The purpose of the following sections will be to determine the distribution into p-blocks of the ordinary absolutely irreducible representations of the symmetric group of degree n. This group will be denoted by Sn. A matrix representation R, of degree f, over a field F, of a group G, is a homomorphic mapping of the elements of G onto a set of square matrices of degree f over the field F. We shall limit ourselves to proper representations, for which R(1) =If' the unit matrix of degree f, and to finite groups.

Zassenhaus, H. (Supervisor)