On finite groups of \(p\)-local rank one and conjectures of Dade and Robinson (Q5936923)

Let \(G\) be a finite group and \((K,R,k)\) a splitting \(p\)-modular system. A chain \(\sigma\): \(Q_0<\cdots<Q_n\) of \(p\)-subgroups of \(G\) is called radical if \(Q=O_p(N_G(\sigma_i))\) for each \(i\), where \(\sigma_i\): \(Q_0<\cdots<Q_i\) and \(N_G(\sigma_i)=N_G(Q_0)\cap\cdots\cap N_G(Q_i)\). Denote by \({\mathcal R}(G)\) the set of radical \(p\)-chains of \(G\). The \(p\)-local rank \(p\text{lr}(G)\) is the length of the longest chain in \({\mathcal R}(G)\). In this paper, the following conjecture of \textit{G. R.~Robinson} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 72, No. 2, 312-330 (1996; Zbl 0854.20010)] is considered. For each \(\lambda\in\text{Irr}(O_p(Z(G)))\), for each block \(B\) of \(kG\) and each non-negative integer \(d\), the number of irreducible characters of defect \(d\) belonging to \(B\) and covering \(\lambda\) is \(\text{k}_d(G,B,\lambda)=\sum_{\sigma\in{\mathcal R}(G)/G}(-1)^{|\sigma|}\text{w}_d(N_G(\sigma),B,\lambda,V_\sigma)\), where \(V_\sigma\) is the initial subgroup of \(\sigma\), and \(\text{w}(G,\mu,Q)\) denotes the number of \(Q\)-projective irreducible characters of \(G\) covering the irreducible character \(\mu\) of \(Q\). The author proves that every group \(G\) with \(p\text{lr}(G)=1\) satisfies the conjecture, and as a consequence, Dade's projective conjecture also holds for groups of \(p\)-local rank one. The conjecture is first reduced to the case of groups \(G\) satisfying certain restrictive conditions, and the structure and a short list of groups satisfying these conditions is then determined by using the classification of finite simple groups. Finally, the conjecture is checked case by case.