Alperin's weight conjecture in terms of equivariant Bredon cohomology (Q2484054)

In its original version, \textit{J. L. Alperin}'s weight conjecture [Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 47, 369--379 (1987; Zbl 0657.20013)] is a numerical statement on the number \(\ell(kG)\) of isomorphism classes of simple modules over the group algebra \(kG\) of a finite group over an algebraically closed field \(k\) of prime characteristic \(p\), in terms of invariants of normalisers of non-trivial \(p\)-subgroups of \(G\). The purpose of the present paper is to reformulate this conjecture in terms of the cohomology of a functor on a category obtained from a subdivision construction applied to a centric linking system [\textit{C. Broto}, \textit{R. Levi} and \textit{B. Oliver}, Invent. Math. 151, 611--664 (2003; Zbl 1042.55008)] of a fusion system of a block, which in turn can be interpreted as the equivariant Bredon cohomology of a certain functor on the \(G\)-poset of centric Brauer pairs. The underlying general constructions of categories and functors needed for this reformulation are described in \S1 (Subdivisions of EI-categories) and \S2 (Automorphism functors), respectively, and \S3 (A covariant projective resolution for subdivisions) provides a tool for computing the cohomology of the functors arising in \S2. Taking as starting point the alternating sum formulation of Alperin's weight conjecture by \textit{R. Knörr} and \textit{G. R. Robinson} [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 39, 48--60 (1989; Zbl 0672.20005)], the material of the previous sections is applied in \S4 (Alperin's conjecture in terms of functor cohomology) to interpret the terms in its alternating sum as dimensions of cohomology spaces of appropriate functors, using further work of \textit{G. R. Robinson} [J. Algebra 249, 196--219 (2002; Zbl 1011.20013); J. Algebra 249, 463--471 (2002; Zbl 1005.20014); J. Algebra 276, 761--775 (2004; Zbl 1121.20007)]. In \S5 the author illustrates the main result of the paper (the reformulated Alperin's conjecture) by describing the particular cases of principal blocks and blocks with abelian defect groups.