Alperin's Main Problem of Block Theory

Abstract

This paper proposes a conjectural framework for Alperin's Main Problem of Block Theory from 1976. The character sets considered here are defined by nonvanishing at given elements, not only by degree conditions. From this point of view, McKay's conjecture is usually recovered as a first degree-level consequence. The guiding idea is that the right local objects governing character values are not, in general, the sets ${\rm Irr}_{p'}(G)$ and the normalizers of Sylow $p$-subgroups, but rather the sets ${\rm Irr}^x(G)$ of irreducible characters not vanishing at a given element $x$, together with the subnormalizer subgroup ${\rm Sub}_G(x)$. I state the basic conjectures of this theory, propose stronger versions, and verify the main conjectures in several families, including the simple groups with TI Sylow $p$-subgroups. I also show how this perspective reorganizes several classical questions in character theory.