On Feit's definition of the Schur index. (Q1772566)

In his book [Characters of finite groups, New York-Amsterdam: W. A. Benjamin (1967; Zbl 0166.29002)], \textit{W.~Feit} defined the Schur index \(m_F(\chi)\) as follows. Let \(\chi\) be the character of an absolutely irreducible representation of a finite group over some field \(K\) of characteristic zero. If \(F\) is \textit{any} field of characteristic zero, and \(F(\chi)\) is the field generated over \(F\) by the values of \(\chi\), then \(m_F(\chi)\) is defined as the smallest positive integer with the property that \(m_F(\chi)\chi\) is afforded by a representation over \(F(\chi)\). This definition implicitly requires that \(K\), where the values of \(\chi\) originally lie, be first embedded into some extension field \(F^*\) of \(F\). The main result of this paper is a proof that \(m_F(\chi)\) is independent of such an embedding. It is also shown that the special case of this result where \(F\) is the \(p\)-adic field \(\mathbb{Q}_p\) is equivalent to a theorem of \textit{M.~Benard} [J. Algebra 22, 374-377 (1972; Zbl 0239.20006)]. The last part of the paper is devoted to a discussion of Schur indices of unipotent representations of Chevalley groups, where Benard's theorem finds an application. In particular, the author proposes a motivic explanation for the exceptional behaviour of groups of type \(E_7\) in this context, which was discovered by \textit{M.~Geck} [Osaka J. Math. 42, No. 1, 201-215 (2005; Zbl 1071.20014)].