Zero-separating invariants for finite groups (Q403339)

Let \(k\) be a fixed field of characteristic \(p\). For a finite group \(G\) denote by \(\delta (G) \) and \(\sigma(G)\) respectively the minimal number \(d\), such that for every finite dimensional representation \(V\) of \(G\) over \(k\) and every \(v \in V^{G}-\left\{0\right\}\) or \(v\in V-\left\{0\right\} \) respectively, there exists a homogeneous invariant \(f \in k[V]^{G} \) of positive degree at most \(d\) such that \(f(v)\neq 0\). Let \(P\) be a Sylow-\(p\)-subgroup of \(G\) (which we take to be trivial if the group order is not divisible by \(p\)). In this article the authors show that \(\delta (G) = |P|\). If \(NG(P)/P\) is cyclic, they show \(\sigma(G) \geq |NG(P)|\). If \(G\) is \(p\)-nilpotent and \(P\) is not normal in \(G\), they show \(\sigma (G) \leq (|G|)/l\), where \(l\) is the smallest prime divisor of \(|G|\). These results extend known results in the non-modular case to the modular case.