dim Im P = dim V G .
On the other hand, by direct calculation we get Tr P = (χρ , χtriv ), and the lemma
follows. 

Note that for two representations ρ : G → GL(V ) and σ : G → GL(W ) we have

(1.3) Homk (V, W )G = HomG (V, W ) = (V ∗ ⊗ W )G .

Therefore we have the following
Corollary 4.7. One has
dim HomG (V, W ) = (χρ , χσ ).
10 1. INTRODUCTION TO REPRESENTATION THEORY OF FINITE GROUPS

Proof. The statement is a consequence of the following computation:

1  1 
(χρ , χσ ) = χρ (g −1 )χσ (g) = χρ∗ ⊗σ (g) = (χρ∗ ⊗σ , χtriv ).
|G| |G|
g∈G g∈G

The following theorem is usually called the orthogonality relations for characters.
Theorem 4.8. Let ρ, σ be irreducible representations over a field of character-
istic zero.
(a) If ρ : G → GL(V ) and σ : G→GL(W ) are not isomorphic, then (χρ , χσ ) =0.
(b) Assume that the ground field is algebraically closed. If ρ and σ are equivalent,
then (χρ , χσ ) = 1.

Proof. By Schur’s lemma

HomG (V, W ) = 0.
Therefore Corollary 4.7 implies (a).
Assertion (b) follows from Corollary 3.7 (c) and Corollary 4.7. 

This theorem has several important corollaries.

Corollary 4.9. Let
ρ = m1 ρ1 ⊕ · · · ⊕ mr ρr
be a decomposition into a sum of irreducible representations, where mi ρi is the direct
(χρ ,χρ )
sum of mi copies of ρi . Then mi = χ ,χ i .
( ρi ρi )
The number mi is called the multiplicity of an irreducible representation ρi in ρ.
Corollary 4.10. Two finite-dimensional representations ρ and σ are equiva-
lent if and only if their characters coincide.
In the rest of this section we assume that the ground field is alge-
braically closed.
Corollary 4.11. A representation ρ is irreducible if and only if (χρ , χρ ) = 1.
Exercise 4.12. Let ρ and σ be irreducible representations of finite groups G
and H, respectively.
(a) If the ground field is algebraically closed, then the exterior product ρ  σ is
an irreducible representation of G × H.
(b) Give a counterexample to (a) in the case when the ground field is not alge-
braically closed.
Theorem 4.13. Every irreducible representation ρ appears in the regular rep-
resentation with multiplicity dim ρ.
 4. CHARACTERS 11

Proof. The statement is a direct consequence of the following computation

1
(χρ , χR ) = χρ (1) χR (1) = dim ρ.
|G| 

Corollary 4.14. A finite group has finitely many non-isomorphic irreducible

representations.
Corollary 4.15. Let ρ1 , . . . , ρr be all irreducible representations of G (up to
isomorphism) and denote ni = dim ρi . Then
n21 + · · · + n2r = |G|.

Proof. Indeed,
r
 r

dim R = |G| = χR (1) = ni χρi (1) = n2i .
i=1 i=1

Example 4.16. Let G act on a finite set X and


k (X) = b x x | bx ∈ k .
x∈X

Define ρ : G → GL (k (X)) by

 
ρg bx x = bx g · x.
x∈X x∈X

It is easy to check that ρ is a representation and that

χρ (g) = | {x ∈ X | g · x = x} |.
Clearly, ρ contains the trivial representation as a subrepresentation. To find the
multiplicity of the trivial representation in ρ, we have to calculate (1, χρ ):
1  1   1   1 
(1, χρ ) = χρ (g) = 1= 1= |Gx |,
|G| |G| g·x=x
|G| |G|
g∈G g∈G x∈X g∈Gx x∈X

where
Gx = {g ∈ G | g · x = x} .
Let X = X1  · · ·  Xm be the decomposition of X in disjoint G-orbits. Then
|G|
|Gx | = |X i|
for each x ∈ Xi and therefore
m
1   |G|
(1, χρ ) = = m.
|G| i=1 |Xi |
x∈Xi
12 1. INTRODUCTION TO REPRESENTATION THEORY OF FINITE GROUPS

