On the number of conjugacy classes of a finite group (Q1320136)

The paper under review is concerned with upper bounds for the number \(k(G)\) of conjugacy classes of a finite group \(G\). Apart from its own interest the results on conjugacy classes have applications to the so- called \(k(GV)\)-problem, which says: Is it true that whenever \(G\) acts as a linear group of transformations on a finite dimensional vector space over a finite field with characteristic coprime to \(|G|\) that \(k(GV)\leq|V|\)? An affirmative answer would imply that the number of irreducible ordinary characters \(k(B)\) of a \(p\)-block \(B\) of \(G\) of defect \(d\) is bounded by \(p^d\), a question posed by R. Brauer. Some of the main results of the paper are: Theorem 1.2. If \(G\) is a subgroup of the symmetric group \(S_d\) then \(k(G)\leq 5^{d-1}\). Actually the main claim is \(k(G)\leq 2^{d-1}\) whose proof is reduced to the case that \(G\) is an almost simple group. The authors use here a result of O'Nan-Scott on primitive permutation groups. If \(G\) is a solvable subgroup of \(S_d\), then the bound on \(k(G)\) should be much better since in this case \(|G|\leq 24^{(d-1)/3}\) by a known result of J. D. Dixon. Indeed the authors prove in Theorem 2.2.: If \(d>2\) and \(G\) is a solvable subgroup of \(S_d\), then \(k(G)\leq(\sqrt{3})^{d-1}\). The main result in section 3, Theorem 3.1 says that for a solvable group \(G\) with \(|F(G)|=p^r\) (\(p\) a prime, \(r\geq 1)\), \(k(G)\leq 3^{r-1}p^r\). The proof involves Knörr's affirmative answer to the \(k(GV)\)-problem in case of a super- solvable \(G\). As a consequence the authors have: If \(B\) is a \(p\)-block of defect \(d>0\) of a solvable group, then \(k(B)\leq 3^{(d-1)}/2\) for \(p>7\). (Corollary 3.3). Finally, section 4 deals with non-solvable groups and here it is not surprising that the classification of finite simple groups comes in. The crucial result is Theorem 4.2: There exists a constant \(c\) (independent of \(r\)) such that whenever \(G\) is a finite subgroup of \(\text{GL}(r,\mathbb{C})\), then every subgroup of \(G/F(G)\) has at most \(c^{r-1}\) conjugacy classes. Note, that for \(G\) solvable, \(c=3\) (this is Theorem 3.2). As in section 3, Theorem 4.2. leads to an analogue of 3.1 and a bound for the number of characters in a \(p\)-block.