A Combinatorial Determinant Dual to the Group Determinant

Abstract

We define the commuting algebra determinant of a finite group action on a finite set, a notion dual to the group determinant of Dedekind. We give the following combinatorial example of a commuting algebra determinant. Let $\Bq(n)$ denote the set of all subspaces of an $n$-dimensional vector space over $\Fq$. The {\em type} of an ordered pair $(U,V)$ of subspaces, where $U,V\in \Bq(n)$, is the ordered triple $(\mbox{dim }U, \mbox{dim }V, \mbox{dim }U\cap V)$ of nonnegative integers. Assume that there are independent indeterminates corresponding to each type. Let $X_q(n)$ be the $\Bq(n)\times \Bq(n)$ matrix whose entry in row $U$, column $V$ is the indeterminate corresponding to the type of $(U,V)$. We factorize the determinant of $X_q(n)$ into irreducible polynomials.