Let k be a field and G a finite group. By analogy with the theory of phantom maps in topology, a map f : M → ℕ between kG-modules is said to be phantom if its restriction to every finitely generated submodule of M factors through a projective module. We investigate the relationships between the theory of phantom maps, the algebraic theory of purity, and Rickard's idempotent modules. In general, adding one to the pure global dimension of kG gives an upper bound for the number of phantoms we need...

Let $G$ be a finite group and $k$ a field of characteristic $p>0$. In this paper, we obtain several equivalent conditions to determine whether the principal block $B_0$ of a finite $p$-solvable group $G$ is $p$-radical, which means that $B_0$ has the property that $e_0{\left(k_P\right)}^G$ is semisimple as a $kG$-module, where $P$ is a Sylow $p$-subgroup of $G$, $k_P$ is the trivial $kP$-module, ${\left(k_P\right)}^G$ is the induced module, and $e_0$ is the block idempotent of $B_0$. We also give the complete classification of a finite $p$-solvable group $G$ which has not more than three...