On the sum of character degrees coprime to \(p\) and \(p\)-nilpotency of finite groups (Q2031607)

Let \(G\) be a finite group and \(p\) a prime. Let \(\mathrm{Irr}_{p'}(G)\) be the set of all ordinary irreducible characters of \(G\) which have degree not divisible by \(p\). Write \( S_{p'}(G)\) for the quotient of the sum of all the squares of the degrees of the elements in \(\mathrm{Irr}_{p'}(G)\) and the sum of all the degrees of the elements in \(\mathrm{Irr}_{p'}(G)\). Clearly \( S_{p'}(G)\geq 1\) with equality, by a well-known result of Thompson, implying that \(G\) is \(p\)-nilpotent. In the paper under review, the authors strengthen this result by showing that if \(S_{p'}(G)\) is slightly larger, then still \(G\) is \(p\)-nilpotent. More precisely, they obtain this conclusion when \(S_{p'}(G)< 2p/(p+1)\) for \(p>2\) and also when \(S_{p'}(G)< 2\) for \(p=2\). They also have results showing that if \(S_{p'}(G)\) is below, but close to 4, then \(G\) must be solvable.