The cellular structure of the classifying spaces of finite groups (Q1758903)

The primary result of this paper is a description of the \(B\mathbb{Z}/p\)-cellularization of the classifying space \(BG\), for any finite group \(G\) (and prime \(p\)). The \(B\mathbb{Z}/p\)-cellularization of a topological space is a homotopy approximation, analogous to the usual cellular approximation, but with suspensions of \(B\mathbb{Z}/p\) replacing spheres (see [\textit{E. Dror Farjoun}, Cellular spaces, null spaces and homotopy localization. Berlin: Springer (1995; Zbl 0842.55001); \textit{W. Chachólski}, Duke Math. J. 84, No. 3, 599--631 (1996; Zbl 0873.55014)]). Let \(\Omega_1(G)\) denote the subgroup of \(G\) generated by elements of order \(p\). Since the \(B\mathbb{Z}/p\)-cellularizations of \(BG\) and \(B\Omega_1(G)\) are homotopy equivalent, it is sufficient to restrict to groups generated by elements of order \(p\). Under this hypothesis, the \(B\mathbb{Z}/p\)-cellularization of \(BG\) is the homotopy fibre of a natural map from \(BG\) into a product of completions of classifying spaces, \(B\Gamma_p^{\wedge}\times\prod_{q\not=p}BG_q^{\wedge}\). The definition of \(\Gamma\) requires a few preliminary definitions. Let \(S\) denote a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of \(G\) and let \(A\) denote the minimal strongly closed subgroup of \(S\) containing all elements of order \(p\) in \(S\). Then \(\mathcal{O}_A(G)\) is the largest normal subgroup \(N\) of \(G\) for which \(N\cap A\) is a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of \(N\). Let \(\rho\) denote the quotient map from \(G\) to \(G/\mathcal{O}_A(G)\). The group \(\Gamma\) is the quotient of the normaliser \(N_{\rho(G)}(\rho(A))/\rho(A)\). The final section of the paper gives a number of interesting examples.