On generalized Gagola characters. (Q2350496)

Let \(G\) be a finite group of order \(m\). Then the Galois group of the \(m\)-th cyclotomic field over the rational numbers acts naturally on \(\text{Irr}(G)\). Write \(\text{Gal}(\chi)\) for the set of all Galois conjugates of \(\chi\in\text{Irr}(G)\) and \(n(\chi)\) for the number of conjugacy classes of \(G\) on which \(\chi\) takes nonzero values. Suppose that \(G>1\). Then by the first orthogonality relation, it is easy to see that \(|\text{Gal}(\chi)|+1\leq n(\chi)\). The authors call \(\chi\) a generalized Gagola character iff equality holds. (This is in particular the case whenever \(n(\chi)=2\) which is the case of the original Gagola characters.) The paper is concerned with the existence of generalized Gagola characters and the structure of groups possessing one and proves several results along these lines. The main result is Theorem A. A finite nonabelian group \(G\) has a generalized Gagola character if and only if there exists a normal subgroup \(N\) of \(G\) with \(1<N<G\) such that (1) \((G,N)\) is a Camina pair (i.e., all irreducible characters not having \(N\) in their kernel vanish on all elements in \(G-N\)), and (2) \(N\) is an elementary abelian \(p\)-group for some prime \(p\), and (3) \(G\) permutes transitively all subgroups of order \(p\) of \(N\).