Outer group automorphisms may become inner in the integral group ring (Q1901024)

Let \(R\) be a ring or a group and let \(\text{Out}(R)\) be the set of the automorphisms of \(R\) which are not inner. Let \(\text{Outcent}(R)\) be the set of all automorphisms in \(\text{Out}(R)\) which act as the identity on the centre of \(R\). It follows from a result of \textit{D. Coleman} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 15, 511-514 (1964; Zbl 0132.275)] that the natural map \(\phi:\text{Out}(G)\to\text{Out}(KG)\) is injective for \(p\)-groups. Here \(KG\) is the group ring of the group \(G\) over the ring \(K\) of integers in a global or a local number field, in which \(p\) is not invertible. In this paper the authors construct a finite group which has an automorphism \(\alpha\in\text{Out}(G)\), but \(\phi(\alpha)\notin\text{Out}(KG)\), where \(K\) is the ring of algebraic integers in a suitably chosen algebraic number field. A consequence of their arguments is that \(\alpha\) is inner in \(KG\) for every field \(K\). Moreover, they construct a group ring \(KG\) of a finite group \(G\) of order \(2^7\cdot 225\), where the natural map \(\text{Outcent}(G)\to\text{Outcent}(KG)\) is not injective.