Derived lengths and character degrees (Q4387065)

For a finite group \(G\), let \(\text{cd}(G)=\{\chi(1)\mid\chi\in\text{Irr}(G)\}\) and \(\text{dl}(G)\) the derived length of \(G\) (if \(G\) is solvable). G. Seitz conjectured that if \(G\) is solvable, then \(\text{dl}(G)\leq|\text{cd}(G)|\). This is true for \(M\)-groups (Taketa), groups of odd order (Berger) and for \(G\) with \(|\text{cd}(G)|\leq 4\) (Garrison). In this note, the above conjecture is checked for some other solvable groups. The degree graph \(\Gamma(G)\) of \(G\) is the graph having \(\text{cd}(G)\) as vertices and with character degrees being adjacent if they are not coprime. It is known that when \(G\) is solvable this graph has at most three connected components. Theorems A + B. Let \(G\) be a solvable group. Assume that \(\Gamma(G)\) has exactly three connected components, then (A) \(\text{dl}(G)\leq|\text{cd}(G)|\). (B) Let one of the connected components of \(\Gamma(G)\) have a subset \(\{a_1,\dots,a_n\}\), all \(a_i>1\), where the numbers \(a_1,\dots,a_n\) are pairwise coprime. Then \(\text{dl}(G)\leq|\text{cd}(G)|-n+1\). Obviously, (A) is a corollary of (B). Next, there exist groups \(G\) of arbitrarily large derived length that satisfy the hypotheses of Theorem A. Theorem C. Let \(H\) act nontrivially via automorphisms on \(N\) fixing every nonlinear irreducible character, where \((| H|,| N|)=1\). Then \(N\) is a solvable group (Isaacs) satisfying \(\text{dl}(N)\leq|\text{cd}(N)|\). The proofs of Theorems B and C are based on the following interesting Lemma 1. Let \(\pi\) be a set of primes. Suppose that a \(\pi\)-group \(H\) acts on a \(\pi\)-separable group \(N\) such that \(H\) acts nontrivially on \(N/O^{\pi'}(N)\). Furthermore, assume that every nonlinear irreducible character of \(N\) has \(\pi'\)-degree and is invariant under the action of \(H\). Then \(N\) is solvable, and \(\text{dl}(N)\leq|\text{cd}(N)|\). It follows from Ito's Theorem that a \(\pi\)-Hall subgroup is normal in \(N\) and abelian.