The unitary cover of a finite group and the exponent of the Schur multiplier. (Q2255074)

Let \(G\) be a finite group. The Schur multiplier \(M(G)=H^2(G,\mathbb C^\times)\) plays a central role in the study of \(G\), and is especially useful in studying representations and projective representations of \(G\). In this paper the author studies the exponent of the Schur multiplier. He gives a bound for \(\exp(M(G))\) in case \(G\) is a \(p\)-group of derived length \(d\) (this bound depends on \(p\) and \(d\)), which improves results of Moravec, Jones and Ellis. In many well known cases the exponent of \(M(G)\) divides the exponent of \(G\). The author proves that this property holds for a regular \(p\)-group \(G\) if and only if it holds for the maximal exponent \(p\) quotient of \(G\). The proof of these results is based on a construction of a canonical central extension \(\Gamma_u(G)\) of \(G\) which appears in the paper. This extension has minimal exponent among all the central extensions of \(G\), and it satisfies the projective lifting property, which means that every projective representation of \(G\) can be lifted to a proper representation of \(\Gamma_u(G)\). The author also relates the exponents of the unitary cover and the exponents of the groups \(G\), \(M(G)\) and certain of \(G\) by certain divisibility formulas.