Rhetorical biset functors, rational p-biset functors and their semisimplicity in characteristic zero

Abstract

Rhetorical biset functors can be defined for any family of finite groups that is closed under subquotients up to isomorphism. The rhetorical p-biset functors almost coincide with the rational p-biset functors. We show that, over a field with characteristic zero, the rhetorical biset functors are semisimple and, furthermore, they admit a character theory involving primitive characters of automorphism groups of cyclic groups.