Group rings of finite strongly monomial groups: central units and primitive idempotents

We compute the rank of the group of central units in the integral group ring $\Z G$ of a finite strongly monomial group $G$. The formula obtained is in terms of the strong Shoda pairs of $G$. Next we construct a virtual basis of the group of central units of $\Z G$ for a class of groups $G$ properly contained in the finite strongly monomial groups. Furthermore, for another class of groups $G$ inside the finite strongly monomial groups, we give an explicit construction of a complete set of orthogonal primitive idempotents of $\Q G$. Finally, we apply these results to describe finitely many generators of a subgroup of finite index in the group of units of $\Z G$, this for metacyclic groups $G$ of the form $G=C_{q^m}\rtimes C_{p^n}$ with $p$ and $q$ different primes and the cyclic group $C_{p^n}$ of order $p^n$ acting faithfully on the cyclic group $C_{q^m}$ of order $q^m$.