Algebras and quaternion defect groups. I, II (Q1109111)

The structure of blocks with cyclic defect groups was determined by R. Brauer and E. C. Dade. The author has recently been able to achieve a similar goal for blocks with dihedral, semidihedral or (generalized) quaternion defect groups. The papers under review contain her results for the (generalized) quaternion case. Let B be a block of the group algebra FG where G is a finite group and F is an algebraically closed field of characteristic 2, and suppose that B has (generalized) quaternion defect groups. It is known that B satisfies the following properties: (1) B is symmetric, indecomposable, not wild and not of finite representation type; (2) Every projective-free B-module is \(\Omega\)-periodic, of period dividing 4; (3) The Cartan matrix of B is non-singular. The strategy of the author is to classify finite-dimensional algebras satisfying (1)-(3) first and filter out the algebras occurring as blocks of finite groups later. So let \(\Lambda\) be a finite-dimensional algebra satisfying (1)- (3); the author says that \(\Lambda\) is of quaternion type. In a previous paper [Arch. Math. 51, No.1, 34-38 (1988; Zbl 0651.16011)] the author has shown that \(\Lambda\) has at most three simple modules. The main results of the papers under review describe the possible Morita equivalence types for \(\Lambda\) by generators (the ordinary quiver) and relations; as a corollary, the Cartan matrix of \(\Lambda\) is obtained in each case. Using results by R. Brauer and J. Olsson on elementary divisors of the Cartan matrix and relations for decomposition numbers of blocks the author then determines which algebras of quaternion type occur as blocks with quaternion defect groups; in particular, the possible decomposition matrices are computed. Part I contains the results for algebras with one or two simple modules, and part II those for algebras with three simple modules.