Auslander–Reiten quiver 2026-10-14
For a finite-dimensional algebra, the Auslander–Reiten quiver has one vertex for each isomorphism class of finite-dimensional indecomposable modules, and its arrows record irreducible module homomorphisms. A homomorphism is irreducible when it is neither a split injection nor a split surjection and every factorization forces the first map to split injectively or the second to split surjectively.
Finite representation type Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-25
Indecomposable representation Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
An indecomposable representation is nonzero and cannot be expressed as a direct sum of two nonzero invariant subspaces. It is an indecomposable module over the associated group algebra or representing algebra.
Take finite-dimensional modules over and finite -free lattices over the complete valuation ring, the usual integral modular representation theory convention. If a completion has several local factors, use the factor supporting the modular block. A block of a group algebra is an indecomposable two-sided ideal , where is a primitive central idempotent. The identity decomposes as the sum of orthogonal block idempotents, and for every module. Hence an indecomposable module belongs to exactly when .
A defect group of a block in characteristic is a maximal p-subgroup with . Equivalently, it is minimal with ; the trace criterion for defect groups and conjugacy are proved below. For a complete discrete valuation ring, use the corresponding reduced modular block; modular reduction of block idempotents preserves its defect groups. The equivalent bimodule description says that the module vertices of , with acting by , are conjugates of . This basic characterization follows from the relative-projectivity trace criterion for the bimodule action.
Fix a Sylow subgroup containing . The regular group algebra is the permutation module for , and multiplication by is its block projection. Restriction to a subgroup containing a chosen module vertex retains a summand with that module vertex: a module source at that module vertex is a summand of the module restriction, and the Mackey restriction formula and minimality prevent all the restricted summands from having smaller module vertices. Thus has an indecomposable summand with module vertex .
For a finite p-group , the transitive permutation module is indecomposable: the group algebra of a p-group in characteristic p is local, and this module has a one-dimensional top, incompatible with a sum of two nonzero modules. Its module vertex is , because it is induced from the trivial -module and its Brauer quotient of a module at has the nonzero fixed coset . The fixed-basis rule for this quotient follows by removing nonsingleton orbit sums, which are proper-subgroup traces. It excludes a smaller module vertex. Reduction gives the same statements for permutation lattices. Therefore Krull-Schmidt decomposition identifies the chosen block summand with an entire transitive orbit in .
Choose a point in that orbit whose stabilizer is exactly . Being fixed by every gives . Its full stabilizer is
Equality with gives . Conjugating, and using that centralizes , proves
This is defect groups are centralizer-conjugate Sylow intersections.
If is a p-subgroup, then is a p-subgroup for every Sylow , so . It lies in both Sylow factors above. Thus every normal p-subgroup of is contained in .
Finally put , choose , and extend it to a Sylow of . Then and . Apply the proved intersection result to this . Its element belongs to , so is Sylow in too. Hence . The p-core is contained in both factors, whereas normality of in gives the opposite inclusion. Therefore , so is a p-radical subgroup. The centralizer condition on the conjugating element is important for this deduction.
Nagao module theorem states that if is a central idempotent, , and , then is central in and
Every indecomposable summand of the second term is relatively projective for some subgroup of not containing . In particular, if , the error term has no summand with module vertex containing . This is the Nagao version of the second main theorem; it identifies the modular block of a module vertex- Green correspondent.
Let be the identity of , , and its Brauer correspondent of a block in . Because , the ideal is nilpotent: normality allows moving past and the augmentation ideal of the p-group is nilpotent. Hence has nonzero image in . Choose an indecomposable summand of . It is projective over and belongs to modular block after inflation.
Since is a permutation module, its summand has trivial module source and module vertex contained in . As acts trivially, all its proper-subgroup traces vanish and its Brauer quotient of a module is . The module vertex must also contain , so it is exactly . This is inflated quotient projectives have trivial source.
Let be the Green correspondent of in , using the theorem proved in the next solution. It has module vertex and the same trivial module source. For a normal p-subgroup, each central block idempotent of equals its Brauer image: the two central idempotents agree modulo the nilpotent ideal , because nonfixed conjugation-orbit sums map to zero in ; central idempotents congruent modulo a nilpotent ideal coincide. The first main theorem therefore gives .
Let be the block identity acting on . Nagao's theorem forces , since has module vertex . But , and for orthogonality would give . Therefore belongs to , has module vertex and has trivial module source. For , this supplies an indecomposable projective in the defect-zero modular block.
For the representation-type deduction, modules in a block are projective relative to its defect group: the block trace identity acts as a relative trace equal to the module identity, so D. Higman criterion gives split induction from . If is cyclic of order , then , whose indecomposable modules are the nilpotent Jordan chains , . Each indecomposable in is a summand of the module induction of its module restriction to , and hence occurs among the summands of these finitely many fixed induced modules. Their finite Krull-Schmidt decompositions give finite representation type.
Conversely, the regular defect-group bimodule inside a block gives
Indeed this module restriction is a permutation summand. Its Brauer quotient at is nonzero, because on the fixed group-basis elements the block projection becomes multiplication by . Every transitive orbit in has stabilizer of order at most . A summand with a nonzero quotient at must therefore have stabilizer exactly up to conjugacy, and is the regular bimodule. Tensoring this split inclusion on the right with an arbitrary -module yields
If has only finitely many indecomposable modules, their restrictions contain only finitely many indecomposable summands. The displayed inclusion puts every indecomposable on that finite list, so has finite representation type too.
