The defining characteristic case of the representations of \(\mathrm{GL}_n\) and \(\mathrm{SL}_n\) over principal ideal local rings (Q6970374)

This paper concerns with isomorphism or otherwise of pairs of group algebras \(F[\mathrm{GL}_n(W_r(\mathbb{F}_q))]\), \(F[\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{F}_q[t]/t^r)]\) and of \(F[\mathrm{SL}_n(W_r(\mathbb{F}_q))]\), \(F[\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{F}_q[t]/t^r)]\), where \(q\) is a power of a prime \(p\) and \(W_r(\mathbb{F}_q)\) is the ring of Witt vectors of length \(r\) and residue field \(\mathbb{F}_q\) and \(F\) is a perfect field of characteristic \(p\). This forms part of the study of group algebras of linear groups defined over discrete valuation rings, where a motivating conjecture is that of \textit{U. Onn} [Adv. Math. 219, No. 6, 2058--2085 (2008; Zbl 1185.20049)], which predicts an isomorphism \(\mathbb{C}[\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathcal{O}_r)] \cong \mathbb{C}[\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathcal{O}'_r)]\) where \(\mathcal{O}_r\) is the reduction of \(\mathcal{O}\) modulo \(\mathfrak{p}^r\), for \(\mathfrak{p}\) the unique maximal ideal of \(\mathcal{O}\) and \(\mathcal{O},\mathcal{O}'\) are any discrete valuation rings sharing a residue field. It is already known that the version of Onn's conjecture for \(\mathrm{SL}_n\) is false.\N\NThe main result of the current paper is that when \(p \geq n\), the pairs \(F[\mathrm{GL}_n(W_r(\mathbb{F}_q))]\), \(F[\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{F}_q[t]/t^r)]\) and \(F[\mathrm{SL}_n(W_r(\mathbb{F}_q))]\), \(F[\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{F}_q[t]/t^r)]\) are non-isomorphic when: (i) \(r=2\) and \(p \geq 2n\); (ii) \(r=3\) and \(p \geq 3\); (iii) \(r \geq 4\) and \(p \geq 2\). Further, these algebras are not stably equivalent of Morita type. Note that isomorphism of the remaining cases is not established.\N\NThe proof of non-isomorphism involves reduction to a consideration of the \(p\)-parts of the exponents of the groups themselves and the calculation of these occupies much of the paper.