Powers of characters of finite groups (Q1079650)

Let G be a finite group. In an earlier paper [in: Products of Conjugacy Classes in Groups, Lect. Notes Math. 1112, 6-51 (1985; Zbl 0561.20004)] the authors introduced and proved some results regarding the covering number cn(G), which is defined to be the smallest positive integer m such that \(C^ m=G\) for all non-identity conjugacy classes C of G (where, if no such integer exists, cn(G) is said to be infinite). In this paper they introduce the analogous notion for characters of G and prove similar results. Let Irr(G) be the set of irreducible complex characters of G and for any character \(\theta\) of G let Irr(\(\theta)\) be the set of all irreducible constituents of \(\theta\). Then the character-covering number ccn(G) is defined to be the smallest positive integer m such that \(Irr(\chi^ m)=Irr(G)\) for all non-trivial \(\chi\) in Irr(G). If no such m exists, ccn(G) is said to be infinite. The authors then prove (Theorem 1) that ccn(G) is finite if and only if G is a non-abelian simple group. Other results which are proved are: (1) Theorem 2(a)) If G is a non- abelian simple group with k conjugacy classes then ccn(G)\(\leq k^ 2- 3k+4\), and (ii) (Theorem 3) If \(ccn(G)=2\) then G is isomorphic to the Janko group \(J_ 1\).