On the image of the trivial source ring in the ring of virtual characters of a finite group (Q2077140)

Let \(p\) be a prime and \((\mathbb{K},\mathcal{O},k)\) a \(p\)-modular system. For a finite group \(G\), a finitely generated \(\mathcal{O}G\)-module \(M\) is called a trivial source module if all its indecomposable direct summands have trivial source. Let \(\mu_{p'}\) denote the group of complex roots of unity whose order is not divisible by \(p\) and set \(K=\mathbb{Q}(\mu_{p'})\) as a subfield of \(\mathbb{K}\). Let \(R_K(G)\) and \(T_\mathcal{O}(G)\) denote the Grothendieck rings of isomorphism classes of finitely generated \(KG\)-modules and trivial source \(\mathcal{O}G\)- modules, respectively. Via the extension of scalars \(\mathcal{O}\mapsto \mathbb{K}\) one obtains a natural transformation \(\kappa\) between the functors \(T_\mathcal{O}\) and \(R_K\). The quotient \(R_K/\mathrm{im}(\kappa)\), in a sense, determines those \(p\)-permutation equivalences that can be lifted to an isotypy, from whence the author's motivation comes for its study. The author shows that in most instances \(R_K(G)/\mathrm{im}(\kappa_G)\) is trivial, except when \(p=2\) (Theorem \(1.1\)). For this case, author completely determines the subfunctor structure of this quotient (Theorem \(5.8\)). He also provides a necessary and sufficient condition for a character \(\chi\) to be in \(\mathrm{im}(\kappa_G)\) (Corollary \(5.9\)). His methods favor from the fact that the restriction of the functor \(R_K/\mathrm{im}(\kappa)\) to the full subcategory of the biset category obtained by restricting the set of objects to finite \(p\)-groups, is a rational \(p\)-biset functor.