A noncyclic finite p-group has a quotient , by the Burnside basis theorem for its Frattini quotient. Here is an explicit infinite family over any field, including a finite field. For , take basis and operators , defined by
and . All products of vanish, so satisfy the group relations in characteristic . The radical is . An endomorphism preserves , and commuting with the two shift maps forces its induced maps on and to be the same scalar. To see this, write the shift matrices as and : the equations , force the off-diagonal entries of to vanish and all diagonal entries to agree, by comparing successive rows, including the zero first column of and zero last column of . The remaining linear map sends the top into and has square zero. Thus the endomorphism ring is a scalar algebra with square-zero radical, hence local; the module is indecomposable. Inflation to preserves that ring. Its dimensions are unbounded, contradicting finite representation type. Therefore has finite representation type if and only if is cyclic, including trivial defect.
Use finite-dimensional -modules or finite -free lattices. We use the basic relative-projectivity facts that Krull-Schmidt decomposition holds with local endomorphism rings, module vertices are conjugate p-subgroups, and a module source at a module vertex satisfies and . Module induction is transitive and Mackey restriction formula gives module vertex containment for restrictions and inductions. In particular, a summand induced from has module vertex conjugate into , and module restriction to a subgroup containing a chosen module vertex retains a summand with that module vertex. The latter follows from the module source conditions and minimality: restricting further to must still contain its module source, whose module vertex is .
The module vertex- form of Green correspondence states that for there is a bijection between indecomposable -modules with module vertex and indecomposable -modules with module vertex . Its maps select the unique module vertex- summands of module restriction and induction, using -conjugacy for restricted module vertices and -conjugacy for induced module vertices. They occur with multiplicity one and have the same module sources. Other induction summands have module vertices conjugate to proper subgroups of . The module restriction remainder is relatively projective for
Relative projectivity for a family means being a summand of a finite sum of inductions from its members. We prove this form; no stronger description of the induction remainder is needed for the application.
Let have module vertex over . The identity double coset in Mackey restriction formula gives
Since is relatively -projective, a further Mackey decomposition puts every other double coset term in the relatively- family. No member of contains an -conjugate of . Otherwise, conjugation within would give with , . Equality of orders then makes , a contradiction. Therefore the module restriction above contains exactly one summand with module vertex -conjugate to , namely once.
Decompose into indecomposable modules. All their module vertices are conjugate into . Each one with a module vertex -conjugate to can take itself as module vertex and contributes a module vertex- summand on module restriction to . There can thus be at most one such summand and its multiplicity is one. There must be at least one, because smaller module vertices cannot restrict to produce , with module vertex , in the displayed decomposition. Define to be that summand. Its module restriction contains once, with remainder a summand of . All other induction summands have strictly smaller module vertices. This is Green correspondence from Mackey multiplicity.
Conversely take of module vertex over with module source . Decompose into indecomposable modules. Since , the local endomorphism ring and Krull-Schmidt decomposition give for one indecomposable summand of . Its module vertex is -conjugate to : all module vertices are conjugate into , and a smaller one could not induce . The preceding uniqueness makes and identifies as the unique module vertex- summand of . Define . This proves and .
If is a module source of , then and . These two conditions and the common module vertex show that is also a module source of . Thus the correspondence preserves module sources, including trivial source modules, and the proof is complete under the stated coefficient conventions.
For the required expression, a p-local module is a finite sum of inductions from for nontrivial p-subgroups . Induct on the order of a module vertex of . Vertex 1 makes projective, so choose , .
For module vertex , take for . Its module induction is p-local and
with smaller module vertices for the . By induction, write
with p-local and projective. Adding these identities and substituting the induction decomposition gives
Hence the explicit choices
work. All sums are finite and module vertex orders strictly decrease, so the induction terminates. If , induction from that normalizer is still allowed by the definition of p-local.
Choose a maximal Brauer pair for . Define its inertial quotient of a block and inertial index of a block by
Conjugacy of maximal pairs makes the index well-defined. The standard maximal-pair property used here is that is a -group. Since is cyclic, its faithful conjugation action embeds it into , so . Write and .
We use two precise structural results. Over an algebraically closed field, the basic algebra of a block with cyclic defect group is a Brauer tree algebra with edges and exceptional multiplicity . For a Brauer tree algebra with edges and exceptional multiplicity , all nonprojective indecomposable modules form the stable Auslander–Reiten quiver
These are the cyclic-defect structure theorem and the stable-quiver classification for tree algebras; we are not taking the requested numerical count as an assumption. Morita equivalence preserves simple, projective and indecomposable isomorphism classes.
There is one simple module per edge, so . The vertices of can be indexed by , , . The quotient by leaves choices of for each . With , there are nonprojective indecomposable modules. There are also indecomposable projective modules, one projective cover per simple. Therefore
This counts isomorphism classes, not multiplicities in the regular module. In the one-edge case it agrees with the Jordan chains for .
For the definition, take a finite connected tree with a cyclic order of the incident edges at every vertex and positive integer multiplicities equal to one except possibly at a distinguished vertex. Its Brauer tree path presentation has a quiver vertex for each tree edge, and successor arrows around each tree vertex, including loops for valency one. If edge has endpoints , let and be the cycles around these endpoints. The relations identify
kill , and kill paths switching between successor cycles belonging to different tree vertices. Redundant valency-one loops may be eliminated. This quotient of the path algebra is the basic Brauer tree algebra; allowing an arbitrary algebra with Morita equivalence to it does not change the module assertions. In particular, the cyclic orders and multiplicity, not merely the underlying graph, are part of the data.
