Groups with some arithmetic conditions on real class sizes. (Q2448955)

To derive algebraic information about a finite group given information about its conjugacy classes is an ongoing area of research. \textit{D. Chillag} and \textit{M. Herzog} [J. Algebra 131, No. 1, 110-125 (1990; Zbl 0694.20015)] proved that if no conjugacy class size is divisible by 4 then the group is soluble, a classification-free proof of this result is given by \textit{A. R. Camina} and \textit{R. D. Camina} [J. Group Theory 1, No. 3, 257-269 (1998; Zbl 0916.20015)]. Recall, a conjugacy class is called real if an element in the class is conjugate to its inverse. In this paper the author takes the nice step of just considering real class sizes and proves that if the conjugacy class size of every odd prime power order real element is either a 2-power or not divisible by 4 then the group is soluble. So, in particular, if all real class sizes are not divisible by 4, then the group is soluble. The proof uses the classification of finite simple groups.