The principal \(3\)-blocks of four- and five-dimensional projective special linear groups in non-defining characteristic (Q1977543)

Let \(G\) be a finite group and \(F\) a field of characteristic \(p>0\) such that \(F\) is a splitting field for \(FG\). Let \(P\) be a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of \(G\) and \(H=N_G(P)\). A conjecture of M.~Broué states that if \(P\) is Abelian, then there is a derived equivalence between the principal blocks of \(FG\) and \(FH\), which induces derived equivalences between the principal blocks of \(FC_G(Q)\) and \(FC_H(Q)\), for all subgroups \(Q\) of \(P\). In this paper the authors verify the conjecture for \(p=3\), \(G=\text{PSL}_4(q)\) and \(G=\text{PSL}_5(q)\), where \(q\) is a power of a prime and \(q\equiv 2\) or \(5\pmod 9\). This is part of a program started by T.~Okuyama which leads to the verification of the conjecture in the case where \(P\) is elementary Abelian of order \(9\).