A recursion formula for the irreducible characters of the symmetric group

Abstract

The branching theorem expresses irreducible character values for the symmetric group $S_n$ in terms of those for $S_{n-1}$, but it gives the values only at elements of $S_n$ having a fixed point. We extend the theorem by providing a recursion formula that handles the remaining cases. It expresses these character values in terms of values for $S_{n-1}$ together with values for $S_n$ that are already known in the recursive process. This provides an alternative to the Murnaghan-Nakayama formula.