Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 5 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Brauer morphism retains precisely the fixed group-basis elements under conjugation by :It is unital and surjective because . For multiplicativity, fix . Its coefficient in a product is . Conjugation by permutes these pairs and the summand is constant on each orbit. Nonsingleton orbits have p-divisible size and contribute zero. Singleton pairs have both entries in , so they give exactly the coefficient in . This proves the ring-homomorphism assertion.
Orbit sums form a basis of . A nonfixed orbit sum of is , a proper-subgroup relative trace. Conversely any proper-subgroup trace has zero coefficient on a fixed basis element, since that coefficient is multiplied by in . ThusThere is no assertion that this whole kernel is nilpotent.
Brauer first main theorem bijects the modular blocks of with defect and those of with defect , matching their nonzero Brauer images. Here is a proof with its auxiliary ingredients.
Write , and defineThese are ideals in the indicated commutative algebras, since an invariant multiplier passes through a relative trace. The Brauer morphism and relative trace identityfollows by letting act on . Fixed cosets have representatives in ; projection onto gives equal contributions on each other orbit, whose p-divisible size makes the contribution zero. Thus surjects onto .
To prove the trace criterion for defect groups, choose a p-subgroup of least order with a given block idempotent in . Such a choice exists because a Sylow gives . Write and replace by . If , the kernel formula and trace transitivity give . But is an Artinian local ring, and a finite sum of proper ideals cannot contain its identity. Multiplication by therefore forces for some smaller , a contradiction. Hence .
If is not conjugate into , its action on has no fixed coset and the same orbit argument gives . Every subgroup with nonzero Brauer image of is therefore conjugate into . Its maximal such subgroups are exactly the conjugates of , proving the definition's conjugacy assertion andAmong block idempotents in this ideal, the Brauer image at survives precisely when their defect is .
We also use primitive idempotents under a surjection of commutative Artinian ideals. Decompose the ambient algebras into local factors. The component of an ideal in a local factor is either the whole factor, possessing its identity, or a proper ideal in its nilpotent radical, possessing no nonzero idempotent. A nonzero quotient of a local algebra is local. A surjection of these ideals consequently bijects its surviving primitive idempotents with those of the target. Entire factors may be killed; the whole kernel need not be nilpotent.
Apply this result to . Its surviving primitive idempotents are exactly the modular blocks of with defect . Apply it also to , where the target is identical since and . Its surviving primitive idempotents are exactly the modular blocks of with defect . Matching images in proves Brauer first main theorem, in both directions and with uniqueness.
For the last construction, the intended hypothesis is that is a defect group of the source modular block . Put and use the theorem inside to obtain the corresponding modular block of . The centralizer condition gives , so maps into . Let be the central character of a block, retaining its residue field rather than assuming it equals . The unital compositesends exactly one global block idempotent to one, because their orthogonal idempotent images sum to one in a field. Define to be this unique modular block. This is block induction, independent of the chosen -conjugate of . It needs no containment of in , and its defect may be larger than . With that containment it agrees with the first-main-theorem correspondence.
The printed PDF does not require to be a defect group of . Its literal conditions do not always define the usual induced modular block. For example, over an algebraically closed field of characteristic three, take , as a point stabilizer, and . Then . The ordinary degree-three irreducible of gives a defect-zero modular block on reduction. The two distinct ordinary degree-three irreducibles of give distinct defect-zero modular blocks and . Both restrict to that same character of , with values on its identity, double transpositions and three-cycles.
The standard defect-zero lifting theorem says that these reductions are simple projective modules and their block algebras are full matrix algebras. Thus both module restrictions and contain the same modular block bimodule ; indeed each module restriction is isomorphic to it here. The actual defect of is 1, whose centralizer is , not a subgroup of . The unrelated subgroup cannot select between the two modular blocks. This is block induction requires the block's defect centralizer; the qualified construction above answers the intended request.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 3 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Brauer first main theorem says that, for a fixed p-subgroup and , there is a bijection between blocks of a group algebra of with defect group of a block and blocks of with that defect group. Correspondents have the same nonzero image under . The integral version follows by modular reduction of block idempotents.
