Finitely semisimple spherical categories and modular categories are self-dual

We show that every essentially small finitely semisimple k-linear additive spherical category for which k=End(1) is a field, is equivalent to its dual over the long canonical forgetful functor. This includes the special case of modular categories. In order to prove this result, we show that the universal coend of the spherical category, with respect to the long forgetful functor, is self-dual as a Weak Hopf Algebra.     

Complexity and cohomology of cohomological Mackey functors

Let k be a field of characteristic p>0. Call a finite group G a poco group over k if any finitely generated cohomological Mackey functor for G over k has polynomial growth. The main result of this paper is that G is a poco group over k if and only if the Sylow p-subgroups of G are cyclic, when p>2, or have sectional rank at most 2, when p=2.A major step in the proof is the case where G is an elementary abelian p-group. In particular, when p=2, all the extension groups between simple functors can be determined completely, using a presentation of the graded algebra of self extensions of the simple functor , by explicit generators and relations.     

Mod 2 indecomposable orthogonal invariants

Over an algebraically closed base field k of characteristic 2, the ring R^G of invariants is studied, G being the orthogonal group O(n) or the special orthogonal group SO(n) and acting naturally on the coordinate ring R of the m-fold direct sum kⁿ⊕?⊕kⁿ of the standard vector representation. It is proved for O(n) (n?2) and for SO(n) (n?3) that there exist m-linear invariants with m arbitrarily large that are indecomposable (i.e., not expressible as polynomials in invariants of lower degree). In fact, they are explicitly constructed for all possible values of m. Indecomposability of corresponding invariants over immediately follows. The constructions rely on analysing the Pfaffian of the skew-symmetric matrix whose entries above the diagonal are the scalar products of the vector variables.     

Second cohomology groups for Frobenius kernels and related structures

Let G be a simple simply connected affine algebraic group over an algebraically closed field k of characteristic p for an odd prime p. Let B be a Borel subgroup of G and U be its unipotent radical. In this paper, we determine the second cohomology groups of B and its Frobenius kernels for all simple B-modules. We also consider the standard induced modules obtained by inducing a simple B-module to G and compute all second cohomology groups of the Frobenius kernels of G for these induced modules. Also included is a calculation of the second ordinary Lie algebra cohomology group of Lie(U) with coefficients in k.     

Almost fixed-point-free automorphisms of soluble groups

Suppose G is either a soluble (torsion-free)-by-finite group of finite rank or a soluble linear group over a finite extension field of the rational numbers. We consider the implications for G if G has an automorphism of finite order m with only finitely many fixed points. For example, if m is prime then G is a finite extension of a nilpotent group and if m=4 then G is a finite extension of a centre-by-metabelian group. This extends the special cases where G is polycyclic, proved recently by Endimioni (2010); see [3].     

Universal deformation rings and self-injective Nakayama algebras

Let k be a field and let Λ be an indecomposable finite dimensional k-algebra such that there is a stable equivalence of Morita type between Λ and a self-injective split basic Nakayama algebra over k. We show that every indecomposable finitely generated Λ-module V has a universal deformation ring $R(\mathrm{\Lambda },V)$ and we describe $R(\mathrm{\Lambda },V)$ explicitly as a quotient ring of a power series ring over k in finitely many variables. This result applies in particular to Brauer tree algebras, and hence to p-modular blocks of finite groups with cyclic defect groups.     

Undecidability of the centers of groups and group algebras

Let k ≧ 3 be an integer or k = ∞ and let K be a field. There is a recursive family of finitely presented groups G_n over a fixed finite alphabet with solvable word problem such that

On the recognition problem of quasi-homogeneous locally nilpotent derivations in dimension three

We give a criterion to decide if a given w-homogeneous derivation on A?k[X₁,X₂,X₃] is locally nilpotent. We deduce an algorithm which decides if a k-subalgebra of A, which is finitely generated by w-homogeneous elements, is the kernel of some locally nilpotent derivation.     

Hasse principle for classical groups over function fields of curves over number fields

In (Letter to J.-P. Serre, 12 June 1991) Colliot-Thélène conjectures the following: Let F be a function field in one variable over a number field, with field of constants k and G be a semisimple simply connected linear algebraic group defined over F. Then the map has trivial kernel, denoting the set of places of k.The conjecture is true if G is of type 1A∗, i.e., isomorphic to SL₁(A) for a central simple algebra A over F of square free index, as pointed out by Colliot-Thélène, being an immediate consequence of the theorems of Merkurjev-Suslin [S1] and Kato [K]. Gille [G] proves the conjecture if G is defined over k and F=k(t), the rational function field in one variable over k. We prove that the conjecture is true for groups G defined over k of the types 2A∗, B_n, C_n, D_n (D₄ nontrialitarian), G₂ or F₄; a group is said to be of type 2A∗, if it is isomorphic to SU(B,τ) for a central simple algebra B of square free index over a quadratic extension k′ of k with a unitary k′|k involution τ.     