Now, let us evaluate (χρ , χρ ):

 2
1   1   1 
(χρ , χρ ) = 1 = 1= |G(x,y) |.
|G| g·x=x
|G| g·x=x,g·y=y
|G|
g∈G g∈G (x,y)∈X×X

Let σ be the representation associated with the action of G on X × X. Then

the last formula implies
(χρ , χρ ) = (1, χσ ) .
Thus, ρ is irreducible if and only if |X| = 1, and ρ has two irreducible components
if and only if the action of G on (X × X)\Δ, where Δ is the diagonal, is transitive.
4.3. The number of irreducible representations of a finite group.
Definition 4.17. Let
   
C (G) = ϕ ∈ F (G) | ϕ ghg −1 = ϕ (h) .
The elements of C(G) are called class functions.
Exercise 4.18. Check that the restriction of (·, ·) on C (G) is non-degenerate.
Theorem 4.19. The collection of the characters of irreducible representations
of G is an orthonormal basis of C (G).

Proof. We have to show that if ϕ ∈ C (G) and (ϕ, χρ ) = 0 for any irreducible
representation ρ, then ϕ = 0. The following lemma is straightforward.

Lemma 4.20. Let ρ : G → GL (V ) be a representation, ϕ ∈ C (G) and set

1   −1 
T = ϕ g ρg .
|G|
g∈G

Then T ∈ EndG V and Tr T = (ϕ, χρ ).

Thus, for any irreducible representation ρ we have
1   −1 
(1.4) ϕ g ρg = 0.
|G|
g∈G

But then the same is true for any representation ρ, since any representation is a
direct sum of irreducible representations. Apply (1.4) to the case when ρ = R is the
regular representation. Then
1   −1  1   −1 
ϕ g Rg (1) = ϕ g g = 0.
|G| |G|
g∈G g∈G
 −1

Hence ϕ g = 0 for all g ∈ G, i.e. ϕ = 0. 
Corollary 4.21. The number of isomorphism classes of irreducible represen-
tations equals the number of conjugacy classes in the group G.
 4. CHARACTERS 13

Corollary 4.22. If G is a finite abelian group, then every irreducible repre-

sentation of G is one-dimensional and the number of irreducible representations is
the order of the group G.

For any group G (not necessarily finite) let G∗ denote the set of all one-
dimensional representations of G.

Exercise 4.23. (a) Show that G∗ is a group with respect to the operation of
tensor product.
(b) Show that the kernel of any ρ ∈ G∗ contains the commutator [G, G]. Hence
we have G∗  (G/[G, G])∗ .
(c) Show that if G is a finite abelian group, then G∗  G. (This isomorphism is
not canonical.)

Exercise 4.24. Consider the symmetric group Sn for n ≥ 2.

(a) Prove that the commutator [Sn , Sn ] coincides with the subgroup An of all
even permutations.
(b) Show that Sn has two one-dimensional representations (up to isomorphism):
the trivial one and the sign representation ε : Sn → {1, −1}.

Exercise 4.25. Let ρ be a one-dimensional representation of a finite group G

and σ another representation of G. Show that σ is irreducible if and only if ρ ⊗ σ is
irreducible.
Moreover, check that there is a 1-1 correspondence between the subrepresenta-
tions of σ and those of ρ ⊗ σ.

4.4. Isotypic components. Consider the decomposition of some representa-

tion ρ : G → GL(V ) into a direct sum of irreducible representations

ρ = m1 ρ1 ⊕ · · · ⊕ mr ρr .

Denote by Vi the space of the representation ρi . Then the subspace Wi of V which

Vi⊕mi . The following Lemma (Lemma 4.26)
corresponds to mi ρi is isomorphic to 
ensures that the decomposition V = Wi is unique. The space Wi is called the
isotypic component of type ρi of V .

Lemma 4.26. Let ni denote the dimension of the irreducible representation ρi

and set
ni 
πi := χi (g −1 )ρg .
|G|
g∈G

Then πi is the projector on the isotypic component Wi of type ρi .

