Commuting partial normal subgroups and regular localities (Q6947007)

This book makes a significant contribution to the theory of localities, which are group-like structures associated to fusion systems, as introduced by \textit{A. Chermak} [Forum Math. Sigma 10, Paper No. e43, 31 p. (2022; Zbl 1553.20046); ``Finite localities. II'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1505.08110}; ``Finite localities. III'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1610.06161}]. The central objects of study are linking localities, which correspond to linking systems and thus encode the algebraic information needed to study \(p\)-completed classifying spaces.\N\NThe author's primary achievement is the systematic development of a theory of partial normal subgroups. A key result is the construction, for any partial normal subgroup \(\mathcal{N}\) of a linking locality \((\mathcal{L},\Delta,S)\), of a centralizer-like object \(\mathcal{N}^{\perp}\). This leads to a natural definition of the generalized Fitting subgroup \(F^{*}(\mathcal{L})\).\N\NBuilding on this, the author defines and investigates regular localities -- linking localities whose object set is \(\delta(\mathcal{F})\), a collection related to the generalized Fitting subsystem \(F^{*}(\mathcal{F})\). These are shown to have notable stability properties: their partial normal and partial subnormal subgroups are again regular localities. This allows for a robust theory of components, analogous to the finite group case, with \(F^{*}(\mathcal{L})\) being a central product of its layer \(E(\mathcal{L})\) and \(O_{p}(\mathcal{L})\).\N\NThe memoir also contains a proof of an \(E\)-balance theorem for subcentric localities, generalizing a fundamental result from the classification of finite simple groups.