Orthogonal units of the bifree double Burnside ring (Q401014)

Let \(G\) and \(H\) be finite groups. The double Burnside group \(B(G,H)\) is the Grothendieck group of finite \((G,H)\)-bisets \(X\). The Grothendieck group \(B^\Delta(G,H)\) of bifree \((G,H)\)-bisets (i.e. free when considered as left \(G\)-set and as right \(H\)-set) can be regarded as a subgroup of \(B(G,H)\). If \(X\) is a \((G,H)\)-biset, then the set \(X\) can be regarded as a \((H,G)\)-biset \(X^\circ\) via \(hxg:=g^{-1}xh^{-1}\). If \(X\) is a \((G,H)\)-biset and \(Y\) is an \((H,K)\)-biset then the tensor product \(X\times_H Y\) is defined as the set of \(H\)-orbits of \(X\times Y\) under the \(H\)-action \(h\cdot (x,y):=(xh^{-1},hy)\) for \(h\in H\) and \((x,y)\in X\times Y.\) This operation defines the bilinear map \(-\cdot_H-: B(G,H) \times B(H,K) \to B(G,K),\) and let \(B^\Delta_\circ(G,H)\) be the set of all elements \(\gamma\in B^\Delta(G,H)\) satisfying \(\gamma \cdot_H \gamma ^\circ = [G]\) in \(B^\Delta (G,G)\) and \(\gamma^\circ \cdot_G \gamma = [H]\) in \(B^\Delta (H,H)\). In this paper, the authors essentially study the group \(B^\Delta_\circ (G,G)\) of orthogonal units in the bifree double Burnside ring \(B^\Delta (G,G)\). The main results of the paper are related to questions on equivalences of \(p\)-blocks of group algebras, and read as follows. The set \(B^\Delta_\circ (G,H)\) is finite. The set \(B^\Delta_\circ (G,H)\) is non-empty if and only if \(G\) is isomorphic to \(H\). For each \(\gamma \in B^\Delta_\circ (G,H)\) there exists an isomorphism \(\varphi :H \to G\), unique up to composition with inner automorphisms of \(G\), such that \([(G\times_H )/\Delta(G,\varphi ,H)]\) occurs in \(\gamma\). If \(G\) is nilpotent, then the group \(B^\Delta_\circ (G,G)\) is isomorphic to the semidirect product \(B(G)^\times \rtimes \text{Out}(G)\) with respect to the natural action of \(\text{Out}(G)\) on \(B(G)^\times\), where \(B(G)^\times\) denotes the unit group of the Burnside ring of \(G\).