For the construction, use right modules with paths multiplied left to right; equivalently use the opposite quiver for left modules, choosing orientation so radical factors follow the specified order. The indecomposable projective with top has simple socle and two uniserial radical branches meeting in that socle. The relations show that has length and factors repeated times. The other branch has length . Thus is a uniserial module of length , with factors cyclically repeated. For the Jacobson radical,
is the desired uniserial branch of a Brauer tree algebra. If an endpoint is a nonexceptional leaf, its branch is just the socle; the formula still applies.
For uniqueness, length one gives just . If and , the next factor chooses the successor arrow at uniquely, because two distinct edges cannot meet at both endpoints in a tree. Subsequent factors force the same cyclic succession. Any arrow into an edge not incident with acts as zero, because that simple does not occur. An opposite nonexceptional leaf loop is the full socle path around , of length , hence zero on modules of length at most . If an opposite leaf is exceptional, then has multiplicity one and each incident simple occurs at most once; its nilpotent self-loop is zero on that one-dimensional vertex space as well.
The remaining action is one nilpotent successor chain. Choose a top generator and let be its successive path images for . Uniseriality makes each image nonzero in its respective radical layer; these images form a basis in the basic algebra description. Their labels are , the successor arrow sends to , and all other actions vanish. Any nonzero scalar choices are absorbed by rescaling this basis. This determines the module solely by its top and length.
If and , then and is the exceptional leaf. The successor is a single loop and its action is the unique nilpotent Jordan chain of length . The other branch either enters a different edge or is a redundant socle loop and contributes nothing. Hence the prescribed uniserial module is unique up to isomorphism for every positive integer .
For a cell in the Young diagram of , its hook of a Young diagram consists of that cell, the cells to its right in row and the cells below it in column . Its length is
A removable rim hook is a connected border strip containing no square, whose removal leaves a Young diagram. Its leg length is the number of rows it meets minus one. The hook graph is the Young diagram labeled at each cell by ; here “graph” means this labeled array, not a graph of possible hook-walk moves.
Choose , pad with zeros and form the beta numbers
They are distinct nonnegative integers in decreasing order and recover . For they equal the first-column hook lengths, since . If is increased, old beta numbers shift upward by one and a new bead at zero is inserted.
For a prime-modulus partition abacus arrange the nonnegative positions in runners: position lies at level on runner , . Put beads at the beta numbers and leave the other positions empty. Replacing a bead at by a bead at a vacant removes a rim hook of length ; its leg length is the number of beads strictly between these positions. This follows by tracing the boundary of the diagram: bead positions record vertical steps and gaps record horizontal steps, and exchanging one bead and gap removes the intervening border strip. In particular a removable -hook is exactly a bead that can slide up one place on its own runner.
The partition core at modulus is the result of sliding beads up until there are no gaps above any bead on a runner. If runner initially has beads, its final occupied levels must be , independently of slide order. Thus its packed beta set, and hence its core partition of an integer, is unique. Increasing the number of beta numbers merely re-expresses the same boundary by shifting positions and adding the new initial bead; the packed configuration represents the same partition of an integer. This proves well-definedness both with respect to removal order and to the chosen padding. The number of slides is
The partition quotient components record how far each runner's beads lie above their packed positions, giving the hook-removal interpretation used in Question 5.
A block of a group algebra in characteristic for is a two-sided ideal for a primitive central idempotent , meaning a nonzero central idempotent that is not a sum of two nonzero orthogonal central idempotents. The identity is the sum of these block idempotents and the group algebra is their direct product. An indecomposable module belongs to when , equivalently every other block idempotent acts as zero. Indeed ; indecomposability makes exactly one summand nonzero.
The Nakayama block theorem, historically called the Nakayama Conjecture, states
Equivalently the ordinary characters assigned to one modular block have a common partition core at modulus . Its simple modules are the with regular having that core. Only cores for which is a nonnegative multiple of occur. The block weight is ; a core alone determines the block at this fixed degree.
One route to the proof separates the combinatorial core invariant from the algebraic center invariant. Let be the number of cells of residue . A length- rim hook has one cell of every residue: along its border strip the contents are consecutive integers. Therefore removal subtracts one from every . More precisely, choose the number of beta numbers divisible by and write the runner charges as . Reading the boundary, or adding a cell and checking its two changed beta positions, gives
The charges determine the packed runners and hence the core. For fixed , two equal cores have the same weight, so their full residue multisets are equal. Conversely equal residue multisets give equal charges and the same core. This establishes
for partitions of an integer of the same integer. The fixed-degree condition matters.
For the center invariant, use the commuting Jucys–Murphy elements , with . In the Young seminormal form basis, has eigenvalue equal to the content of the cell containing . A symmetric polynomial in them therefore acts on as the same scalar for every Young tableau: its value on the multiset of all contents of . The integral Specht lattice makes this a scalar identity before modular reduction, so modulo these central scalars depend only on the residue multiset, and every composition factor inherits them.
The substantive center theorem used in this proof is that the center of the symmetric-group algebra, integrally and over a field, consists of symmetric polynomials in the Jucys–Murphy elements. Centrality of elementary symmetric polynomials follows from
the coefficients are central class-sum combinations. The reverse inclusion requires the integral triangular class-sum argument: expand symmetric monomials in the as products of transpositions, group the leading terms by reduced cycle type, and eliminate these leading class sums in the resulting unitriangular order. The integral coefficients, with no division by multiples of , are crucial; knowing the center only over would not prove the modular assertion. This is the central algebraic ingredient of this proof route.
