Counting characters in blocks with cyclic defect groups. I (Q1355556)

One of the most intruiging problems in modular representation theory is Dade's conjecture relating the number of irreducible characters with a given defect in a given \(p\)-block \(B\) of a finite group \(G\) to the numbers of such characters with the same defect in corresponding blocks of certain \(p\)-local subgroups of \(G\). This conjecture generalizes both the Alperin-McKay conjecture on characters of height zero and Alperin's weight conjecture (in the Knörr-Robinson formulation). Actually, there are different forms of Dade's conjecture. In the paper under review, one of these forms, the ``invariant projective conjecture'' is shown to hold for blocks with cyclic defect groups. (This is not the strongest form of the conjecture. The author announces that this stronger form, the ``inductive conjecture'' is also valid for blocks with cyclic defect groups. The author intends to prove this in part II of this paper).