Character separation and principal covering. (Q536016): Difference between revisions

The authors investigate the separation of ordinary irreducible characters by blocks at different primes and the covering of ordinary irreducible characters by blocks. Suppose \(G\) is a finite group and \(\pi_1\) and \(\pi_2\) are two disjoint sets of primes whose union is the set of all prime divisors of \(|G|\). The authors prove that \(\mathrm{Irr}(B_0(G)_p)\cap\mathrm{Irr}(B_0(G)_q)=\{1_G\}\) for any prime \(p\in\pi_1\) and \(q\in\pi_2\) if and only if \(G=O_{\pi_1}(G)\times O_{\pi_2}(G)\). This generalizes a result of the authors [\textit{C. Bessenrodt} and \textit{J. Zhang}, Adv. Math. 218, No. 2, 485-495 (2008; Zbl 1185.20009)] and provides a criterion for the \(p\)-nilpotency of finite groups. The main result of the paper under review is about principal coverings. A finite group \(G\) is said to be principally covered if every \(\chi\in\mathrm{Irr}(G)\) lies in \(B_0(G)_p\) for some prime \(p\), and \(G\) is said to be strongly principally covered if any two ordinary irreducible characters of \(G\) belong to the same principal \(p\)-block for some prime \(p\). The authors prove that if \(G\) is principally covered then \(\mathrm{Irr}(G)=\mathrm{Irr}(B_0(G)_p)\) for some prime \(p\), or the generalized Fitting subgroup \(F^*(G)\) is either non-Abelian simple or isomorphic to an explicit list of groups each of which is a direct product of two simple groups. They also prove that if \(G\) is strongly principally covered then \(\mathrm{Irr}(G)=\mathrm{Irr}(B_0(G)_p)\) for some prime \(p\), or \(F^*(G)\) is isomorphic to one of 19 explicitly given simple groups. Note that the groups with \(\mathrm{Irr}(G)=\mathrm{Irr}(B_0(G)_p)\) have been characterized by \textit{M. E. Harris} [in J. Algebra 94, 411-424 (1985; Zbl 0602.20013)].