Proof. Define a linear operator on Vj by the formula

ni 
πij := χi (g −1 )(ρj )g .
|G|
g∈G
14 1. INTRODUCTION TO REPRESENTATION THEORY OF FINITE GROUPS

By construction πij ∈ EndG (Vj ). Corollary 3.7 (c) implies that πij = λ Id. By
Theorem 4.8
Tr πij = ni (χi , χj ) = ni δij .
Now we write
r

πi = πij .
j=1

Hence
πi |Wj = δij Id .
The statement follows. 

4.5. Faithful representations. A representation ρ : G → GL(V ) is called

faithful if ρ is injective.

Theorem 4.27. Let ρ : G → GL(V ) be a faithful representation of a finite

group G. Then every irreducible representation of G occurs in some tensor power of ρ.

Proof. We have to show that for any irreducible representation ρi there exists
m such that (χmρ , χi ) = 0. Assume that the statement is false for some i. Consider
the generating functions
∞
 1
χm m
ρ (g)t = .
m=0
1 − tχρ (g)

By our assumption, for i, we have

 χi (g −1 )
= 0.
1 − tχρ (g)
g∈G

Rewrite the above identity in the form

ni  χi (g −1 )
=− ,
1 − tn 1 − tχρ (g)
g∈G\{1}

where n denotes the dimension of ρ.

Both sides of the above identity are rational functions. If they are equal then
χρ (g) = n for at least one g = 1. Let ε1 , . . . , εn be the eigenvalues of ρg . Since g has
finite order, all εi -s are roots of 1. The condition

χρ (g) = ε1 + · · · + εn = n

implies ε1 = · · · = εn = 1. Hence ρg is the identity operator, which contradicts the

assumption that ρ is faithful. 
 5. EXAMPLES 15

5. Examples
In the examples below we assume that the ground field is C.

Example 5.1. Let G = S3 . There are three conjugacy classes in G, and each
class is denoted by some element in this class: 1,(12),(123). Therefore there are
three irreducible representations; denote their characters by χ1 , χ2 and χ3 . It is not
difficult to see that S3 has the following table of characters

1 (12) (123)
χ1 1 1 1
χ2 1 −1 1
χ3 2 0 −1

The characters of one-dimensional representations are given in the first and the
second row (those are the trivial representation and the sign representation, see
Exercise 4.24), the last character χ3 can be obtained by using the identity

(1.5) χperm = χ1 + χ3 ,

where χperm stands for the character of the permutation representation, see Exercise
4.2.

Example 5.2. Let G = S4 . In this case we have the following character table
(in the first row we write the number of elements in each conjugacy class).

1 6 8 3 6
1 (12) (123) (12) (34) (1234)
χ1 1 1 1 1 1
χ2 1 −1 1 1 −1
χ3 3 1 0 −1 −1
χ4 3 −1 0 −1 1
χ5 2 0 −1 2 0

The first two rows are the characters of the one-dimensional representations.
The third one can again be obtained from (1.5). When we take the tensor product
ρ4 := ρ2 ⊗ ρ3 we get a new 3-dimensional irreducible representation, see Exercise
4.25 whose character χ4 is equal to the product χ2 χ3 . The last character can be
obtained through Theorem 4.8. An alternative way to describe ρ5 is to consider
S4 /K4 , where

K4 = {1, (12) (34) , (13) (24) , (14) (23)}

16 1. INTRODUCTION TO REPRESENTATION THEORY OF FINITE GROUPS

is the Klein subgroup. Observe that S4 /K4 ∼ = S3 , and therefore the two-dimensional
representation σ of S3 can be lifted to a representation of S4 by

ρ5 = σ ◦ p,

where p : S4 → S3 is the natural projection.

