Notes on \(p\)-blocks of characters of finite groups (Q2277569)

Let \(B\) be a \(p\)-block of the finite group \(G\) with Abelian defect group \(D\). Let \(b\) be a root of \(B\) in \(C(D)\) and \(T(b)\) its inertial group in \(N(D)\). The first main result states that if \(\sigma\in D\) centralizes \(T(b)\), then the blocks \(B\) and \(b^{C(\sigma)}\) have the same numbers of ordinary and modular irreducible characters. This has some interesting corollaries. The second main result gives a congruence for an arbitrary block \(B\) relating the contributions of the unit subsection (to the inner product of irreducible characters in \(B\)) to that of other subsections.