Abelian Sylow subgroups in a finite group. II. (Q468686)

The authors prove the following theorem: Let \(p\) is a prime. Then Sylow \(p\)-subgroups of a finite group \(G\) are abelian if and only if the class sizes of the \(p\)-elements of \(G\) are all coprime to \(p\), and, if \(p\in\{3,5\}\), the degree of every irreducible character in the principal \(p\)-block of \(G\) is coprime to \(p\). This gives a complete solution to a problem posed by \textit{R. Brauer} [see Problem 12 in Lect. Modern Math. 1, 133-175 (1963; Zbl 0124.26504)]. For the cases when \(p\not\in\{3,5\}\), the theorem was provided by the authors in part I [J. Algebra 398, 519-526 (2014; Zbl 1305.20023)], using an earlier result of \textit{A. R. Camina} and \textit{M. Herzog} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 80, 533-535 (1980; Zbl 0447.20004)] for \(p=2\).