Cohomological uniqueness, Massey products and the modular isomorphism problem for $2$-groups of maximal nilpotency class

Abstract

Let $G$ be a finite 2-group of maximal nilpotency class, and let $BG$ be its classifying space. We prove that iterated Massey products in $H^*(BG;\F_2)$ do characterize the homotopy type of $BG$ among 2-complete spaces with the same cohomological structure. As a consequence we get an alternative proof of the modular isomorphism problem for 2-groups of maximal nilpotency class.