Example 5.3. Now let G = A5 . There are 5 irreducible representations of G

over C. Here is the character table
1 20 15 12 12
1 (123) (12) (34) (12345) (12354)
χ1 1 1 1 1 1
χ2 4 1 0 −1 −1
χ3 5 −1 1 0√ 0√
1+ 5 1− 5
χ4 3 0 −1 2√ 2√
1− 5 1+ 5
χ5 3 0 −1 2 2

To obtain χ2 we use the permutation representation and (1.5) once more. In

order to construct new irreducible representations we consider the characters χsym
and χalt of the second symmetric and the second exterior powers of ρ2 , respectively.
Using (1.1) we compute

1 (123) (12) (34) (12345) (12354)

χsym 10 1 2 0 0
χalt 6 0 −2 1 1

It is easy to check that

(χsym , χsym ) = 3, (χsym , χ1 ) = (χsym , χ2 ) = 1.

Therefore
χ3 = χsym − χ1 − χ2

is the character of another irreducible representation of dimension 5. We still miss

two.
To find them we use χalt . We have

(χalt , χalt ) = 2, (χalt , χ1 ) = (χalt , χ2 ) = (χalt , χ3 ) = 0.

Therefore χalt = χ4 + χ5 is the sum of two irreducible characters. First we compute

the dimensions of ρ4 and ρ5 using

12 + 42 + 52 + n24 + n25 = 60.

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Christmas at
Cedar Hill
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
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under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
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Title: Christmas at Cedar Hill

A holiday story-book

Author: Lucy Ellen Guernsey

Release date: September 21, 2023 [eBook #71698]

Language: English

Original publication: New York: Thomas Whittaker, 1869

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTMAS

AT CEDAR HILL ***
Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.

Christmas at Cedar Hill. Frontispiece.

"The very first thing I recollect is a dead tiger."

CHRISTMAS
 AT

CEDAR HILL.

A HOLIDAY STORY-BOOK.

BY

LUCY ELLEN GUERNSEY:

AUTHOR OF "IRISH AMY," "STRAIGHT FORWARD,"

"THE SIGN OF THE CROSS," "WINIFRED," ETC.

NEW YORK:

THOMAS WHITTAKER.
 NO. 2 BIBLE HOUSE.

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by

REV. R. DYER, D.D.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United

States for the Southern District of New York.

ST. JOHNLAND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,

SUFFOLK COUNTY, N

TO

LITTLE ANNIE,

FROM

HER GODMOTHER.
 THIS VOLUME

IS PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION

OF

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL

OF

CHRIST CHURCH, BAY-RIDGE, L.I.

 CONTENTS.

CHAP.

I. SETTING OUT.

II. A RESCUE.

III. THE OLD LADY'S STORY.

IV. THE CLERGYMAN'S STORY.

V. THE SCHOLAR'S STORY.

VI. AGATHA'S STORY.

VII. CONCLUSION.
 CHRISTMAS AT CEDAR HILL.

CHAPTER I.

SETTING OUT.

"ARE you quite sure this is the right train, Frank?"

"Of course it is! Now, Agatha, pray don't be conjuring up dangers so

early in the journey, or you will never get to the end. Come, let us get
on board! The train will start in a minute!"

The speakers were two of a little party of children who stood on the
platform of the little station of Greenbrier, waiting to take the train.
Agatha Bower, who had asked the question, was a pretty, pale little
girl, about thirteen years old, dressed in deep mourning. She was a
peculiar-looking child, with large dark eyes and long eyelashes, while
her hair was of a pale yellow, almost too light to be called golden,
and curled in close, short curls under her little black hat and crape
veil. She was very small and slender, but did not look young for her
years. She seemed rather nervous and excited, and kept close to
her companions in a way that looked as if she were easily frightened.

She was the only girl of the party. The other three were boys; the
eldest, whom Agatha had called Frank, being perhaps fifteen. He
was a tall, stout lad of his age, with brown curling hair, blue eyes,
and a ruddy complexion. Frank was a very handsome boy, and
attractive at first sight; but, when one looked at him again, there was
an expression of self-confidence, and a little contemptuous look not
altogether pleasing. Herbert, the next younger, had nothing
remarkable in his appearance, except a certain thoughtful and
earnest expression, which was lighted up with a very pleasant smile
when he was spoken to, or addressed anybody. Edward, the
youngest, was a pretty rosy boy of nine, with such a remarkable
resemblance to Frank as showed a very close relationship between
them.

