Groups with 2-generated Sylow subgroups and their character tables (Q6105392)

The aim of the paper under review is to advance on the study of Brauer's Problem 12 that asks which properties of a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup \(P\) of a finite group \(G\) are determined by \(X(G)\) the character table of \(G\). It is known that \(X(G)\) determines whether \(P\) is abelian [\textit{G. Malle} and \textit{G. Navarro}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 778, 119--125 (2021; Zbl 07392170)], and whether the order of \(P/[P, P]\), the abelianization of \(P\), or of \(P/\mathbf{Z}(P)\), the quotient of \(P\) by its center, is \(p^2\) [\textit{G. Navarro} and \textit{B. Sambale}, ``Characters, commutators and centers of Sylow subgroups'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2204.04407}]. Besides, it can be proven in an elementary way that \(X(G)\) determines whether \(P\) is cyclic, that is, whether \(|P:\Phi(P)|\), the size of the quotient of \(P\) by its Frattini subgroup, is smaller or equal than \(p\). One of the main goals of this article is to study whether \(X(G)\) determines if \(|P:\Phi(P)|=p^2\), that is, if \(P\) is 2-generated but not cyclic. This problem was positively solved in [\textit{G. Navarro} et al., Represent. Theory 25, 142--165 (2021; Zbl 1480.20029)] for the prime \(p=2\). For odd primes, the authors provide a positive solution whenever \(G\) is a \(p\)-constrained group (so in particular for \(p\)-solvable groups) in Corollary 5. In Theorem A, the authors prove that \(X(G)\) determines whether \(G\) has a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of maximal nilpotency class. Their proof does not depend on the classification of finite simple groups but on recent results on fusion systems [\textit{V. Grazian} and \textit{C. Parker}, ``Saturated fusion systems on \(p\)-groups of maximal class'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2011.05011}]. Moreover, the authors show that \(X(G)\) does not determine \(X(P)\), the character table of one of its Sylow \(p\)-subgroups. For \(p=3\), counterexamples arise as as semidirect products of nonequivalent faithful actions of \(\mathrm{SL}(2, 3)\) on \(C_9 \times C_9\).