Groups with distinct monolithic character degrees (Q1305044)

The main purpose of this paper is to elucidate the structure of the finite groups whose nonlinear monolithic irreducible characters are of pairwise distinct degree; in short, such a group is a DMD-group. An irreducible character \(\eta\) of a finite group \(T\) is called monolithic if \(T/\text{Ker}(\eta)\) has only one minimal normal subgroup. The following is shown: Let \(G\) be a DMD-group. Then: \(G\) is solvable. The second derived subgroup of \(G\) is nilpotent. If \(P\) is a normal Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of \(G\), contained in the commutator subgroup \(G'\) of \(G\), then \(P\) is elementary Abelian. The Fitting height of \(G\) is at most 3. If \(|G:G'|\) is odd, then \(G'\) is an elementary Abelian 2-group. Suppose \(G\) is a Frobenius group with kernel \(N\) and complement \(H\); then one of the following holds: (a) \(N\) is an elementary Abelian \(p\)-group and \(H\) is cyclic of order \(|N|-1\), (b) \(N\) is elementary Abelian of order \(9\) and \(H\) is quaternion of order 8, (c) \(N\) is elementary Abelian of order 25 and \(H\) is non-Abelian of order 24. In order to achieve these results a lot of (more general) properties have been shown here, going beyond the scope of this paper. They deal with distinct orbit sizes, with distinct degrees over an invariant character, with groups admitting only distinct nonlinear character degrees etc. A study of this paper is therefore strongly recommended (together with the paper of \textit{I. M. Isaacs} and \textit{G. Knutson} [in J. Algebra 199, No. 1, 302-326 (1998; Zbl 0889.20005)]). A comparison of results should also be drawn with the theory of ``homogeneous character induction''; see \textit{R. W. van der Waall} and \textit{E. B. Kuisch} [J. Algebra 170, No. 2, 584-595 (1994; Zbl 0817.20020)] and also \textit{Y. Ren}, \textit{X. Li} and \textit{Z. Lu} [Algebra Colloq. 3, No. 4, 355-368 (1996)]. In particular, Corollary 4.5 of the paper under review lies within the realm of that homogeneous character induction theory.