Subpair multiplicities in finite groups.

The language of subpairs ([!]) provides a suitable framework for investigating connections between local and global properties of a finite group and its /-blocks (f a prime). In particular various "reduction theorems" in modular representation theory ([6], [H], [8], [4]) may be illuminated using the "local methods" introduced in [1]. On another band, R. Brauer's formulae for the lower defect group multiplicities in a finite group (see [2], [3], [9]) give strong numerical relations between the global and local invariants of a group and its blocks. It would therefore seem reasonable to try to connect these facts: this is the main purpose of this paper.