On the blockwise modular isomorphism problem

Abstract: As a generalization of the modular isomorphism problem we study the behavior of defect groups under Morita equivalence of blocks of finite groups over algebraically closed fields of positive characteristic. We prove that the Morita equivalence class of a block B of defect at most 3 determines the defect groups of B up to isomorphism. In characteristic 0 we prove similar results for metacyclic defect groups and 2-blocks of defect 4. In the second part of the paper we investigate the situation for p-solvable groups G. Among other results we show that the group algebra of G itself determines if G has abelian Sylow p-subgroups.