Thus equal residue multisets yield equal characters of the entire modular center. Different residue multisets are separated already by the coefficients of the central polynomial : its scalar on the shape reduces to , whose unique factorization records the multiplicities exactly, even in characteristic . In a finite-dimensional split algebra, two simple modules are in the same block exactly when their central characters agree: the center of each block is local, while different block idempotents separate different blocks. It follows that equal cores give one block and different cores give distinct blocks. This proves both directions rather than just observing that core is constant on known blocks.
Finally, each ordinary Specht lattice has a single reduced central character, so all constituents of its reduction lie in that one block. Question 1 supplies every simple module and its label; the regular labels therefore identify all the simples in each core block. The constructions use integer coefficients and absolutely irreducible prime-field modules, so the block description descends to the arbitrary characteristic- field in the question. This completes the main steps of the block proof without presupposing semisimplicity in positive characteristic.
Throughout, modules are finite-dimensional over , or finitely generated -free lattices when the coefficient ring is . The p-modular system has a complete discrete valuation ring , maximal ideal , fraction field of characteristic zero and residue field of characteristic .
A block of a group algebra is a nonzero, indecomposable two-sided ideal direct summand of . Equivalently it is for a primitive central idempotent . To see the equivalence, suppose as two-sided ideals and write with , . Products between and vanish because they lie in their zero intersection. Thus is the identity on , zero on , and is a central idempotent, with . Conversely . Splitting further is equivalent to splitting into orthogonal nonzero central idempotents; indecomposability is exactly primitivity. If is the block decomposition, . A nonzero indecomposable module therefore belongs to exactly one block of a group algebra, namely the one with .
For modular reduction of block idempotents, the conjugacy class sums are an -basis of . Hence . In the complete commutative algebra , idempotent lifting gives a unique lift of each idempotent of ; uniqueness follows because commuting idempotents congruent modulo the Jacobson radical are equal. Orthogonal decompositions lift too, so primitivity is preserved. Reduction gives a bijection between the integral and modular blocks.
Here is a definition of defect groups of a block which also proves the required relative-projectivity assertion. Give its conjugation action and, for , define the relative trace and its transfer ideal of conjugation-fixed elements by
A defect group of a block is a -subgroup minimal with . Such a subgroup exists: for a Sylow subgroup , is a unit in and . The defect of a block is where .
For completeness, this definition is independent of a choice up to conjugacy. Multiplying two relative traces and grouping the pairs of cosets by double cosets gives
This identity follows by writing each pair of cosets as a simultaneous -orbit; its stabilizer is , and its contribution is a trace from that stabilizer. If are both minimal for , then belongs to the displayed sum. The commutative block center is a local ring: in the field case it is a commutative Artinian ring with no nontrivial idempotents; in the integral case its reduction has this property and completeness detects units. A sum of proper ideals cannot contain its identity. Consequently for some , forcing by minimality. The same argument with an arbitrary shows that precisely when contains a conjugate of . This is the trace criterion for defect groups.
To relate this to the usual modular definition, the Brauer morphism deletes the coefficients outside the centralizer:
It is an algebra homomorphism: in the coefficient of an element centralizing in a product, acts on the contributing pairs; nonfixed orbits have size divisible by , while fixed pairs have both entries in . Its kernel is the sum of proper-subgroup transfers, because the nonfixed conjugation orbit sums form a basis of that kernel. If is minimal for and , replace by . The kernel description gives , contradicting the local-center argument. Also unless is conjugate into : group the cosets of into -orbits, which have no fixed point otherwise. Thus the minimal transfer subgroups are exactly the maximal -subgroups with nonzero Brauer morphism of .
Now take and write . Multiplication by is a -linear endomorphism of , and
Here is the splitting behind the D. Higman criterion. The natural map , , has a -linear section
Changing a representative by an element of leaves this tensor unchanged, permutes the terms, and . Hence
This is relative projectivity for , proving the Green relative projectivity theorem; indecomposability was needed only to speak of a single block of a group algebra or vertex of an indecomposable module.
Finally let lift . A trace expression for reduces to one for , so a modular defect group of a block is contained, up to conjugacy, in an integral one. Conversely choose a modular defect group and with . Conjugation orbit sums lift to . The element
reduces to its block identity, hence is a unit in that block center. Its inverse there is central, so
The integral defect is therefore contained in the modular one. The corresponding blocks have the same conjugacy class of defect groups and the same defect.
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 and
The latter ambient algebra is commutative because invariance under includes invariance under . The Brauer morphism and relative trace identity is
Indeed 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. Define
The 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 as
The 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 satisfies
which 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.
The block statement is Green correspondence for blocks: if , blocks of and with defect group correspond, and their block bimodules are Green correspondents for the diagonal vertex . We prove the module correspondence underlying this statement, then specialize it to the block bimodules. This also gives the requested direct proof in the trivial-intersection situation.
Here are the elementary ingredients, including their proofs. Mackey decomposition is obtained by partitioning the tensor basis of by the double cosets ; the term for is induction from of the suitably conjugated restriction of . The D. Higman criterion follows from the section constructed in Question 1. Conversely, take a splitting of the induction counit and its coefficient at the identity coset: equivariance reconstructs the section from that -linear coefficient, and the splitting identity is exactly that its relative trace is . Thus the trace criterion is an equivalence.
