Large orbits of supersolvable linear groups (Q1291108)

The study of regular orbits of linear groups plays an important role in representation theory, particularly that of solvable groups because a chief factor of a solvable group \(G\) is an irreducible \(G\)-module. Existence of regular orbits has had applications to Brauer's conjectures on height zero characters and block size as well as length-type problems. Even if \(G\) is nilpotent, \(G\) need not have a regular orbit simply because it is possible that \(| G|>| V|\). Passman shows that if \(G\) is a \(p\)-group and \(V\) completely reducible, then there exists an orbit as large as \(| G|^{1/2}\) by proving \(C_G(x)\cap C_G(y)=1\) for some \(x\) and \(y\) in \(V\). Isaacs has offered a slight strengthening and different technique. In his paper, Isaacs asks whether there is always an orbit as large as \(| G|^{1/2}\) whenever \(G\) is solvable and \((| G|,| V|)=1\) and he also proved this question in correspondence for \(G\) supersolvable. We answer the latter affirmatively without any coprimeness hypothesis. Our main result is Theorem A. If \(V\) is a faithful completely reducible \(G\)-module for a supersolvable group \(G\), then there exist \(x\) and \(y\) in \(V\) such that \(C_G(x)\cap C_G(y)=1\). An immediate corollary is that there is a \(G\)-orbit in \(V\) with size at least \(| G|^{1/2}\).