Brauer relations in finite groups (Q891762)

Let \(G\) be a (non-cyclic) finite group, and denote by \(K(G)\) the kernel of the natural ring homomorphism from the Burnside ring \(B(G)\) to the rational representation ring \(R_{{\mathbb Q}}(G)\) of \(G\). The elements of \(K(G)\) are called Brauer relations or \(G\)-relations. A Brauer relation is called imprimitive if it is a linear combination of relations induced from a proper subgroup or lifted from a proper subgroup of \(G\), and primitive otherwise. Denote by \(\text{Prim}(G)\) the quotient of \(K(G)\) modulo the subgroup of imprimitive relations. In this paper the authors determine the group \(\text{Prim}(G)\) for all finite groups \(G\), extending (and giving an alternative proof for) the Tornehave-Bouc classification in the case of \(p\)-groups. The most difficult part of the proof is the case of quasi-elementary groups.