Frank and Edward were brothers. They had been pupils in Doctor
Bower's private school—Frank for three years, Edward since the
beginning of last term—and were now going home to spend their
Christmas holidays, taking with them Herbert and Agatha, the
doctor's two children. They were to have been accompanied by
Doctor Bower himself, but the day before he had received
intelligence which made it necessary for him immediately to travel in
an opposite direction.

As the journey was only sixty miles long, he thought the children
might be safely trusted to go by themselves, especially as Frank had
been over the road so many times in his journey to and from school.
The railroad had lately been undergoing some changes and repairs,
but they were now all completed. Greenbrier had the advantage of
being situated upon two different railroads, which met at the same
station, about a mile from the centre of the village.

"Be sure to ask some one if you find yourself in any uncertainty what
to do," were the doctor's last words as he left them in the morning:
"and write to me directly, that I may know of your safe arrival."

"I do not believe I can write the same evening, father," said Herbert,
after a little consideration. "Frank says we shall not arrive till six, and
then there will be the party and the Christmas tree."

"I am not so absolutely unreasonable as to expect that, my son,"

said the doctor, smiling. "I only mean that you should write as soon
as possible."
"I will write the first thing next morning," said Herbert, after a little
more consideration, and the doctor was satisfied, knowing that
nothing short of an impossibility would prevent his son from keeping
his word.

"And mind, boys, that you take the best care of Agatha," he added,
as he bade them good-bye. "Remember, Frank, I shall hold you
responsible if she is not returned safely and in good order."

"Never fear, doctor," replied Frank, confidently, "I will take care of
her. It is a pity if I cannot look after one little girl. Only, I hope," he
added to himself, "that she will not be afraid of everything and
everybody she sees."

Three o'clock on the afternoon of the day before Christmas saw the
young travellers on the platform of the station-house, waiting for the
train which was to convey them to Riverton, the residence of Mr.
Landon. The cars stopped for only three minutes, and some haste
was really necessary in securing their places, so that Frank's
impatience at Agatha's hanging back was not altogether
unreasonable; but still she hesitated, and glanced around as if for
some one to ask.

"You silly child!" said Frank. "Haven't I been over the road dozens of
times? The Riverton train always comes in on this side of the
platform and the New York train on the other. We shall be left
altogether if you don't hurry! See, they are just going to start!"

"All aboard!" shouted the conductor, cutting short the debate by

swinging first Agatha and then Ned on the platform of the only
passenger car. They were not settled in their places when the bell
rang, the train started and whirled away at great speed, the sparks
flying from the engine and mixing curiously with the snow which had
been threatening all day and now began to fall heavily.

There was no difficulty about seats. The one passenger car was not
half full. There were three ladies, an elderly and two younger ones,
and some half a dozen men in all. Of these one of the women and
several men got out at the first two or three country stations, leaving
only the young and the old lady and two gentlemen. One of these
was an elderly man, with gray hair and spectacles, who looked like a
clergyman.

The other sat on the opposite side from our party, with his face
turned towards them. He was rather small and slight, with nothing
very peculiar about him except his large dark eyes, and a certain
abstracted expression. He held a book in his hand, but either he did
not find it very interesting or he had exhausted its contents; for he
was not reading, but looking now at his fellow-passengers, now out
of the window, though the fast-falling snow allowed but little of the
landscape to be seen. He looked round as the children entered, and
glanced at them once or twice afterwards with an appearance of
considerable interest.

Christmas at Cedar Hill.

The train started and whirled away at great speed.

Agatha's eyes were irresistibly attracted to this gentleman's face,
and though she felt as if it were rude to stare thus at a stranger, she
could not help looking at him again and again. At last, as he rose
and walked to the farther end of the car, Agatha whispered to her
brother:

"Herbert, did you ever see that gentleman before?"

"No," returned Herbert, after turning round to look at him. "Why do

you ask?"

"There is something about him that seems so familiar to me," replied

Agatha, after taking another long look. "I cannot say that I remember
him, and yet it seems as if I must have known him before."

