The imprimitive faithful complex characters of the Schur covers of the symmetric and alternating groups.

Using combinatorics and character theory, we determine the imprimitive faithful complex characters, i.e., the irreducible faithful complex characters which are induced from proper subgroups, of the Schur covers of the symmetric and alternating groups. Furthermore, for every imprimitive character we establish all its minimal block stabilizers. As a corollary, we also determine the monomial faithful characters of the Schur covers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]