The Dade group of a \(p\)-group. (Q2491157)

In this important paper, the author determines the precise structure of the Dade group \(D(P)\) of a finite \(p\)-group \(P\), for a prime number \(p\). It thus completes the work of Alperin, Bouc, Carlson, Dade, Puig, Thévenaz and others on this subject which altogether extends over a period of almost 30 years and about 500 journal pages. The elements of \(D(P)\) are isomorphism classes of indecomposable endo-permutation \(kP\)-modules with vertex \(P\) where \(k\) is a field of characteristic \(p\) (or a suitable complete discrete valuation ring). The multiplication in \(D(P)\) comes from the tensor product. By a result of Puig, \(D(P)\) is always a finitely generated Abelian group. Earlier work of Bouc and Thévenaz showed that the rank of the torsion-free part of \(D(P)\) coincides with the number of conjugacy classes of non-cyclic subgroups of \(P\). Here the author proves that the torsion subgroup of \(D(P)\) is isomorphic to \((\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})^n\oplus(\mathbb{Z}/4\mathbb{Z})^m\) where \(m\) is the number of isomorphism classes of simple \(\mathbb{Q} P\)-modules of generalized quaternion type, and \(n\) is the number of isomorphism classes of simple \(\mathbb{Q} P\)-modules whose type is (i) cyclic of order at least 3, or semidihedral, or generalized quaternion, if \(k\) contains a primitive third root of 1, (ii) cyclic of order at least 3, or semidihedral, or generalized quaternion of order at least 16, otherwise. We recall the definition of the type of a simple \(\mathbb{Q} P\)-module \(V\). By earlier work of the author, there exist subgroups \(S\trianglelefteq T\) of \(P\) such that (1) \(T/S\) has normal \(p\)-rank 1 (so that \(T/S\) is cyclic, dihedral, semidihedral or generalized quaternion), (2) \(V\cong\text{Ind}^P_T\,\text{Inf}^T_{T/S}\Phi\) where \(\Phi\) is the unique faithful simple \(\mathbb{Q}[T/S]\)-module, (3) \(\langle V,V\rangle_P=\langle\Phi,\Phi\rangle_{T/S}\). In this case, \(T/S\) is unique up to isomorphism and called the type of \(V\). The author not only determines the isomorphism type of \(D(P)\), but also constructs explicit generators and determines their relations. One of the main tools of the paper is the notion of a biset functor, i.e., an additive functor from a category \({\mathcal C}_p\) to the category of Abelian groups. Here \({\mathcal C}_p\) is the category whose objects are the finite \(p\)-groups and whose morphisms are the virtual \(Q\)-\(P\)-bisets, for finite \(p\)-groups \(P\) and \(Q\). Important examples of biset functors are the Burnside group functor \(B\) and the functor \(R_\mathbb{Q}\) given by the group of rational representations. The Dade group \(D(P)\) itself does not define a biset functor (in general), but an important subgroup \(D^\Omega(P)\) does give a biset functor \(D^\Omega\). These biset functors are related by a short exact sequence \[ 0\to R^*_\mathbb{Q}\to B^*\to D^\Omega/D^\Omega_{\text{tors}}\to 0 \] where \(D^\Omega_{\text{tors}}(P)\) denotes the torsion subgroup of \(D(P)\), and \(R^*_\mathbb{Q},B^*\) are the dual functors of \(R_\mathbb{Q}\) and \(B\), respectively. Moreover, the natural transformation \(R^*_\mathbb{Q}\to B^*\) is the dual of the natural transformation \(B\to R_\mathbb{Q}\) assigning to a finite \(P\)-set the corresponding permutation module. Then an important step in the proof of the main result is an explicit description of the kernel of \(B(P)\to R_\mathbb{Q}(P)\).