An indecomposable module here has a local endomorphism ring. Over this follows from the Fitting lemma: an endomorphism eventually splits its kernel from its image, and indecomposability makes it invertible or nilpotent. Over , the endomorphism ring is finite over a complete discrete valuation ring; lift orthogonal idempotents from its finite-dimensional residue algebra to see that an indecomposable lattice has a local endomorphism ring too. The Krull–Schmidt theorem follows by the usual exchange argument: composing the inclusion and projection of one indecomposable summand across a second decomposition writes its identity as a sum of endomorphisms; one is a unit in the local endomorphism ring and pairs that summand with a summand of the second decomposition. Remove the pair and continue. Existence follows by successively splitting nontrivial idempotents, which decreases dimension or rank.
A vertex of an indecomposable module is a subgroup minimal for relative projectivity. It can be taken to be a -subgroup because averaging over the index of a Sylow subgroup of any candidate subgroup is invertible. If an indecomposable module is relatively projective for and , the Mackey decomposition and its induction splittings make it a summand of a sum of modules induced from . In its local endomorphism ring one splitting component must be invertible, so it is relatively projective for one of these intersections. This proves conjugacy of minimal vertices and the useful criterion that a module with vertex can be relatively projective for only when is conjugate into . A source of an indecomposable module with vertex is an indecomposable summand of its restriction to from which the original module is an induced summand. Such a summand exists by the induction splitting and Krull–Schmidt theorem; its vertex is , since a proper vertex would make the original module relatively projective for a proper subgroup of .
Set
When saying a module is - or -projective, allow conjugates in the relevant ambient group and finite sums of modules relatively projective for members of that family. No conjugate of inside belongs to : if , equality of orders gives , so , contradicting . Every member of is a proper subgroup of .
The two key assertions can now be proved rather than assumed. First, if is an indecomposable -projective -module, then
Choose with . Mackey decomposition gives , with -projective. Write and apply induction and restriction. Both and contain their original modules, by the identity double coset. Comparing multiplicities of every indecomposable which is not -projective, their extra multiplicities are nonnegative and have sum zero. Therefore neither has such an extra summand, proving the assertion.
Second, suppose has vertex , and choose an indecomposable whose restriction contains ; such a exists by the first assertion. Write . Its restriction has just one summand isomorphic to and all other summands are -projective, so is -projective. Any indecomposable has a vertex after conjugacy. A source with vertex is a summand of . Restricting a -projective decomposition of to and using Mackey decomposition forces to lie in an -conjugate of some , . Since , this puts in . Thus is -projective. Moreover has vertex , since it is -projective and its restriction contains with vertex . We have proved
In particular is unique.
Conversely, let be an indecomposable -module with vertex and source . Decompose and choose whose induction contains . Its vertex is contained in and cannot be proper, since induction would then make relatively projective for a smaller subgroup. Thus has vertex , and the previous assertion makes its unique vertex- induced summand. Restriction of an -projective module is -projective: in a Mackey term a conjugating element inside preserves the containment in an -conjugate of , and one outside gives a subgroup of . Comparing the two decompositions of now gives
These assignments are mutually inverse. To check sources, restrict back to . Its terms of full vertex are conjugates of by ; the other terms are induced from proper intersections. Applying the source criterion and Krull–Schmidt theorem shows that the source of is one of those conjugates. The same argument in , and the uniqueness just proved, matches the source classes on the two sides. Thus Green correspondence preserves sources up to normalizer conjugacy.
To pass to blocks of a group algebra, regard as the permutation module . A summand of a permutation module has trivial source. Here is why: over a finite p-group, every transitive permutation module is indecomposable, since its socle is the one-dimensional fixed line and every nonzero module has nonzero fixed points. The latter follows by induction on the group order, using a central element of order and the nilpotence of its difference from . Over indecomposability follows by reduction. Restrict a permutation summand to a vertex and apply Krull–Schmidt theorem; a source must be a transitive permutation module . Its vertex is contained in , so minimality forces , and its source is the trivial module.
For a permutation module, its Brauer quotient of a module at has the fixed permutation points as basis: every nontrivial orbit sum is a proper transfer. An indecomposable trivial-source summand with vertex has nonzero quotient only at subgroups conjugate into , by its induced-permutation realization, and its quotient at is nonzero because its restriction contains its trivial source. Applied to a block , the quotient at is . Together with the maximal-subgroup characterization of defect from Question 1, this proves that its bimodule vertices are precisely for its defect groups . The integral conclusion follows by orbit-sum reduction and idempotent lifting.
Finally
Apply the just-proved Green correspondence with ambient group . Its unique vertex- summand of lies in : outside there is no -fixed group-basis point, as in Question 2. Since the indecomposable summands of are exactly its block ideals, this summand is a block with defect group . Conversely induction of has as its unique vertex- summand. The block bijection is the Brauer correspondence of Question 2, giving the claimed block form over either coefficient ring.
For the final special case put with a trivial-intersection Sylow subgroup. For , the intersection has order prime to . Indeed every -subgroup of it lies both in the normal Sylow subgroup of and in , whose intersection is trivial. Mackey decomposition therefore gives
where every other double-coset term is induced from a group of order prime to . By Maschke's theorem such modules are projective, and induction preserves projectivity, so is projective.
Every nonprojective -module has nonprojective restriction to : is prime to , so averaging makes the module a summand of the induction of its restriction. A projective restriction would therefore make the original module projective. Decompose into indecomposables. Each nonprojective summand contributes a nonprojective summand on restriction, whereas the displayed Mackey formula and Krull–Schmidt theorem have exactly one nonprojective summand, , with multiplicity one. There must be one, since is nonprojective. Hence
Let be module vertices of , and choose a module such that . Relative -projectivity then gives
Apply Mackey decomposition to the inner restriction and use induction transitivity. The resulting module is a direct sum of modules induced to from subgroups , for representatives . By Krull–Schmidt theorem, the indecomposable module is a summand of one of these induced representations. It is therefore relatively projective for one intersection contained in . Minimality of forces , so .