"You may have seen some one like him," said Herbert. "He is a fine-
looking man, but I don't see anything remarkable about him, except
that he has a college medal, like my father's."

He looked round again, and his eyes encountered those of the

gentleman they were discussing, who was returning to his seat.

"Did you speak to me, my boy?" asked the stranger.

"No, sir," replied Herbert, blushing at being caught in his scrutiny. "I
only remarked that you wore a college medal like my father's, which
made me think that you might have been at the same college."

"Was your father at Dartmouth?" asked the stranger, whom we shall

for the present call the scholar.

"Yes, sir," replied Herbert; "and I am going there when I am old

enough."

He colored a little when he finished the sentence, as if he feared he

had been too forward. The scholar, however, did not seem to think
so. He turned over a seat, so as to place himself opposite to Herbert
and Agatha, and began questioning Herbert about his studies, not as
people sometimes speak to boys about such things, in a
condescending or patronizing tone, but as if he felt a real interest in
the matter. His face, which was rather sad when at rest, brightened
up with a beautiful smile; and the more Agatha looked at him and
listened to him, the more she felt as if she must have known him
before.

"Tickets!" called out the conductor, who had been invisible for some
time. It was with no small importance that Frank produced the tickets
for the whole party from his pocket, saying, as he did so, "How soon
shall we arrive at Riverton?"

"At Riverton!" repeated the conductor, as if surprised at the question.

He looked at the tickets, and added, "You are on the wrong road, my
boy! This is the New York train, and you have already come thirty
miles out of your way!"

The boys looked at each other for a moment as if perfectly

confounded; and then Edward exclaimed:

"There, Frank! So much for not asking any one!"

"Did not the station-master tell you which train to take?" asked the
conductor.

Frank colored up to the roots of his hair. "I did not ask him," he
replied, with a little effort. "I was sure I knew which side the trains
came in."

"But they have been changing the tracks," said the conductor. "Didn't
you know that?"

"I forgot it at first, and then I was quite sure—"

"Yes, you are always quite sure you know everything!" interrupted
Ned, in an angry tone. "Why didn't you ask? But you are so
wonderfully wise nobody can ever tell you anything!"
"There is no good in talking so, Ned," said Herbert, who had not
before spoken. "I ought to have asked myself, I suppose, but I
thought Frank knew the road. But there is no use in crying for spilled
milk, or fretting about it, either. What had we better do, sir?" he
asked, turning to the conductor.

"The best way will be to go on to E— and stay there all night,"

replied the conductor. "Then in the morning you can take the cross
road, which will bring you to Riverton about five in the afternoon."

"And so miss the party, and the Christmas tree, and all the rest of the
fun," exclaimed Ned, who was the youngest of the party, and never
much disposed to repress his feelings, of whatever sort they might
be. "I don't care, it is a real shame! And it is all your fault, Frank! The
next time I travel I will look out for myself!"

Frank's eyes flashed, and an angry retort seemed trembling on his

lips, but with a great effort, he repressed it and remained silent.

Edward was proceeding with some further remarks in the same

strain, when Herbert again interfered, and this time so decidedly that
Edward was silenced, and contented himself with muttering between
his teeth that he did hope some time Frank would find out that he did
not know everything in the world.

"Never mind, Frank," said Herbert, consolingly. "It was unlucky, but it
cannot be helped now, and we shall know better how to manage
another time. I dare say we shall do very well, after all. You know we
were wishing for some adventures on the way."

"I was not," said Agatha. "I don't like adventures."

"I don't wonder at that," replied Herbert. "You have had more than
your share of them already. But don't be troubled, Aggy. I don't see
how anything worse can happen to us than losing the party. How
shall we manage when we get to E—?" he asked, turning to the
conductor.
"I shall stop in E—," replied the conductor, "and I will go with you to
the hotel and ask the landlord to make you comfortable. It is an
excellent house, and I think you will have no sort of trouble."

"Now, I have another plan to propose," said the clergyman, who, with
the rest of the passengers, had been interested in the discussion.
"Let these young folks go home with me and spend the night. My
good lady will make them very welcome, and we will see what we
can do to make up for the loss of the party. That will be pleasanter
than spending the night at a strange hotel, won't it, my little girl?"