The automorphism group of certain higher degree forms

We consider symmetric indecomposable d-linear (d>2) spaces of dimension n over an algebraically closed field k of characteristic 0, whose center (the analog of the space of symmetric matrices of a bilinear form) is cyclic, as introduced by Reichstein [B. Reichstein, On Waring’s problem for cubic forms, Linear Algebra Appl. 160 (1992) 1-61]. The automorphism group of these spaces is determined through the action on the center and through the determination of the Lie algebra. Furthermore, we relate the Lie algebra to the Witt algebra.     

Semilocal Group Algebras

Let k[G] be a semilocal group algebra. It is shown that if k is an algebraically closed field, then every finitely generated flat k[G]-module is projective.     

Modular representations of profinite groups

Our aim is to transfer several foundational results from the modular representation theory of finite groups to the wider context of profinite groups. We are thus interested in profinite modules over the completed group algebra of a profinite group G, where k is a finite field of characteristic p.We define the concept of relative projectivity for a profinite -module. We prove a characterization of finitely generated relatively projective modules analogous to the finite case with additions of interest to the profinite theory. We introduce vertices and sources for indecomposable finitely generated -modules and show that the expected conjugacy properties hold—for sources this requires additional assumptions. Finally we prove a direct analogue of Green’s Indecomposability Theorem for finitely generated modules over a virtually pro-p group.     

Gluing representations via idempotent modules and constructing endotrivial modules

Let G be a finite group and k be a field of characteristic p. We show how to glue Rickard idempotent modules for a pair of open subsets of the cohomology variety along an automorphism for their intersection. The result is an endotrivial module. An interesting aspect of the construction is that we end up constructing finite dimensional endotrivial modules using infinite dimensional Rickard idempotent modules. We prove that this construction produces a subgroup of finite index in the group of endotrivial modules. More generally, we also show how to glue any pair of kG-modules.     

A theorem of Jon F. Carlson on filtrations of modules

We give an alternative proof to a theorem of Carlson [J.F. Carlson, Cohomology and induction from elementary abelian subgroups, Quart. J. Math. 51 (2000) 169-181] which states that if G is a finite group and k is a field of characteristic p, then any kG-module is a direct summand of a module which has a filtration whose sections are induced from elementary abelian p-subgroups of G. We also prove two new theorems which are closely related to Carlson’s theorem.     

Abelian groups admitting a Fréchet-Urysohn pseudocompact topological group topology

We show that every Abelian group G with r₀(G)=|G|=|G|^ω admits a pseudocompact Hausdorff topological group topology T such that the space (G,T) is Fréchet-Urysohn. We also show that a bounded torsion Abelian group G of exponent n admits a pseudocompact Hausdorff topological group topology making G a Fréchet-Urysohn space if for every prime divisor p of n and every integer k≥0, the Ulm-Kaplansky invariant f_p,k of G satisfies (f_p,k)^ω=f_p,k provided that f_p,k is infinite and f_p,k>f_p,i for each i>k.Our approach is based on an appropriate dense embedding of a group G into a Σ-product of circle groups or finite cyclic groups.     

On a conjecture of E. Rapaport Strasser about knot-like groups and its pro-p version

A group G is knot-like if it is finitely presented of deficiency 1 and has abelianization G/G^′?Z. We prove the conjecture of E. Rapaport Strasser that if a knot-like group G has a finitely generated commutator subgroup G^′ then G^′ should be free in the special case when the commutator G^′ is residually finite. It is a corollary of a much more general result : if G is a discrete group of geometric dimension n with a finite K(G,1)-complex Y of dimension n, Y has Euler characteristics 0, N is a normal residually finite subgroup of G, N is of homological type FP_n-1 and G/N?Z then N is of homological type FP_n and hence G/N has finite virtual cohomological dimension vcd(G/N)=cd(G)-cd(N). In particular either N has finite index in G or cd(N)?cd(G)-1.Furthermore we show a pro-p version of the above result with the weaker assumption that G/N is a pro-p group of finite rank. Consequently a pro-p version of Rapaport's conjecture holds.     

Groups with a positive law on commutators

Let p be a prime number and let G be a finitely generated group that is residually a finite p-group. We prove that if G satisfies a positive law on all elements of the form [a,b][c,d]ⁱ, a,b,c,d∈G and i?0, then the entire derived subgroup G^′ satisfies a positive law. In fact, G^′ is an extension of a nilpotent group by a locally finite group of finite exponent.     

A characterisation of virtually free groups

We prove that a finitely generated group G is virtually free if and only if there exists a generating set for G and k > 0 such that all k-locally geodesic words with respect to that generating set are geodesic. Received: 30 October 2006     

Cohomology rings and formality properties of nilpotent groups

We analyze k-stage formality and relate resonance with this type of formality properties. For instance, we show that, for a finitely generated nilpotent group that is k-stage formal, the resonance varieties are trivial up to degree k. We also show that the cohomology ring, truncated up to degree k+1, of a finitely generated nilpotent, k-stage formal group is generated in degree 1; this criterion is necessary and sufficient for a finitely generated, 2-step nilpotent group to be k-stage formal. We compute resonance varieties for Heisenberg-type groups and deduce the degree of partial formality for this class of groups.