Abelian subgroups, nilpotent subgroups, and the largest character degree of a finite group (Q2300483)

Let \(G\) be a solvable finite group, \(F(G)\) the Fitting subgroup of \(G\) and \(b(G)\) the largest irreducible character degree of \(G\). Gluck's conjecture asserts that \(|G : F(G)| \le b(G)^{2}\). Although still open, it has been confirmed for various cases. In particular, it was proved that \(|G : F(G)| \leq b(G)^{4}\) for every \(G\), which then implies that \(G\) contains an abelian subgroup of index at most \(b(G)^{8}\) [\textit{J. P. Cossey} et al., Math. Z. 279, No. 3--4, 1067--1080 (2015; Zbl 1319.20007)]. In this article, the authors propose to investigate whether it is possible to bound any portion of an abelian subgroup in terms of \(b(G)\). A first result is Theorem 1.1: Let \(H\) be an abelian subgroup of a finite group \(G\) and let \(\pi= \pi (H)\). Then \(|H O_{\pi}\pi (G)/O_{\pi} (G)| \leq b(G)\). Theorem 1.1 does not hold if the hypothesis \(H\) abelian is replaced by \(H\) nilpotent. A second result is Theorem 1.2: Let \(H\) be a nilpotent subgroup of a nonabelian finite group \(G\). Let \(\pi=\pi(H)\) and \(p=\min \pi\). Then \(|H O_{\pi}(G)/O_{\pi}(G)| \leq (b(G)^{p}/p)^{\frac{1}{p-1}}\).