"Yes indeed, sir!" replied Agatha, recovering a little from her

consternation.

Herbert hesitated. "I am afraid we shall give you a great deal of

trouble," said he.

"Not at all, not at all!" replied the clergyman, heartily. "We are used to
the sudden arrival of any number of grandchildren, and our house is
a large one."

"I think you had better accept of the doctor's offer, since he is so kind
as to make it," said the conductor, addressing himself to Herbert,
"although I will make you as comfortable as I can at the hotel."

"What do you say?" asked Herbert of the other boys.

"Just as you think best," replied Frank, who had recovered his voice,
after a severe struggle with his temper. "I am sure the gentleman is
very kind."

"I don't care what we do if we can't get home," said Ned,

ungraciously. "I suppose it will be just as stupid in one place as
another!"

"Do behave yourself, Ned!" said Herbert, in an undertone. "You

make me perfectly ashamed of you!" Then turning to the clergyman,
he accepted the invitation with many thanks, feeling that it would
indeed be pleasanter for Agatha than spending the night at a hotel.
But as it turned out, they were to spend it neither at the hotel nor at
the doctor's.

The afternoon wore away, and still the snow fell thicker and faster
every moment. The wind rose and whirled it in clouds over the fields
or piled it up in fantastic drifts along the fences, and the track
became sensibly obstructed. The conductor's usually imperturbable
face wore a look of anxiety, and he seemed to spend much of his
time in conference with the engineer. As he came in towards dark,
the doctor remarked to him:

"We do not seem to make very rapid progress?"

"No, sir; the snow is growing very deep and drifts badly. I am almost
afraid we shall not get through to E— to-night."

Agatha was absorbed in her story-book and did not hear, but the
boys did, and exchanged glances. Frank rose from his seat and
followed the conductor to the other end of the car.

"Do you really think we shall not get through to-night?" he asked, in a
tone of anxiety.

"I can't say," replied the conductor, rather shortly; but, looking up and
seeing Frank's disturbed face, he kindly made room for him on the
seat, saying, as he did so, "You need not be frightened, my boy. The
worst that can happen to us is to be snowed up at some country
station all night."

"I am not frightened," said Frank, in a much more humble tone than
he would have used in replying to such an imputation twelve hours
before. "I don't mind for myself, I was thinking about Agatha."

"Is Agatha your sister?" asked the conductor.

"No, she is Herbert's; that is, he calls her his sister, but she is an
adopted child. Mrs. Bower took her from a poor woman who does
washing for the school, and the doctor thinks all the world of her,
especially since his wife died. He put her under my care particularly,
and if anything should happen to her—" Frank's eyes filled with
tears. He turned away to hide them, but the sobs would come in
spite of him.

"I do not think that any harm will come to Agatha," said the
conductor, kindly; "but I do not think the less of you for being anxious
about her. We will do the best we can for her."

He rose as he spoke, and going into the saloon, he brought out a

beautiful fur robe. Then, asking Agatha to rise for a moment, he
spread the robe over the seat, and wrapped it carefully around her.
Agatha was very grateful for the kindness, as her feet had begun to
grow very cold. The conductor then returned to Frank's side.

"How did you come to make such a blunder about the cars?" he
asked.

"I am sure I do not know," replied Frank. "I have been backward and
forward several times, and supposed I knew all about it. I never
thought of their changing the tracks."

"You should have asked, if there was any doubt about the matter,"
observed the conductor. "Never be too proud to ask a question, or to
follow the directions of people older than yourself. I expect your
friends are feeling rather uneasy about you by this time."

"I am afraid so," said Frank. "If they only knew about us, and Agatha
were safe, I should not care what became of me."

"I hope we may reach the Cedar Hill station, and then you can
telegraph—that is, if the wires are not all down. I do not suppose we
shall go any further than that to-night, even if we are lucky enough to
get as far. But I must go outside and see how matters are now."

"Suppose we cannot reach Cedar Hill, what shall we do then?"

asked Frank, as the conductor rose to leave the car.