Interchanging gives for some . The two inclusions force equal orders, and hence
Thus all vertices of an indecomposable module are conjugate in .
Use the usual Krull–Schmidt theorem setting, in which indecomposable summands have local endomorphism rings; the paper's rings satisfy it for the subgroups involved. The relative projective module condition for means that is a direct summand of a module induced from , equivalently, is a summand of . A vertex of an indecomposable module is an inclusion-minimal such subgroup. A source of an indecomposable module at its module vertex is an indecomposable -summand of such that .
Existence of a module source follows by decomposing and using Krull–Schmidt theorem on the induced decomposition: the indecomposable summand must occur in the induction of one indecomposable summand . Such has module vertex as a -module, since relative projectivity of for a proper subgroup would make relatively projective for that subgroup.
In the paper's modular coefficient rings, an indecomposable module is a trivial source module when its module source is the rank-one trivial module of its module vertex. It is then a summand of , a permutation module. Conversely suppose is an indecomposable summand of a permutation module. Restriction to a module vertex is a sum of modules , one for each -orbit of the permutation basis. For a -group , each transitive permutation module is indecomposable: over it has simple head of a module over the local ring , and over a nontrivial splitting would give a nontrivial splitting after reduction. A module source must be one of these summands by Krull–Schmidt theorem. Its module vertex is , whereas is relatively -projective. Thus , and . Therefore trivial module source is equivalent to being an indecomposable permutation-module summand.
The rank-one formulation uses the paper's coefficient rings. If the earlier general coefficient-ring wording were applied to a disconnected ring, it would need qualification: for and , is an indecomposable summand of the permutation module , but is not the rank-one trivial module . One can instead allow indecomposable summands of the trivial coefficient module as module sources in that generality.
For the homomorphism request, take . Frobenius reciprocity and Mackey decomposition give
The summand for is generated by the sum of the cosets in the -orbit of . The identical orbit-sum construction over gives one copy of per double coset. These are free bases in both characteristics, since invariance means coefficients are constant on orbits, with no division by orbit size. Hence
The same argument applies to direct sums of coset permutation modules.
If is a trivial module source -module, choose a permutation lattice with . Its projection is an idempotent . The endomorphism reduction is surjective by the preceding calculation. Its kernel is , and the endomorphism algebra is complete over . By idempotent refinement theorem, lifts to an idempotent . The lattice is a permutation-module summand, hence a trivial module source lattice, and reduces to .
To prove uniqueness within the class of trivial module source lattices, let be two such lifts. They are summands of permutation lattices. Lift a modular isomorphism and its inverse between them by the same homomorphism-surjectivity argument, inserting the summand projections on either side. The lifted composites are identity modulo and therefore invertible over , by Nakayama lemma or the determinant criterion. The lifted maps are consequently inverse up to an invertible composite and give . Thus each trivial module source module has a unique trivial module source lift up to isomorphism. This is permutation homomorphisms lift through modular reduction; uniqueness is not claimed among arbitrary lattice lifts.
Let have defect group . Use two vertex-and-source facts, with their relevant content made explicit. Every indecomposable module in has a module vertex conjugate into . Also , as a -module with , is an indecomposable permutation-module summand with module vertex and trivial module source. The second fact is the bimodule characterization of a defect group of a block; the first follows by applying its relative- induction splitting to .
If is cyclic, every module source for every module vertex occurs among the finitely many indecomposable modules for a cyclic p-group. Each module in the block is a summand of an induction of one of these finitely many module sources. There are finitely many subgroups and each induced representation has finitely many indecomposable summands by Krull–Schmidt theorem. Thus cyclic defect implies finite representation type of the block.
For the converse, the restriction has the regular -bimodule as a direct summand. To see this from module vertices and module sources, its Brauer quotient of a module at is nonzero. Its summands are permutation modules for the -group and have module vertices of order at most . A summand detected at therefore has module vertex and trivial module source, hence is
Here a transitive permutation module for a -group is indecomposable: it has one-dimensional head of a module over the local group algebra and cannot split into two nonzero modules. This also explains the Brauer-quotient detection used in the argument.
For any -module , tensor that split bimodule inclusion with . It gives
where denotes being a direct summand. If has only finitely many indecomposable modules , each is a sum of these. Therefore every indecomposable must occur among the summands of the finite list . Thus has finite representation type.
A noncyclic -group has a quotient : its Frattini quotient has rank at least two, since a one-generator Frattini quotient forces the group itself to be cyclic. Inflation along this quotient embeds all the indecomposable modules of that elementary abelian group, preserving isomorphisms and indecomposability. Part (b) rules out finite type when is infinite.
The conclusion remains valid if the splitting field is finite. For completeness, replace the scalar parameter in part (b) by an companion matrix of an irreducible polynomial . On use
An endomorphism commuting with these has form with . Its endomorphism ring has a square-zero ideal of the -matrices and quotient , a field, so it is local and the module is indecomposable. Finite fields have irreducible polynomials of arbitrarily large degrees, giving infinitely many dimensions. This also excludes noncyclic in that case. Altogether,
Take and . If , the Nagao module theorem with puts every vertex- summand of inside . In particular its Green correspondence summand satisfies .
