Real characters and degrees. (Q836111)

Let \(G\) be a finite group and let \(\text{Irr}_{\text{rv}}(G)\) be the set of real-valued irreducible complex characters of \(G\). The paper deals with the question which information on the group structure can be obtained from certain properties of the set \(\text{cd}_{\text{rv}}(G)=\{\chi(1)\mid\chi\in\text{Irr}_{\text{rv}}(G)\}\). For example, a well-known theorem of Thompson states that if the prime \(p\) divides the degree of each nonlinear irreducible complex character of \(G\), then \(G\) is \(p\)-nilpotent. Here the authors prove a ``real version'' of this result for \(p=2\): Theorem A. 2 divides \(\chi(1)\) for all nonlinear \(\chi\in\text{Irr}_{\text{rv}}(G)\) if and only if \(G\) has a normal 2-complement. The proof is elementary. Theorem B states that if \(|\text{cd}_{\text{rv}}(G)|\leq 3\), then \(G\) is solvable. The proof uses CFSG; if ``3'' is replaced by 4, the result is no longer true, as \(A_5\) shows. Also, the corresponding versions of Theorems A and B are not true if in place of character degrees conjugacy class sizes are considered. Theorem C characterizes all groups whose real class sizes (resp. real character degrees) are powers of 2, thereby extending earlier results by Chillag and Mann.