Dear GAP-Forum,
On Wed, 27 Dec 2000, Martin Roetteler wrote:
we would like to compute the multiplicities of the trivial character in the
k-fold symmetric power of a representation of a finite group G over
the finite field GF(2). Could anyone guide us for the appropriate routines
in GAP for doing this.Martin Roetteler & Chris Charnes
If you know  for your group its Brauer character  table in characteristic 2,
and if you have the Brauer character of your representation as well, you can
proceed as in the following example:
ct:=CharacterTable("A5") mod 2;
Display(ct);
s30 := SymmetricParts(ct, Irr(ct){[4]},30);
Decomposition(Irr(ct), s30, "nonnegative");
If you want to know more details, like `how many trivial constituents are in
the  socle?' the  question becomes  much more  difficult. In  that case  you
probably  must use  the representation  itself and  to use  the MeatAxe,  as
suggested in Derek Holt's answer.
Best regards,
Frank Luebeck
/// Dr. Frank Lübeck, Lehrstuhl D für Mathematik, Templergraben 64, /// \\\ 52062 Aachen, Germany \\\ /// E-mail: Frank.Luebeck@Math.RWTH-Aachen.De /// \\\ WWW: http://www.math.rwth-aachen.de/~Frank.Luebeck/ \\\