Derived lengths of solvable groups having five irreducible character degrees. I. (Q5960129)

Let \(G\) be a finite solvable group of derived length \(\text{dl}(G)\), and let \(\text{cd}(G)=\{\chi(1)\mid\chi\text{Irr}(G)\}\). By Taketa's Theorem, for each M-group \(G\) we have \(\text{dl}(G)\leq|\text{cd}(G)|\), and it is conjectured that this `Taketa inequality' actually holds for all solvable groups \(G\). It follows from results of Isaacs, Passman and Garrison that this is the case for \(|\text{cd}(G)|\leq 4\). T. Berger has proved the Taketa inequality for groups of odd order. It is proved in this paper that the Taketa inequality holds for all solvable groups \(G\) with \(|\text{cd}(G)|=5\).