On the basis of the Burnside ring of a fusion system (Q479780)

Let \(S\) be a \(p\)-group, let \({\mathcal F}\) be a saturated fusion system defined on \(S\), and let \(A({\mathcal F})\) be the Burnside ring \(A({\mathcal F})\) of \({\mathcal F}\)-stable \(S\)-sets. For any finite group \(G\), consider the mark homomorphism \(\Phi:A(G) \to {\mathbb Z}^{\mathrm{Cl}(G)}\), where \(\mathrm{Cl}(G)\) is the set of \(G\)-conjugacy classes of subgroups of \(G\). Then the Burnside ring \(A({\mathcal F})\) is the subring of \(A(S)\) formed by elements \(X\in A(S)\) such that \(\Phi_P{(X)}=\Phi_{\phi (P)}(X)\) for every morphism \(\phi:P\to S\) in \({\mathcal F}\). Its canonical basis is described as follows. For \(X\in A(S)\), let \(c_Q(X)\) be the number of \([S/Q]\)-orbits in \(X\) so that \(X=\sum c_Q(X)[S/Q]\), where the sum is over the \(S\)-conjugacy classes of subgroups of \(S\). For each \({\mathcal F}\)-conjugacy class of subgroups \(P\) of \(S\), there is a unique (up to \(S\)-isomorphism) \({\mathcal F}\)-stable set \(\alpha_P\) satisfying: (i) \(c_Q(\alpha _P) =1\) if \(Q\) is fully normalized and \({\mathcal F}\)-conjugate to \(P\); (ii) \(c_Q(\alpha _P) =0\) if \(Q\) is fully normalized and not \({\mathcal F}\)-conjugate to \(P\). The set \({\alpha _P}\), where \(P\) runs over all \({\mathcal F}\)-conjugacy classes of subgroups form a basis for \(A({\mathcal F})\). The main focus of this paper study in detail this canonical basis. The authors give explicit formulas for the number of fixed points \(|(\alpha _P)^Q|\) and for the coefficients \(c_Q(\alpha _P)\) of \([S/Q]\)-orbits. The first result concerns the matrix of fixed points \({\mathcal F} \mathrm{Mark}_{Q,P}=|(\alpha_P)^Q|\). Let \(\text{Möb}=\mathrm{Mark}^{-1}\) be the inverse matrix of the table of marks for \(S\). For each \({\mathcal F}\)-conjugacy class of subgroups of \(S\), take the sum of the corresponding columns of \(\text{Möb}\), obtaining a non-square matrix; from the set of rows corresponding to an \({\mathcal F}\)-conjugacy class, select one representing a fully \({\mathcal F}\)-normalized subgroup; delete the others. The resulting matrix \({\mathcal F} \text{Möb}\) is a square matrix with dimension equal to the number of \({\mathcal F}\)-conjugacy classes of subgroups. The first result says that the inverse matrix \({\mathcal F} \mathrm{Mark}:={\mathcal F} \text{Möb}^{-1}\) is the matrix of marks for \(A({\mathcal F})\). Next, the authors introduce the concept of broken chains, and by using Möbius inversion, they show the table of marks \({\mathcal F}\mathrm{Mark}\) can be described by a combinatorial formula. The main theorem of the paper gives a formula for the coefficients \(c_Q(\alpha_P)\) in the linear combination \(\alpha _P=\sum c_Q(\alpha _P)[S/Q]\), in terms of an alternating sum of the number of broken chains linking \(Q\) to \(P\). Several particular cases and simplifications of the above formulas are also discussed. Finally, an application of the main theorem to the characteristic \((S, S)\)-bisets \(\Omega\) for the fusion system \({\mathcal F}\) is given.