The plethystic inverse of the odd Lie representations

Abstract

The Frobenius characteristic of $Lie_n,$ the representation of the symmetric group $S_n$ afforded by the multilinear component of the free Lie algebra, is known to satisfy many interesting plethystic identities. In this paper we prove a conjecture of Richard Stanley establishing the plethystic inverse of the sum $\sum_{n\geq 0} Lie_{2n+1}$ of the odd Lie characteristics. We obtain an apparently new plethystic decomposition of the regular representation of $S_n$ in terms of irreducibles indexed by hooks, and the Lie representations. We determine the plethystic inverse of the alternating sum of the odd Lie characteristics.