Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
If G is a group with a subgroup H and R is a Dedekind domain, then an H-projective RG-lattice is an RG-lattice that is a direct summand of an induced lattice for some RH-lattice N: they have been studied extensively in the context of modular representation theory. If H is the trivial group these are the projective lattices. We define a relative character χG/H on H-projective lattices, which in the case H = 1 is equivalent to the Hattori–Stallings trace for projective lattices (see [5, 8]), and in the case H = G is the ordinary character. These characters can be used to show that the R-ranks of certain H-projective lattices must be divisible by some specified number, generalizing some well-known results: cf. Corollary 3·6. If for example we take R = ℤ, then |G/H| divides the ℤ-rank of any H-projective ℤG-lattice.