Groups having a faithful irreducible representation. (Q258225)

The author investigates the question under which conditions a group \(G\) has a faithful irreducible representation over a field \(K\). In his paper he first reviews the history of this problem in the case where \(G\) is finite. Then he proves two theorems where \(|G|\) is arbitrary, one being a sufficient and the other being a necessary condition. For illustration, we indicate the necessary condition: Suppose that \(|G:C_G(N)|<\infty\) for every minimal normal subgroup of \(G\) contained in \(\mathrm T(G)\), the normal subgroup of \(G\) generated by all torsion abelian minimal normal subgroups of \(G\). If \(G\) has a faithful irreducible representation over \(K\) then \(\mathrm{char}(K)\notin\Pi(G)\) where \(\Pi(G)\) is the set of primes \(p\) such that the \(p\)-part of \(\mathrm T(G)\) is nontrivial. Moreover, \(\mathrm T(G)\) has a subgroup \(S\) such that \(\mathrm T(G)/S\) is locally cyclic and \(\mathrm{core}_G(S)=1\).