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Let $$f(x_1, x_2, x_3, x_4) := \frac{x_1^{-3} x_2^{-2} x_3^{-1}}{(1 - x_1^2) (1 -x_1^2 x_2^2) (1 - x_1^2 x_2^2 x_3^2) (1 - x_1^2 x_2^2 x_3^2 x_4^2)}.$$ I am trying to compute $$\sum_{w\in S_4} (-1)^{\overline{w}} w(f),$$ where $\overline{w}$ is the parity of the permutation element $w$ (it's the number of transpositions when $w$ is written as a product of such), and $w$ is acting $f$ via the indices of the variables $x_i$.

I have this code

f[x1_, x2_, x3_, x4_] := (x1^-3 x2^-2 x3^-1)/((1 - x1^2) (1 - x1^2 x2^2) (1 - x1^2 x2^2 x3^2)(1 - x1^2 x2^2 x3^2 x4^2));

Total[Permute[g @@ Array[Subscript[x, #] &, 4], #] & /@GroupElements[SymmetricGroup[4]] /. g -> f]

but I am not sure how to incorporate the Signature[] of some permutation element so that it coincides with Permute in the code.

Mee Seong Im
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1 Answers1

3

The problem is that Signature wants to operate on expressions and interprets each Cycles[...] object as a list of length 1. You can convert Cycles objects to list with PermutationsList and apply Signature afterwards.

With[{xx = Array[Subscript[x, #] &, 4]},

 Sum[
  Signature[PermutationList[σ, 4]] f @@ Permute[xx, σ],
  {σ, GroupElements[SymmetricGroup[4]]}
  ]

 ]

Alternatively, you may skip the group hokus-pokus and use Permutations:

With[{xx = Array[Subscript[x, #] &, 4]},

 Sum[
  Signature[p] f @@ xx[[p]],
  {p, Permutations[Range[4]]}
  ]

 ]
Henrik Schumacher
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