Characters of \(p'\)-degree of \(p\)-solvable groups (Q5956271)

Let \(G\) be a finite group and let \(p\) be a prime divisor of \(|G|\). Let \(P\) be a Sylow \(p\)-subgroup of \(G\) and let \(N=N_G(P)\) denote the normalizer of \(P\) in \(G\). Let \(\text{Irr}_{p'}(G)\) denote the set of irreducible complex characters of \(G\) that have degree relatively prime to \(p\), and let \(\text{Irr}_{p'}(N)\) denote the corresponding subset of irreducible characters of \(N\). What has become known as the McKay conjecture is that there is an equality \(|\text{Irr}_{p'}(G)|=|\text{Irr}_{p'}(N)|\). Subsequently, Alperin extended the McKay conjecture to a version applying to the \(p\)-blocks of \(G\). This extended conjecture, known as the Alperin-McKay conjecture, has been proved to be true when \(G\) is \(p\)-solvable by Okuyama and Wajima (1979). The paper under review presents a substantial generalization of the Okuyama-Wajima theorem. An intriguing possibility mentioned by the authors is that parts of their new theory may apply to arbitrary groups \(G\), not just \(p\)-solvable groups. Suppose then that \(G\) is \(p\)-solvable and let \(\chi\) be an element of \(\text{Irr}_{p'}(G)\). The authors show that there are certain linear characters of \(P\) that are naturally associated with \(\chi\) and that these linear characters fall into a single \(N\)-orbit. Moreover, each linear character of \(P\) is associated with at least one member of \(\text{Irr}_{p'}(G)\). (We should mention that the word \textit{associated} is used in a precise technical sense and part of the purpose of the paper is to give the definition of the term. Suffice it to say that Gajendragadkar's theory of \(p\)-special and \(p'\)-special characters plays a significant role, as well as several earlier papers of the authors.) The first main result of the paper is the following. Suppose that \(G\) is \(p\)-solvable. Then for each linear character \(\lambda\) of \(P\), there are equal numbers of irreducible characters in \(\text{Irr}_{p'}(G)\) and \(\text{Irr}_{p'}(N)\) associated to \(\lambda\). From this the result, a new proof of the McKay conjecture may be recovered in the \(p\)-solvable case. The paper also focuses on refinements of this theorem when Galois automorphisms are considered to act on the characters. The following is another important theorem in the paper (with the same hypotheses as before). Let \(\sigma\) be an automorphism of \(p\)-power order of the field obtained by adjoining a primitive \(|G|\)-th root of unity to the field of rational numbers. Suppose also that \(\sigma\) fixes all roots of unity of \(p'\)-order in the field. Then \(\sigma\) fixes an element \(\chi\) of \(\text{Irr}_{p'}(G)\) if and only if \(\sigma\) fixes the linear characters of \(P\) associated to \(\chi\). As a corollary, under the same hypothesis, \(\sigma\) fixes equal numbers of irreducible characters in \(\text{Irr}_{p'}(G)\) and \(\text{Irr}_{p'}(N)\). Finally, we may mention that the authors provide block-theoretic versions of their theorems which strengthen the Alperin-McKay conjecture/theorem for \(p\)-solvable groups by considering the action of appropriate Galois automorphisms on the irreducible characters of height zero in a \(p\)-block of \(G\). Here again, this offers the challenge of trying to extend this type of result to the \(p\)-blocks of arbitrary groups.