The character degrees and nilpotence class of a \(p\)-group (Q5936933)

Let \(P\) be a finite \(p\)-group, \(\text{cd}(P)\) the set of degrees of irreducible characters of \(P\). Then \(\text{cd}(P)\) is a set of powers of \(p\) that contains the number \(1\). The converse of the last statement is also true, by a known result of the first author: If \(\mathcal S\) is an arbitrary set of powers of \(p\) and \(1\in\mathcal S\), then there exists a \(p\)-group of class at most \(2\) with \(\text{cd}(P)=\mathcal S\). In general, \(P\) cannot be taken to be of sufficiently large class (for example, there exist \(p\)-groups \(P\) with \(\text{cd}(P)=\{1,p\}\) of unboundedly large class). The set \(\mathcal S\) is said to be class-bounding if there is some \(n\in\mathbb{N}\) such that, whenever \(\text{cd}(P)=\mathcal S\), the class of \(P\) does not exceed \(n\). In this paper some criteria for \(\mathcal S\) to be class-bounding are proved. Theorems A, B, D. Let \(\mathcal S=\{1,p^s=p^{s_1},\dots,p^{s_k}\}\), \(0<s=s_1<s_2<\cdots<s_k\), and let \(\text{cd}(P)=\mathcal S\) for a \(p\)-group \(P\). A. If \(s_k\leq 2s\), then the class of \(P\) is bounded above by some function of \(p\) and \(s\). B. Let \(\mathcal S\) be class-bounding, \(p\not\in\mathcal S\) and let \(b>2s_k\). Then \(\mathcal S\cup\{p^b\}\) is also class-bounding. D. Let \(k=3\) and \(p\not\in\mathcal S\). Then \(\mathcal S\) is class-bounding. The paper contains a number of other interesting results of general character.