Vertices of Specht modules and blocks of the symmetric group

Mark Wildon

Published 2009-07-04Version 1

This paper studies the vertices, in the sense defined by J. A. Green, of Specht modules for symmetric groups. The main theorem gives, for each indecomposable non-projective Specht module, a large subgroup contained in one of its vertices. A corollary of this theorem is a new way to determine the defect groups of symmetric groups. We also use it to find the Green correspondents of a particular family of simple Specht modules; as a corollary, we get a new proof of the Brauer correspondence for blocks of the symmetric group. The proof of the main theorem uses the Brauer homomorphism on modules, as developed by M. Brou{\'e}, together with combinatorial arguments using Young tableaux.