Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/iii/paper-4/5/b/i/solution

Put . By equivariance of the Brauer homomorphism, is a central idempotent of , since . The Nagao module theorem asserts that, if , then
and every indecomposable summand of is relatively projective for a -subgroup of not containing . Because is normal in , its module vertices cannot contain even after -conjugation.
Here is a direct proof. As an element of , is a linear combination of -conjugation orbit sums supported outside . An orbit represented by has sum
Its stabilizer does not contain . On , the element acts as the identity. Map the orbit-sum expression into by left multiplication, and compose on both sides with the -linear projection onto . It follows that
Replace each centralizer by a Sylow -subgroup of it using trace transitivity and its invertible prime-to- index. Project this identity further onto an indecomposable summand of . Its endomorphism ring is local by Krull–Schmidt theorem. A sum of nonunits cannot be the identity in a local ring, so one of the trace terms is a unit in . Multiplying the endomorphism inside that trace by gives as a single relative trace. The D. Higman criterion makes relatively projective for that Sylow subgroup , and . This proves the assertion rather than just invoking the theorem's name.

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