Automorphisms of fusion systems of finite simple groups of Lie type

For a finite group G of Lie type and a prime p, the authors compare the automorphism groups of the fusion and linking systems of G at p with the automorphism group of G itself. When p is the defining characteristic of G, they are all isomorphic, with a very short list of exceptions. When p is different from the defining characteristic, the situation is much more complex but can always be reduced to a case where the natural map from \mathrm{Out}(G) to outer automorphisms of the fusion or linking system is split surjective. This work is motivated in part by questions involving extending the local structure of a group by a group of automorphisms, and in part by wanting to describe self homotopy equivalences of BG^\wedge _p in terms of \mathrm{Out}(G).