Abelian invariants and a reduction theorem for the modular isomorphism problem

DOI10.1016/J.JALGEBRA.2023.08.035MaRDI QIDQ6054780zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Leo Margolis, Taro Sakurai, Mima Stanojkovski

Publication date 25 October 2023

Published in Journal of Algebra (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.10025

abelian invariant modular group algebra modular isomorphism problem power structure reduction

Group rings (16S34) Group rings of finite groups and their modules (group-theoretic aspects) (20C05) Finite nilpotent groups, (p)-groups (20D15)

Abstract: We show that elementary abelian direct factors can be disregarded in the study of the modular isomorphism problem. Moreover, we obtain four new series of abelian invariants of the group base in the modular group algebra of a finite

p

-group. Finally, we apply our results to new classes of groups.

Review text

Let \(p\) be a prime number, let \(G\) be a finite \(p\)-group and let \(k\) be a field of characteristic \(p\). We say that \(G\) satisfies the modular isomorphism problem if and only if for each group \(H\), the group algebras \(kG\) and \(kH\) are isomorphic if and only if the groups \(G\) and \(H\) are isomorphic. The classic statement of the \textit{modular isomorphism problem} asks whether this property holds for every finite \(p\)-group \(G\), under the additional hypothesis that \(k\) is the field with \(p\) elements. It already appeared in [\textit{R. Brauer}, Lect. Modern Math. 1, 133--175 (1963; Zbl 0124.26504)], and the first partial positive result goes back to [\textit{W. E. Deskins}, Duke Math. J. 23, 35--40 (1956; Zbl 0075.23905)]. Even though the statement of the modular isomorphism problem is now known to be false in general due to the example provided in [\textit{D. García-Lucas} et al., J. Reine Angew. Math. 783, 269--274 (2022; Zbl 1514.20019)], for odd primes it remains open. In the paper under review the authors provide the first known ``reduction theorem for the modular isomorphism problem. Here by reduction theorem we mean a result that allows to answer the mentioned problem over the class of all finite \(p\)-groups studying only a proper subclass. For them (see Theorem 4.1), this subclass is the one of finite \(p\)-groups without elementary abelian direct factors. A simplified version of this reduction is stated by the authors in Theorem A, which reads as follows: if \(G, H\) and \(E\) are finite \(p\)-groups and moreover \(E\) is elementary abelian, then \(k(G\times E)\cong k(H\times E)\) implies that \(kG\cong kH\). A group theoretical feature of \(G\) is said to be determined by its group algebra over \(k\) if for any group \(H\) such that \(kG \cong kH\), the group \(H\) has the same feature. The authors show in Theorem B that the isomorphism types of the following abelian subquotients of \(G\) are determined by the group algebra \(kG\): \begin{itemize} \item \(G/\gamma(G)\Omega_n(\mathrm{Z}(G))\), \item \(\gamma(G)\Omega_n(\mathrm{Z}(G))/\gamma(G)\), \item \(\mathrm{Z}(G)\cap \mho_n(G) \gamma(G) \), \item \(\mathrm{Z}(G)/\mathrm{Z}(G)\cap \mho_n(G)\gamma(G)\), \end{itemize} where \(\gamma(G)\) denotes the derived subgroup of \(G\), \(\mathrm{Z}(G)\) denotes the center of \(G\), and for a subset \(X\) of \(G\), one denotes \(\Omega_n(X)=\left\langle x\in X: x^{p^n}=1 \right\rangle \) and \(\mho_n(X)=\left\langle x^{p^n} : x\in X \right \rangle\). As an application of these new invariants, the authors show that modular isomorphism problem has positive answer for a \(2\)-group \(G\) provided that \(\mathrm{Z}(G)\) is cyclic and \(G/\mathrm{Z}(G)\) is dihedral. It should be mentioned that inspired by this paper the reviewer has generalized Theorem A in [``The modular isomorphism problem and abelian direct factors, Mediterr. J. Math. 21, 18 (2024)] by dropping the ``elementary hypothesis when the field \(k\) has \(p\) elements, i.e., reducing the modular isomorphism problem to finite \(p\)-groups without abelian direct factors.

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