Realizability of representations of finite groups (Q1109129)

The paper is concerned with the determination of groups all the complex irreducible representations of which are orthogonal. Sylow 2-groups of alternating groups and finite reflection groups are observed to be among those. It is shown that the groups in question are generated by involutions. A complete list is given for 2-groups, for split extensions of elementary abelian 2-groups, for Frobenius groups, and for groups whose irreducible character degrees divide 2. The two main ingredients for the proofs are, on the one hand, the Schur-Frobenius criterion for a character to belong to a real representation and, on the other hand, Clifford's theory.