Characters of groups having fixed-point-free automorphisms of 2-power order. (Q536175)

Let \(C\) be a nontrivial cyclic \(2\)-group, and let \(T\) be its subgroup of index \(2\). Assume that \(C\) acts fixed-point-freely on the finite group \(K\), and \(\theta\) is an irreducible character of \(K\) which is invariant under the action of \(T\). The paper investigates what can be said about the degree of \(\theta\) in this and some related situations. Theorem A states that if \(p\) is any prime such that \(p\equiv -1\pmod{|C|}\), then \(p\) does not divide the square free part of \(\theta(1)\). Some related results are also proved about groups which contain a subgroup of index two and are such that the elements outside the subgroup of index two have order dividing four.