Primitive characters of odd order groups (Q2285235)

This paper is concerned with a conjecture first stated in [\textit{I. M. Isaacs} et al., Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 134, No. 11, 3123--3130 (2006; Zbl 1117.20006)], namely that if \(\chi\) is an irreducible primitive character of a finite group \(G\), then \(\chi(1)\) divides \(|g^G|\) for some element \(g\in G\). Here \(g^G\) denotes the conjugacy class of \(G\) containing \(g\). In [loc. cit.], the authors proved a weak version of this conjecture as follows: If \(G\) is solvable and \(p\) a prime dividing \(|G|\), then \(\chi(1)_p\) divides \({|g^G|_p}^3\) for some element \(g\in G\). Here, \(m_p\) denotes the \(p\)-part of the prime factorization of the integer \(m\). In the paper under review, the author strengthens the result on \(p\)-parts for groups of odd order by removing the exponent 3 from the statement. His approach is similar to the earlier proof, but the oddness hypothesis allows him to use the symplectic structure of some modules to get sharper bounds on the order of Sylow subgroups. Moreover, the author proves that the original conjecture is true for odd-order meta-nilpotent \(p^a q^b\)-groups.