On Hilbert divisors of Brauer characters (Q2182365)

Let \(G\) be a finite group with Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of order \(p^{a}\). Let \(\text{IBr}_{p}(G)\) and \(\text{IBr}_{p}(B)\) be the sets of irreducible \(p\)-Brauer characters of \(G\) and of a \(p\)-block \(B\) of \(G\), respectively, and let \(G_{p^{\prime}}\) denote the set of \(p^{\prime}\)-elements of \(G\). The Brauer characters take values in a complete discrete valuation ring \(R\) with unique maximal ideal \(\pi R\), \(k:=R/\pi R\) is a field of characteristic \(p\) and \(R^{\ast}:=R\setminus\pi R\) is the group of units in \(R\). In an earlier paper [J. Algebra 499, 506--515 (2018; Zbl 1427.20017)], the authors defined the Hilbert divisor of \(\phi\in\text{IBr}_{p}(G)\) to be the least power \(p^{a(\phi)}\) of \(p\) such that \(p^{a(\phi)}\phi\) restricted to \(G^{\prime}\) is equal to a \(\mathbb{Z}\)-linear combination of characters from \(\text{IBr}_{p}(G)\); they made the conjecture that \(a(\phi)=0\) if and only if \(\phi\) lies in a block of defect \(0\). The conjecture is known to be true in the following cases: (a) for all \(\phi\in\text{IBr}_{p}(G)\) if \(G\) is \(p\)-solvable; (b) for all \(\phi\in \text{IBr}_{p}(B)\) if \(B\) has a cyclic defect group; and (c) for all characters in blocks of tame representation type. In the present paper, the authors explore the conjecture further. For example, (Theorem 3.6) \(a(\phi)\)equals the least nonnegative integer \(n\) such that: \(p^{n}\phi (x)/\left\vert C_{G}(x)\right\vert _{p}\in R\) for all \(x\in G_{p^{\prime}}\) and \(p^{n}\phi(y)/\left\vert C_{G}(y)\right\vert _{p}\in R^{\ast}\) for at least one \(y\in G_{p^{\prime}}\).