Related papers: $p$-groups and zeros of characters

There has been some interest on how the average character degree affects the structure of a finite group. We define, and denote by $ \mathrm{anz}(G) $, the average number of zeros of characters of a finite group $ G $ as the number of zeros…

We consider groups where the centers of the irreducible characters form a chain. We obtain two alternate characterizations of these groups, and we obtain some information regarding the structure of these groups. Using our results, we are…

We give examples of atomic integral domains satisfying each of the eight logically possible combinations of existence or non-existence of the following kinds of elements: 1) primes, 2) absolutely irreducible elements that are not prime, and…

Let $p$ be a prime number and let $n$ be a non-zero natural number. We compute the descending Loewy series of the algebra $R\_n/pR\_n$, where $R\_n$ denotes the ring of virtual ordinary characters of the symmetric group $S\_n$.

We consider a finite group $G$ with a normal subgroup $N$ so that all elements of $G \setminus N$ have prime power order. We prove that if there is a prime $p$ so that all the elements in $G \setminus N$ have $p$-power order, then either…

We provide an example of a finite group with a conjugacy class of average size on which fewer than half of the irreducible characters are either zero or a root of unity.

We restrict the possibilities for the character degrees of $p$-groups $G$ satisfying $|G:G'| = p^2$. E.g. if $G$ is of maximal class and has an irreducible character of degree $> p$, then it has such a character of degree at most…

Given a generalized $e$-block $B$ of a symmetric group and an $e$-regular conjugacy class $C$, we study the number of irreducible characters in $B$ which do not vanish on $C$ and find lower bounds for it.

Let $p$ be a prime integer and $\mathbb{Z}_p$ be the ring of $p$-adic integers. By a purely computational approach we prove that each nonzero normal element of a completed group algebra over the special linear group ${\rm…

Many results have been established about determining whether or not an element evaluates to zero on an irreducible character of a group. In this note it is shown that if a group $G$ has a normal nilpotent subgroup $N$, and $P$ is a Sylow…

Let $p$ be a prime. We define $S(p)$ the smallest number $k$ such that every positive integer is a sum of at most $k$ squares of integers that are not divisible by $p$. In this article, we prove that $S(2)=10$, $S(3)=6$, $S(5)=5$, and…

We show that finite quasisimple groups of Lie type in characteristic $p$ with an irreducible representation of prime degree $r$ over a finite field of characteristic $p$ have orders bounded above by a function of $r$, independent of $p$. We…

We define the position of an irreducible complex character of a finite group as an alternative to the degree. We then use this to define three classes of groups: PR-groups, IPR-groups and weak IPR-groups. We show that IPR-groups and weak…

For every odd prime $p$ and every integer $n\geq 12$ there is a Heisenberg group of order $p^{5n/4+O(1)}$ that has $p^{n^2/24+O(n)}$ pairwise nonisomorphic quotients of order $p^{n}$. Yet, these quotients are virtually indistinguishable.…

Let $G$ be a finite group, $p$ a prime, and $IBr_p(G)$ the set of irreducible $p$-Brauer characters of $G$. Let $\bar e_p(G)$ be the largest integer such that $p^{\bar e_p(G)}$ divides $\chi(1)$ for some $\chi \in IBr_p(G)$. We show that…

Let $d\ge4$ and $c\in(-d,d)$ be relatively prime integers. We show that for any sufficiently large integer $n$ (in particular $n>24310$ suffices for $4\le d\le 36$), the smallest prime $p\equiv c\pmod d$ with $p\ge(2dn-c)/(d-1)$ is the…

Let $B$ be a $p$-block of a finite group, and set $m=$ $\sum \chi(1)^2$, the sum taken over all height zero characters of $B$. Motivated by a result of M. Isaacs characterising $p$-nilpotent finite groups in terms of character degrees, we…

Several recent problems in the representation theory of finite groups require determining whether certain characters of almost simple groups belong to the principal block. Since the values of these characters are not yet known, we employ…

This paper computes the irreducible characters of the alternating Hecke algebras, which are deformations of the group algebras of the alternating groups. More precisely, we compute the values of the irreducible characters of the semisimple…

Let $G$ be a finite group of order divisible by two distinct primes $p$ and $q$. We show that $G$ possesses a non-trivial irreducible character of degree not divisible by $p$ nor $q$ lying in both the principal $p$- and $q$-block whenever…