Symmetric power

In mathematics, the n-th symmetric power of an object X is the quotient of the n-fold product X n := X × × X {\displaystyle X^{n}:=X\times \cdots \times X} by the permutation action of the symmetric group S n {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {S}}_{n}} .

More precisely, the notion exists at least in the following three areas:

  • In linear algebra, the n-th symmetric power of a vector space V is the vector subspace of the symmetric algebra of V consisting of degree-n elements (here the product is a tensor product).
  • In algebraic topology, the n-th symmetric power of a topological space X is the quotient space X n / S n {\displaystyle X^{n}/{\mathfrak {S}}_{n}} , as in the beginning of this article.
  • In algebraic geometry, a symmetric power is defined in a way similar to that in algebraic topology. For example, if X = Spec ( A ) {\displaystyle X=\operatorname {Spec} (A)} is an affine variety, then the GIT quotient Spec ( ( A k k A ) S n ) {\displaystyle \operatorname {Spec} ((A\otimes _{k}\dots \otimes _{k}A)^{{\mathfrak {S}}_{n}})} is the n-th symmetric power of X.

References

  • Eisenbud, David; Harris, Joe, 3264 and All That: A Second Course in Algebraic Geometry, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-107-01708-5

External links

  • Hopkins, Michael J. (March 2018). "Symmetric powers of the sphere" (PDF).


  • v
  • t
  • e