Here is a proof using relative traces. Put andThe latter ambient algebra is commutative because invariance under includes invariance under . The Brauer morphism and relative trace identity isIndeed acts on . Its fixed cosets are exactly . On a nonfixed orbit the terms have the same Brauer image, so the orbit contributes zero in characteristic . The fixed cosets give the right-hand side. Since every element of is -fixed, this proves that is a surjective algebra homomorphism of commutative ideals. The same argument for has exactly the same target.
We use the following elementary fact about primitive idempotents under a surjection of commutative Artinian ideals. Under a surjection of ideals in finite-dimensional commutative algebras, the primitive ambient idempotents lying in and having nonzero image correspond bijectively to the primitive idempotents in . To prove it, decompose the source ambient algebra into Artinian local rings . Either , or it is a proper, hence nilpotent, ideal. Proper components contribute no idempotents to the image. A surviving identity has corner , a local quotient of , so is primitive. The surviving identities are orthogonal and exhaust the idempotents of the target. Notice that this proof does not assert that the whole kernel is nilpotent: it can kill entire block components.
By the trace criterion for defect groups proved above, primitive block idempotents in have defect conjugate into . Among them, the Brauer morphism is nonzero precisely for defect , again by that criterion and its Brauer characterization. The identical reasoning applies to . Thus both sets are identified with the primitive idempotents of , proving the bijection and its uniqueness.
For the more general subgroup, is understood to be a defect group of a block of . This is the implicit hypothesis needed to apply the theorem; it is not repeated in the printed sentence. Without it the printed uniqueness assertion is false: take , , and . The centralizer of in is , but the unique three-dimensional defect-zero block of is the bimodule restriction of each of the two three-dimensional defect-zero blocks of . The two ordinary degree-three characters both restrict to the degree-three character of , with values on its identity, involutions and elements of order three. Defect-zero reduction gives the same simple projective -module, so both restricted block bimodules are this same matrix block. This illustrates why block induction requires the block's defect centralizer. Write for its block idempotent and . Since , we have . Apply the theorem inside to obtain the unique corresponding block of . Its center of an associative algebra has a residue field , and the quotient map is its central character of a block . No assumption that is algebraically closed is needed here. DefineThe Brauer image is in , so this is a unital algebra homomorphism. Among the orthogonal primitive central idempotents of , exactly one has image . The block it selects is . If contains this is the inverse of the bijection just proved. For arbitrary , the resulting block can have a strictly larger defect group. Block induction is transitive on admissible intermediate subgroups. For the normalizer chain used in the proof below, the required transitivity will be verified directly with Brauer images.
To prove the bimodule characterization, we explicitly state the standard permutation-module fact used here. For a permutation module, the Brauer quotient of a module at has as basis the permutation-basis points fixed by . An indecomposable summand has nonzero quotient at exactly when its vertex of an indecomposable module contains a conjugate of . For summands with vertex exactly , taking this quotient, with its -action, detects the summand and detects which orthogonal idempotent projection acts as its identity. These facts hold for trivial source modules; the fixed-basis description follows by deleting proper transfers, and the detection assertion is the permutation form of the first-main-theorem argument, applied to their endomorphism algebra.
As an permutation module, with , the group algebra decomposes asThe block bimodule is an indecomposable module with vertex of an indecomposable module . None of the other double-coset modules can contain : a basis element fixed by centralizes , hence lies in , whereas those double cosets lie outside . Thus occurs exactly once as an indecomposable summand of this restriction, in the term. Decomposing into its global block bimodules therefore puts this occurrence in precisely one of them, say .
Under the fixed-basis description, the quotient of at is , and multiplication by induces multiplication by . The quotient of is . Consequently the detecting projection for this occurrence of satisfieswhich is equivalent to . Thus , proving the requested unique-block direct-summand characterization. Here the restriction is to ; the extra subscript in the converted TeX is a transcription error, not a different subgroup.