Projective characters of degree one and the inflation-restriction sequence

Abstract

AbstractLet G be a finite group, α be a fixed cocycle of G and Proj (G, α) denote the set of irreducible projective characters of G lying over the cocycle α.Suppose N is a normal subgroup of G. Then the author shows that there exists a G- invariant element of Proj(N, αN) of degree 1 if and only if [α] is an element of the image of the inflation homomorphism from M(G/N) into M(G), where M(G) denotes the Schur multiplier of G. However in many situations one can produce such G-invariant characters where it is not intrinsically obvious that the cocycle could be inflated. Because of this the author obtains a restatement of his original result using the Lyndon-Hochschild-Serre exact sequence of cohomology. This restatement not only resolves the apparent anomalies, but also yields as a corollary the well-known fact that the inflation-restriction sequence is exact when N is perfect.