On the local structure of Morita and Rickard equivalences between Brauer blocks (Q1292934)

The author investigates the behaviour of the local structure of a block under Morita equivalences, stable equivalences of Morita type (called Morita stable equivalences here) and Rickard equivalences. The local structure of a block is expressed mainly in terms of its local category (consisting of local pointed groups and their exomorphisms), its Brauer category (consisting of Brauer pairs and their exomorphisms) and its source algebra. In this review we can describe only some of the main topics; for more detail we refer to a survey article (without proofs) written by the author [A survey on the local structure of Morita and Rickard equivalences between Brauer blocks, Ohio State Univ. Math. Res. Inst. Publ. 6, 101-126 (1997; Zbl 0904.20006)]. Like the author, we start by considering the most familiar case of Morita equivalences. Let \(\mathcal O\) be a suitable \(p\)-adic valuation ring with residue field \(k\), let \(b,b'\) be blocks of finite groups \(G,G'\), and suppose that the corresponding block algebras \(A={\mathcal O}Gb\), \(A'={\mathcal O}G'b'\) are Morita equivalent. Then, as is well-known, there is an \(A\)-\(A'\)-bimodule \(M^{..}\) such that \(M^{..}\otimes_{A'}(M^{..})^*\cong A\) (as \(A\)-\(A\)-bimodule) and \((M^{..})^*\otimes_A M^{..}\cong A'\) (as \(A'\)-\(A'\)-bimodule); here \((M^{..})^*\) denotes the dual module. We can regard \(M^{..}\) as an \({\mathcal O}(G\times G')\)-module, and then it is indecomposable. Thus it makes sense to consider a vertex \(P^{..}\) and a \(P^{..}\)-source \(N^{..}\) of \(M^{..}\). The author proves that the canonical images \(P\) and \(P'\) of \(P^{..}\) are defect groups of \(b\) and \(b'\), respectively. Moreover, the source algebra \(A_\gamma\) of \(b\) can be computed from the source algebra \(A_{\gamma'}'\) and the module \(N^{..}\) via a generalized version of the induction functor for interior algebras. The author shows also that \(P\cong P^{..}\) if and only if \(P'\cong P^{..}\) if and only if \(p\) does not divide the rank of \(N^{..}\) over \(\mathcal O\) if and only if \(N^{..}\) is an endopermutation module. In this case the Morita equivalence is called basic. Suppose now that the Morita equivalence defined by \(M^{..}\) is basic. Then the local categories (and Brauer categories) of \(b\) and \(b'\) are equivalent. Moreover, if \((Q,b_Q)\) is a \(b\)-Brauer pair and \((Q',b_{Q'}')\) the corresponding \(b'\)-Brauer pair then there is a basic Morita equivalence between \(b_Q\) and \(b_{Q'}'\) over \(k\). The existence of a basic Morita equivalence over \(\mathcal O\) between \(b_Q\) and \(b_{Q'}'\) remains open in general because of unresolved questions about the liftability of endopermutation modules. The results described so far generalize without too much difficulty to Morita stable equivalences. The author shows that, if \(\mathcal O\) has characteristic zero, then any block which is Morita (stably) equivalent to a nilpotent block is also nilpotent. The last (and main) part of the book deals with Rickard equivalences. These are investigated in the framework of \({\mathcal D}G\)-interior algebras where \(\mathcal D\) is an \(\mathcal O\)-algebra encoding the grading and the differential of chain complexes. Again, let \(b,b'\) be blocks of finite groups \(G,G'\). The author says that \(b\) and \(b'\) are Rickard equivalent if there is an indecomposable \({\mathcal D}(G\times G')\)-module \(M^{..}\) with projective restrictions to \({\mathcal O}G\) and \({\mathcal O}G'\) such that \(M^{..}\otimes_{{\mathcal O}G'}(M^{..})^*\) is isomorphic to \(A={\mathcal O}Gb\) in the homotopy category of \({\mathcal D}(G\times G)\) and such that \((M^{..})^*\otimes_{{\mathcal O}G}M^{..}\) is isomorphic to \(A'={\mathcal O}Gb'\) in the homotopy category of \({\mathcal D}(G'\times G')\). (Derived categories do not appear explicitly in this book.) In this case, let \(P^{..}\) be a vertex and \(N^{..}\) be a \({\mathcal D}P^{..}\)-vertex of \(M^{..}\). The author shows that, as before, the canonical images \(P,P'\) of \(P^{..}\) are defect groups of \(b,b'\), respectively, and that the source algebra \(A_\gamma\) of \(b\) can be computed from \(N^{..}\) and the source algebra \(A_{\gamma'}'\) of \(b'\). As before, basic Rickard equivalences are of particular interest. If \(\mathcal O\) has characteristic zero, these are characterized by the condition that \(\text{Ind}_\sigma(N^{..})\) and \(\text{Ind}_{\sigma'}(N^{..})\) are endopermutation modules where \(\sigma\colon P^{..}\to P\) and \(\sigma'\colon P^{..}\to P'\) are canonical. Basic Rickard equivalences include as a special case the splendid equivalences considered by Rickard. Suppose now that \(M^{..}\) defines a basic Rickard equivalence. The author shows that then the Brauer categories of \(b\) and \(b'\) are equivalent. Moreover, if \((Q,b_Q)\) is a \(b\)-Brauer pair and \((Q',b_{Q'}')\) the corresponding \(b'\)-Brauer pair then there is a basic Rickard equivalence between \(b_Q\) and \(b_{Q'}'\) over \(k\). On the other hand, there does not seem to be a direct connection between the local categories of \(b\) and \(b'\); but this is not very surprising since local points correspond to simple modules, and these are not expected to behave well under Rickard equivalences. The book concludes with two appendices. In the first, a short proof of a criterion by A. Weiss for permutation modules over \(p\)-groups is given. The second deals with tensor induced \(\mathcal D\)-interior \(G\)-algebras.