Related papers: Brauer's problem 21 for principal blocks

We study Brauer's long-standing $k(B)$-conjecture on the number of characters in $p$-blocks for finite quasi-simple groups and show that their blocks do not occur as a minimal counterexample for $p\ge5$ nor in the case of abelian defect.…

We prove, for primes $p\ge5$, two inequalities between the fundamental invariants of Brauer $p$-blocks of finite quasi-simple groups: the number of characters in the block, the number of modular characters, the number of height zero…

Recently, a new conjecture on the degrees of the irreducible Brauer characters of a finite group was presented by the second author. In this paper we propose a 'local' version of this conjecture for blocks B of finite groups, giving a lower…

Several recent problems in the representation theory of finite groups require determining whether certain characters of almost simple groups belong to the principal block. Since the values of these characters are not yet known, we employ…

Suppose that $B$ is a Brauer $p$-block with defect group $D$. If $B$ exactly contains 4 irreducible characters, then we show that $D$ has order 4 or 5, assuming the Alperin--McKay conjecture.

In this note we give applications of recent results coming mostly from the third paper of this series. It is shown that the number of irreducible characters in a $p$-block of a finite group with abelian defect group $D$ is bounded by $|D|$…

Conjecture A of \cite{EM14} predicts the equality between the smallest positive height of the irreducible characters in a $p$-block of a finite group and the smallest positive height of the irreducible characters in its defect group. Hence,…

We show (among other things) that Brauer's k(B)-conjecture holds for defect groups with are central extensions of metacyclic 2-groups by cyclic groups. The same holds for defect groups which contain a central cyclic subgroup of index at…

Slattery has generalized Brauer's theory of p-blocks of finite groups to pi-blocks of pi-separable groups where pi is a set of primes. In this setting we show that the order of a defect group of a pi-block B is bounded in terms of the…

For a block $B$ of a finite group we prove that $k(B)\le(\det C-1)/l(B)+l(B)\le\det C$ where $k(B)$ (respectively $l(B)$) is the number of irreducible ordinary (respectively Brauer) characters of $B$, and $C$ is the Cartan matrix of $B$. As…

We prove that Brauer's Height Zero Conjecture holds for p-blocks of finite groups with metacyclic defect groups. If the defect group is nonabelian and contains a cyclic maximal subgroup, we obtain the distribution into p-conjugate and…

We prove that the number of irreducible ordinary characters in the principal $p$-block of a finite group $G$ of order divisible by $p$ is always at least $2\sqrt{p-1}$. This confirms a conjecture of H\'{e}thelyi and K\"{u}lshammer for…

Let $G$ be a finite group, $p$ a prime and $B$ a Brauer $p$-block of $G$ with defect group $D$. We prove that if the number of irreducible ordinary characters in $B$ is $5$ then $D\cong C_5, C_7, D_8$ or $Q_8$, assuming that the…

We prove Brauer's k(B)-Conjecture for the 3-blocks with abelian defect groups of rank at most 5 and for all 3-blocks of defect at most 4. For this purpose we develop a computer algorithm to construct isotypies based on a method of Usami and…

It is well known that the number of real irreducible characters of a finite group G coincides with the number of real conjugacy classes of G. Richard Brauer has asked if the number of irreducible characters with Frobenius-Schur indicator 1…

We determine the numerical invariants of blocks with defect group D_{2^n}\times C_{2^m}, where D_{2^n} denotes a dihedral group of order 2^n and C_{2^m} denotes a cyclic group of order 2^m. This generalizes Brauer's results for m=0. As a…

In this paper we complete the determination of the Brauer trees of unipotent blocks (with cyclic defect groups) of finite groups of Lie type. These trees were conjectured by the first author. As a consequence, the Brauer trees of principal…

We consider real versions of Brauer's k(B) conjecture, Olsson's conjecture and Eaton's conjecture. We prove the real version of Eaton's conjecture for 2-blocks of groups with cyclic defect group and for the principal 2-blocks of groups with…

We develop the local-global theory of blocks for profinite groups. Given a field $k$ of characteristic $p$ and a profinite group $G$, one may express the completed group algebra $k[[G]]$ as a product $\prod_{i\in I}B_i$ of closed…

We consider problems concerning the largest degrees of irreducible characters of symmetric groups, and the multiplicities of character degrees of symmetric groups. Using evidence from computer experiments, we posit several new conjectures…