On Schur rings over infinite groups (Q2188380)

The authors define Schur rings over arbitrary groups, thus generalizing the corresponding notion for finite groups. For a field \(F\) of characteristic \(0\) and a group \(G\), a Schur ring over \(G\) is a subalgebra of the group algebra \(F[G]\) defined by a partition of \(G\) into finite subsets satisfying certain conditions. One of the main results of the paper classifies the Schur rings over a torsion-free locally cyclic group \(G \ne 1\); there are precisely two of these, corresponding to the partitions \(\{g\}\) (\(g \in G\)) and \(\{g,g^{-1}\}\) (\(g \in G\)). The authors then also classify the countably many Schur rings over \(G \times Z_2\) where \(Z_2\) is a cyclic group of order \(2\). These results apply, in particular, when \(G\) is an infinite cyclic group. The authors also construct some Schur rings over free groups and certain Schur rings over free products of groups.