The invariants of modular indecomposable representations of \({\mathbb Z}_{p^2}\) (Q927267)

Let \(G\) be a finite group acting on a finite dimensional vector space \(V\) over a field \(\mathbb F\). Denote the symmetric algebra on \(V^*\) by \(\mathbb F[V]\) (If \(\mathbb F\) is infinite, then this is the algebra of polynomial functions on \(V\)). By Noether's Theorem the \(\mathbb F\)-algebra of invariants \(\mathbb F[V]^G\) is finitely generated. Clearly it is then also generated by finitely many homogeneous elements. Let \(\beta(\mathbb F[V]^G)\) be the smallest integer \(d\) such that \(\mathbb F[V]^G\) is generated by finitely many homogeneous elements of degree at most \(d\). It is a well-known problem in modular invariant theory of finite groups to find an upper bound for \(\beta(\mathbb F[V]^G)\). It is known that, when \(|G|\equiv 0\) in \(\mathbb F\), such a bound has to depend on \(G\) and \(V\). In the paper under review the authors give an upper bound for \(\beta(\mathbb F[V]^G)\) when \(G=\mathbb Z_{p^2}\), the cyclic group of order \(p^2\), \(\mathbb F\) is of characteristic \(p\) and \(V\) is any of the \(p^2\) indecomposable finite dimensional \(\mathbb FG\)-modules. This is done in Section~2. In Section~1 an upper bound is given for the top degree of the coinvariant ring \(\mathbb F[V]/(\overline{\mathbb F[V]^G})\). Here \((\overline{\mathbb F[V]^G})\) is the ideal of \(\mathbb F[V]\) generated by the invariants of positive degree.