Burnside Rings of Fusions Systems and their Unit Groups

Abstract: For a saturated fusion system $\mathcal F$ on a $p$-group $S$, we study the Burnside ring of the fusion system $B(\mathcal F)$, as defined by Matthew Gelvin and Sune Reeh, which is a subring of the Burnside ring $B(S)$. We give criteria for an element of $B(S)$ to be in $B(\mathcal F)$ determined by the $\mathcal F$-automorphism groups of essential subgroups of $S$. When $\mathcal F$ is the fusion system induced by a finite group $G$ with $S$ as a Sylow $p$-group, we show that the restriction of $B(G)$ to $B(S)$ has image equal to $B(\mathcal F)$. We also show that for $p=2,$ we can gain information about the fusion system by studying the unit group $B(\mathcal F)^\times.$ When $S$ is abelian, we completely determine this unit group.