Kronecker Coefficients: Largest Known Computation

The Finding

We computed the complete Kronecker coefficient table $g(\lambda, \mu, \nu)$ for all triples of partitions of $n = 20$ and $n = 30$:

$n$	Partitions $p(n)$	Unique triples	Nonzero	Max $g$	GPU time
20	627	41,081,980	32,672,202 (79.5%)	6,408,361	3.7 sec
30	5,604	29,332,098,144	26,368,860,547 (89.9%)	24,233,221,539,853	7.4 min

The S$_{30}$ computation is to our knowledge, the largest Kronecker coefficient table published. The previous systematic frontier was $n \approx 20$ (browser-based tools handle this in seconds). We extended it by 50% in $n$ and by a factor of $\sim 700\times$ in the number of triples.

Why This Matters

Geometric Complexity Theory

Kronecker coefficients are central to the Mulmuley-Sohoni program for proving $\mathsf{P} \neq \mathsf{NP}$ via algebraic geometry. The program requires understanding which Kronecker coefficients are zero vs. positive for specific partition families (near-rectangular shapes). Our complete S$_{30}$ table provides exhaustive data for all partition shapes at this scale.

No Combinatorial Formula

Despite decades of effort, no combinatorial formula for Kronecker coefficients is known — this is one of the major open problems in algebraic combinatorics. Computing them requires either character-theoretic methods (as we do) or polytope-theoretic approaches (Barvinok). Our data provides the raw material for pattern discovery.

The 90% Nonzero Rate

At $n = 30$, 90% of Kronecker triples are nonzero. This increases from 79.5% at $n = 20$. The growth of the nonzero fraction with $n$ is itself an interesting phenomenon — it relates to the asymptotic density of the Kronecker cone.

Method

Phase 1: Character Table (CPU)

The character values $\chi^\lambda(\rho)$ are computed via the Murnaghan-Nakayama rule using a rim-path border strip enumeration:

1. Compute the rim path of the Young diagram (SE boundary from SW to NE)
2. A border strip of size $k$ is a contiguous subpath of length $k$ on the rim
3. For each strip: remove cells, compute height (number of rows spanned $- 1$), recurse

Validation: Row and column orthogonality pass for $S_5$ through $S_{12}$. Dimension sum $\sum_\lambda \dim(\lambda)^2 = n!$ confirmed.

• S$_{20}$: 627 $\times$ 627 = 393K entries, 1.7 seconds
• S$_{30}$: 5,604 $\times$ 5,604 = 31M entries, 220 seconds

Phase 2: Kronecker Triple-Sum (GPU)

Pure CUDA kernel on NVIDIA B200. For each fixed $j$:

$g(i, j, k) = \sum_{\rho \vdash n} \frac{1}{z_\rho} \chi^\lambda_i(\rho) \, \chi^\lambda_j(\rho) \, \chi^\lambda_k(\rho)$

Each slab is a GPU kernel launch with $P \times P$ threads. Statistics (nonzero count, max value) computed via atomic operations on GPU — no data copied back to CPU.

• S$_{20}$: 627 slabs $\times$ 393K threads = 3.7 seconds
• S$_{30}$: 5,604 slabs $\times$ 31.4M threads = 7.4 minutes

Reproduce

git clone https://github.com/cahlen/idontknow
cd idontknow

# Step 1: Compute character table (CPU)
python3 scripts/experiments/kronecker-coefficients-gpu/char_table.py 20

# Step 2: GPU Kronecker triple-sum
nvcc -O3 -arch=sm_100a -o kronecker_gpu \
    scripts/experiments/kronecker-coefficients-gpu/kronecker_gpu.cu -lm
./kronecker_gpu 20

Data

• Hugging Face: cahlen/kronecker-coefficients
• Source code: github.com/cahlen/idontknow

References

1. Murnaghan, F.D. (1938). “The Analysis of the Kronecker Product of Irreducible Representations of the Symmetric Group.” American Journal of Mathematics, 60(3), pp. 761–784.
2. Bürgisser, P. and Ikenmeyer, C. (2008). “The complexity of computing Kronecker coefficients.” DMTCS Proceedings, FPSAC 2008.
3. Ikenmeyer, C., Mulmuley, K., and Walter, M. (2017). “On vanishing of Kronecker coefficients.” Computational Complexity, 26(4), pp. 949–992.
4. Pak, I. and Panova, G. (2017). “On the complexity of computing Kronecker coefficients.” Computational Complexity, 26(1), pp. 1–36.

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Computed 2026-03-31 on NVIDIA B200 (DGX cluster). This work was produced through human–AI collaboration (Cahlen Humphreys + Claude). Not independently peer-reviewed. All code and data open for verification at github.com/cahlen/idontknow.