Conversely a central idempotent acts as zero or one on the indecomposable module . If , apply the same theorem to . Its Brauer image is , so , incompatible with . Thus
For the unheaded induction request, write . We prove the sharper intersection bound, not just a drop in module vertex size. We use Green correspondence on permutation bimodules and the usual module vertex test for a permutation-module summand: its Brauer quotient of a module at is nonzero precisely when a module vertex contains a conjugate of . This test follows by restricting to the -group , decomposing the permutation basis into its orbits, and noting that proper-orbit sums are precisely the proper-subgroup transfer terms.
Consider as a -module, with . It is the transitive permutation module induced from . Set and ; the latter contains . Its restriction decomposes as
Each outside term has stabilizer a conjugate of a subgroup of . If a diagonal subgroup embeds into one of these stabilizers, then for an outside representative. Thus its diagonal module vertices are in the intersection error family.
Every indecomposable -summand of has module vertex . To justify this, its endomorphisms are right multiplications by elements of . The coefficient projection on this algebra has nilpotent kernel: every nonsingleton -orbit sum lies in the kernel of , by part 1(b), and that kernel is nilpotent by part 1(a). Hence no nonzero idempotent endomorphism can have zero Brauer image. Its image summand has nonzero Brauer quotient of a module at , and its module vertex, already contained in a conjugate of , must be .
Apply the general Green correspondence from part (a) to . If an indecomposable summand of has module vertex outside the intersection error family, its correspondent must be a summand of , since the outside double-coset modules have only error-family module vertices. It therefore has module vertex . Consequently every summand of not having module vertex has module vertex conjugate into an outside diagonal intersection. An intersection
with projects in its first coordinate into with ; this is the error family required in the question.
Now form the split permutation bimodule
Its Brauer quotient of a module at is zero. Indeed , left multiplication by becomes multiplication by , and right multiplication by remains multiplication by . Therefore
Here is central in , so the last product is zero. Every indecomposable bimodule summand of consequently has module vertex in the outside intersection family, by the preceding paragraph, and has trivial module source since it is a permutation-module summand.
Since has vertex , necessarily . Let be a module source of at . The splitting remains a splitting after applying , since . Inducing to and applying gives
A trivial-source bimodule summand with module vertex conjugate into is a summand of . Tensoring with turns this into a module induced to from (with the appropriate conjugate restriction of ). Thus every summand on the right is relatively projective for some , . Each lies in the left-hand side, and Krull–Schmidt theorem now gives
This proves Juhász induction refinement. If there are no outside elements, the error family is empty and the complementary module is zero.
Let be the block idempotent and choose a maximal Brauer pair : is a block idempotent of with . The inertial index of a block is
where is the stabilizer of the chosen pair. Changing the pair by conjugation does not alter this number. For cyclic , it is a prime-to- divisor of . Here , as required for the order- subgroup to exist.
Put . Since is characteristic in , , so Green correspondence applies. In fact the nonprojective modules in have a particularly simple correspondence. If , a nontrivial intersection would contain the unique order- subgroup of both cyclic groups, giving and hence , a contradiction. Thus every such intersection is trivial. The error modules in induction are projective. In restriction, an intersection cannot contain a conjugate of a nontrivial subgroup of by an element of : such a conjugate contains , and that would again force . The general Green correspondence therefore pairs all indecomposable modules with nontrivial module vertex contained in a conjugate of . In particular it pairs the nonprojective modules of with the nonprojective modules of its Brauer correspondent in ; the block-compatible form of the correspondence selects . Explicitly,
where is projective and the restriction error family is . One should not replace this restriction error term by projectives without an additional argument about .
For the final structure calculation we use the general cyclic-defect structure theorem, which is permitted here as a general fact: the basic algebra of a split block with cyclic defect group is a Brauer tree algebra. Its tree has edges, one simple module per edge, and exceptional multiplicity
For a one-edge tree the basic algebra presentation is . This is the local presentation of the tree algebra, not an assertion that an arbitrary block with one simple module is automatically uniserial.
With the tree has one edge and . Thus the basic algebra of is
It has exactly one simple module, . Its ideals are precisely : for any nonzero element, factor out its lowest power of , after which the remaining factor is a unit. The regular projective therefore has the unique submodule chain
with each consecutive factor one-dimensional and simple. A Morita equivalence from to preserves simple modules, projective covers, submodule lattices and composition length. Hence
In the split setting one may also write . The projective cover has composition factors all isomorphic to , so its vector-space dimension is , not generally .
There is also an elementary reason why the uniserial conclusion follows once the one-simple-module conclusion and finite type are known. If the basic local algebra had , quotienting its radical square and all but two generators would give . The two-dimensional parameter family from Question 3(b) would then give infinitely many indecomposables. Thus is one-dimensional. Nakayama lemma makes generated by one element , so its powers yield a chain and the basic algebra is . The cyclic-defect calculation above identifies . This explains why finite representation type rules out branching in this projective cover.
For a finite acyclic quiver, the arrow ideal of a path algebra is nilpotent, and . If is a simple module, its submodule is either zero or . The latter would imply for every , contradicting nilpotence. Thus , and a simple module over the product of fields is supported at one coordinate. Therefore the simples are exactly , with at , zero elsewhere, and zero arrows; the vertex is unique.
A finite-dimensional semisimple module is consequently , where . Its dimension vector of a quiver representation determines its isomorphism class.
For an arbitrary finite quiver, cycles allowed, the vertex projective module of a path algebra is . Its space at vertex has basis all paths from to , and an arrow acts by adjoining that arrow at the end of the path. Its endomorphism ring is
where is spanned by the closed paths based at . The opposite multiplication appears because endomorphisms act by right multiplication.
