When are permutation invariants Cohen-Macaulay?

Abstract

Over a field of characteristic 0, every ring of invariants of a finite group is Cohen-Macaulay. This is not true for fields of positive characteristic. We consider permutation representations and their invariant rings over fields $\mathbb{F}_p$ of prime order. We give an efficient algorithm which for any given permutation representation, determines those primes $p$ for which the invariant ring over $\mathbb{F}_p$ is Cohen-Macaulay, using linear algebra over $\ZZ$. A generalization of the classical discriminant associated to the alternating group is defined for subgroups of certain finite unitary complex reflection groups.