Carlos André
Abstract: The description of the irreducible complex characters of finite algebra groups is known to be a wild problem since it includes the problem of simultaneous conjugation of matrices. Supercharacter theories were introduced to approximate the irreducible character theory of these groups. In this talk, we consider the special family of finite McLain groups (which are associated with partially ordered sets), and discuss the wilderness of describing their standard supercharacters. In particular, we show how this question may be reduced to a well-known linear matrix problem.
