A gluing construction for polynomial invariants

We give a polynomial gluing construction of two groups $G_X\subseteq GL(\ell,\mathbb F)$ and $G_Y\subseteq GL(m,\mathbb F)$ which results in a group $G\subseteq GL(\ell+m,\mathbb F)$ whose ring of invariants is isomorphic to the tensor product of the rings of invariants of $G_X$ and $G_Y$. In particular, this result allows us to obtain many groups with polynomial rings of invariants, including all $p$-groups whose rings of invariants are polynomial over $\mathbb F_p$, and the finite subgroups of $GL(n,\mathbb F)$ defined by sparsity patterns, which generalize many known examples.Comment: 10 pages, to appear in Journal of algebr

MacWilliams' Extension Theorem for Bi-Invariant Weights over Finite Principal Ideal Rings

A finite ring R and a weight w on R satisfy the Extension Property if every R-linear w-isometry between two R-linear codes in R^n extends to a monomial transformation of R^n that preserves w. MacWilliams proved that finite fields with the Hamming weight satisfy the Extension Property. It is known that finite Frobenius rings with either the Hamming weight or the homogeneous weight satisfy the Extension Property. Conversely, if a finite ring with the Hamming or homogeneous weight satisfies the Extension Property, then the ring is Frobenius. This paper addresses the question of a characterization of all bi-invariant weights on a finite ring that satisfy the Extension Property. Having solved this question in previous papers for all direct products of finite chain rings and for matrix rings, we have now arrived at a characterization of these weights for finite principal ideal rings, which form a large subclass of the finite Frobenius rings. We do not assume commutativity of the rings in question.Comment: 12 page

Clifford correspondence for algebras

We give a Clifford correspondence for an algebra A over an algebraically closed field, that is an algorithm for constructing some finite-dimensional simple A-modules from simple modules for a subalgebra and endomorphism algebras. This applies to all finite-dimensional simple A-modules in the case that A is finite-dimensional and semisimple with a given semisimple subalgebra. We discuss connections between our work and earlier results, with a view towards applications particularly to finite-dimensional semisimple Hopf algebras.Comment: 12 page

Yang-Mills theory and Tamagawa numbers

Atiyah and Bott used equivariant Morse theory applied to the Yang-Mills functional to calculate the Betti numbers of moduli spaces of vector bundles over a Riemann surface, rederiving inductive formulae obtained from an arithmetic approach which involved the Tamagawa number of SL_n. This article surveys this link between Yang-Mills theory and Tamagawa numbers, and explains how methods used over the last three decades to study the singular cohomology of moduli spaces of bundles on a smooth complex projective curve can be adapted to the setting of A^1-homotopy theory to study the motivic cohomology of these moduli spaces.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Societ