The evaluation isomorphism for a vertex projective is
For , its inverse sends a path starting at to . This proves both injectivity and surjectivity, and is natural in . Vertex evaluation is exact, so is a projective module; alternatively it is a direct summand of the free module .
The closed-path corner of a path algebra is a domain: in a product of two nonzero linear combinations, choose their longest path lengths. Concatenation in that top degree has a unique cut at those lengths, so a product of two nonzero top coefficients cannot cancel. Hence its only idempotents are zero and one. The same is true of the opposite ring, proving is an indecomposable module, even when cycles make it infinite-dimensional.
For , the paths starting at vertex are and the arrow . Thus the displayed is and is projective.
A unipotent algebraic group admits a faithful linear representation in which every group element is a unipotent matrix. For , invertibility is the nonvanishing condition . Therefore is a nonempty Zariski-open subset of the vector space .
Take a Krull-Schmidt decomposition , with pairwise nonisomorphic indecomposable modules. The Fitting lemma makes each a local endomorphism ring. Its residue division algebra is : over an algebraically closed field, every element of a finite-dimensional division algebra has an eigenvalue and hence must be scalar. The semisimple quotient of a module endomorphism algebra consequently gives, for the Jacobson radical ,
is surjective with kernel . The nilpotence of makes finite and each unipotent. The kernel is closed and normal. Acting on the multiplicity spaces embeds the product of general linear groups back into and splits this quotient. This proves the Levi decomposition of a quiver automorphism group
Since is the unipotent radical, a nonzero is indecomposable exactly when : the product has a single factor of size one.
For the base change action on quiver representations, the orbit map is . Substituting , with , shows its differential is
Its kernel is . The stabilizer is smooth because it is open in that vector space. Hence the differential has rank , and its image is the Zariski tangent space . The normal space to a quiver orbit is therefore
The ambient quiver representation space is an irreducible affine space, and orbits are locally closed. An orbit is open exactly when its dimension equals that ambient dimension, equivalently when . This proves that rigid quiver representations have open orbits. Such an orbit is dense and unique, since two nonempty open subsets of an irreducible space intersect.
The Jacobson radical is , where runs over the maximal right ideals of ; equivalently, it is the intersection of the annihilators of all simple modules. It is a two-sided ideal. A projective module has the lifting property against every surjective R-module homomorphism. A finitely generated module is a projective module precisely when it is a direct summand of a finitely generated free module. An indecomposable module is nonzero and admits no direct sum decomposition into two nonzero submodules.
To calculate the top of an indecomposable projective module, use the right Artinian ring hypothesis, namely the descending chain condition on right ideals. The Hopkins-Levitzki theorem gives finite composition length of the right regular module, hence of its submodule . Also is a nilpotent ideal, and is a semisimple ring. Thus the quotient module is a semisimple module; it is nonzero, since would imply for sufficiently large .
Suppose were not a simple module. A nontrivial direct sum decomposition of this semisimple module would give an idempotent that is neither zero nor the identity. Writing , the lifting property of the projective module gives with . The Fitting lemma for an indecomposable module of finite composition length says that is either invertible or a nilpotent element. Its induced map would then be invertible or a nilpotent element, respectively. Neither is possible for a nontrivial idempotent. Therefore is simple. This argument does not assume that an embedded projective module automatically splits off from the ambient module.
A block of an Artinian algebra is a nonzero two-sided direct summand determined by a primitive central idempotent : cannot be written as a sum of two nonzero orthogonal central idempotents. Its identity is . For a finite-dimensional associative algebra, the blocks of an Artinian algebra give its unique decomposition as a finite product of indecomposable algebras, or equivalently as a direct sum of two-sided ideals.
For the block of S3 in characteristic three, put , , and . The group algebra has basis for . In characteristic three,
Consequently is a two-sided nilpotent ideal, , and . A nilpotent ideal lies in the Jacobson radical, and a quotient that is a semisimple ring forces the reverse inclusion. Hence
Define orthogonal idempotents and . They sum to one, so the right regular module decomposes as
The two summands are the indecomposable projectives of S3 in characteristic three. Each direct summand is a projective module, with basis . Its quotient module modulo multiplication by is one-dimensional: the trivial representation for , and the sign representation for . Each is an indecomposable module, since two nonzero direct summands would each have nonzero quotient module modulo , contradicting its one-dimensional top. For additional detail, the successive factors of the radical series of a module are the trivial representation, sign representation, trivial representation for , and the sign representation, trivial representation, sign representation for . Indeed, modulo the relation reverses the -sign, whereas commutes with .
The center of an associative algebra is spanned by the conjugacy class sums , , and . Since and , this center of an associative algebra is
Its vector subspace is a square-zero ideal. If is a central idempotent, then and . Thus or and . There is no nontrivial central idempotent, so the whole group algebra is its single block. The two three-dimensional projective modules above are a decomposition of the regular module, not two blocks of an Artinian algebra.
For a nonzero finitely generated indecomposable module that is a projective module over a right Artinian ring , its top is a simple module. The Jacobson radical is a nilpotent ideal, so the top is nonzero; the quotient is a semisimple module over the semisimple ring . If it decomposed, a nontrivial idempotent of its endomorphism ring would lift by projectivity to an endomorphism of . The Hopkins-Levitzki theorem gives finite composition length, and the Fitting lemma makes the lift either invertible or nilpotent. Its induced map on the top would have the same property, impossible for that nontrivial idempotent.