The character degree ratio and composition factors of a finite group. (Q293067)

For a finite non-abelian group \(G\), the character degree ratio \(\mathrm{rat}(G)\) is defined as the largest ratio of two nonlinear irreducible characters of \(G\), i.e. \(\mathrm{rat}(G)=\frac{b(G)}{c(G)}\), where \(b(G)=\max\{\chi(1)\mid\chi\in\mathrm{Irr}(G)\}\) and \(c(G)=\min\{\chi(1)\mid\chi\in\mathrm{Irr}(G),\;\chi(1)>1\}\). The goal of the paper under review is to give an upper bound for the number of non-abelian composition factors \(\mathrm{ncf}(G)\) of a finite group \(G\) in terms of \(\mathrm{rat}(G)\). It is proved that \(\mathrm{ncf}(G)\leq 1.8\ln(\mathrm{rat}(G))+1.3\) for any finite non-abelian group \(G\). The authors have the opinion that the constants \(1.8\) and \(1.3\) can probably be improved, and raise the question about the exact bounding constants. They remark that they do not know any finite group with \(\mathrm{ncf}(G)\geq\ln(\mathrm{rat}(G))+1\).