2 dimensional faithful quaternionic irreps of a finite group

charactersfinite-groupsgroup-theoryquaternionsrepresentation-theory

I am interested in finite groups with faithful 2 dimensional quaternionic irreps (finite subgroups of $ Sp_2 $).

Given a finite group $ G $ it is easy to find the character table (using GAP say) and from there determine the dimensions of its faithful complex irreps. From this information is there a way for me to determine the dimensions of its faithful quaternionic irreps?

Some background: the only groups with faithful 1 dimensional quaternionic irreps are

  • all the cyclic groups $C_n$,
  • all the dicyclic (also called binary dihedral) groups $Dic_{4n}$ of order $4n$,
  • the binary tetrahedral group $2.A_4 \cong SL_2(3)$ of order $24$,
  • the binary octahedral group $2.S_4 \cong GL_2(3)$ of order $48$,
  • and the binary icosahedral group $2.A_5 \cong SL_2(5)$ of order $ 120 $

Best Answer

Let $ G $ be a finite subgroup of $ Sp_2 $. That is equivalent to being a finite subgroup of $ GL_2(\mathbb{H}) $ the group of $ 2 \times 2 $ invertible quaternionic matrices. The finite subgroups of $ GL_2(\mathbb{H}) $ are classified in

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82740228.pdf

There are a bunch of solvable subgroups, possibilities given on pages 477-478.

The quasisimple ones are $ SL_2(5) $ and $ SL_2(9) $.

Another interesting non solvable subgroup is $ \mathcal{B}^* $, the lift through the double cover $ Sp_2 \to SO_5 $ of the weyl group $ W(D_5) $ of determinant 1 signed permutation matrices. Also $ \mathcal{B} $, the commutator subgroup of $ \mathcal{B}^* $, is PerfectGroup(1920,6).

There are some variants on those groups also, but those are basically the most interesting ones.