Upper bounds for the number of irreducible character degrees of a group. (Q2253012)

Let \(G\) be a finite group. Write \(\text{cd}(G)\) for the set of irreducible complex character degrees of \(G\), and let \(b(G)\) be the largest element in \(\text{cd}(G)\). Trivially, \(|\text{cd}(G)|\leq b(G)\), and there are a number of results strengthening this inequality. In particular, a result by \textit{M. L. Lewis} and \textit{A. Moretó} [J. Algebra Appl. 13, No. 2, Article ID 1350096 (2014; Zbl 1295.20005)] states that if \(b(G)\) is a prime number, then \(|\text{cd}(G)|\leq 4\). The main result in the paper under review is the following. Theorem. Let \(G\) be \(p\)-solvable, and assume that \(b(G)\leq kp\), where \(p\) is prime and \(k<p\) is an integer. Assume also that some member of \(\text{cd}(G)\) is divisible by \(p\). Then \(|\text{cd}(G)|<k(5+2\ln(k))\); in particular, this bound depends on \(k\), but not on \(p\). (Note that this gives the Lewis-Moretó result for \(p\)-solvable groups with \(b(G)=p\) and \(k=1\).)