Brauer's height zero conjecture for metacyclic defect groups. (Q354600)

Let \(p\) be a prime, and let \(B\) be a \(p\)-block of a finite group \(G\) with metacyclic defect group \(P\). The author proves that \(B\) satisfies Brauer's height zero conjecture: \(P\) is Abelian if and only if every irreducible character in \(B\) has height zero. By earlier results of the author, S. Gao and S. Yang it is also known that \(k(B)\), the number of irreducible characters in \(B\), and \(k_0(B)\), the number of irreducible characters of height zero in \(B\), satisfy conjectures of R. Brauer and J. Olsson: \(k(B)\leq |P|\) and \(k_0(B)\leq |P:P'|\). In the case where \(P\) is nonabelian with a cyclic maximal subgroup, every irreducible character in \(B\) has height 0 or 1. If in addition \(p=3\) then the Alperin-McKay conjecture follows: \(k_0(B)=k_0(b)\) where \(b\) is the Brauer correspondent of \(B\) in \(N_G(P)\). Several other results along these lines are proved.