\(p\)-groups and zeros of characters (Q6077848)

Dihedral, semi-dihedral and generalized quaternion groups have been characterized along the years in several ways. In the literature, we have seen the first characterization which was by Olga Taussky-Todd. %Olga Tauskky-Todd was an Austrian and later Czech-American mathematician and lived from August 30, 1906 to October 7, 1995. Indeed, she characterized these groups as the \(2\)-groups of maximal class as well as the non-abelian \(2\)-groups whose commutator subgroup has index \(4\). The second characterization of such \(2\)-groups as the non-cyclic \(2\)-groups whose number of involutions is \(1\) modulo \(4\) which is due to Alperin-Feit-Thompson. The third characterization of such essential \(2\)-groups is to see such groups as the non-abelian \(2\)-groups whose group algebra over an infinite field of characteristic \(2\) has tame representation type. The fourth one is to see these groups as the \(2\)-groups with exactly five rational-valued irreducible characters. For \(p\)-groups having few almost-rational irreducible characters, see [\textit{I. M. Isaacs} et al., Isr. J. Math. 189, 65--96 (2012; Zbl 1264.20009)]. For more results in the notion of characters and Sylow \(2\)-subgroups of maximal class see [\textit{G. Navarro} et al., J. Pure Appl. Algebra 222, No. 11, 3721--3732 (2018; Zbl 1395.20004)]. The representation theory of the groups with a Sylow \(2\)-subgroup of maximal class is very important. It has been extensively and in abroad way studied by R. Brauer, G. Glauberman, K. Erdmann, M. Isaacs, G. R. Robinson, B. Külshammer and many people who work in group and representation theory. The paper under review can be regarded as a continuation of this efforts. We can see that we have the fifth characterization of dihedral, semi-dihedral and generalized quaternion \(2\)-groups. The paper is well-written and it contains equivalent results of the above mentioned characterizations. The proofs of these results are very elegant and yield explicit description and explanation of the deep theory to use zeros of characters of finite groups under consideration. The hardest case for the general \(p\)-groups is included. We also see two conjectures which will pave the way to more study in this direction. In the paper under review, there are slightly stronger results which are proved to get the required characterization in terms of the number of zeros of a single irreducible character. Let us recast the main results as well as the conjectures which we have seen in this paper: Theorem A: Suppose that \(G\) is a \(2\)-group of order \(2^{n}\). Let \(\chi\) be a non-linear irreducible complex character of \(G\). Then \(\chi(g)=0\) for at least \(2^{n-1}+2\) elements \(g \in G\). In particular, there exists \(\chi\in Irr(G)\) that vanishes at exactly \(2^{n-1}+2\) elements if and only if \(G\) is dihedral, semidihedral or generalized quaternion. Theorem B: Let \(G\) be a \(p\)-group of order \(p^{n}\). Let \(\chi\) be a non-linear irreducible character of \(G\). Then \(\chi(g)=0\) for at least \(p^{n}-p^{n-1}+p^{2}-p\) elements \(g \in G\). If equality holds, then \(G\) is a \(p\)-group of maximal class with an abelian maximal subgroup. Theorem C: Suppose that \(\chi\) is an irreducible character of a finite group \(G\). If \(G\) has a Sylow tower, then \(\chi(g)\) is zero or a root of unity for at least \(\frac{|G|}{2}\) elements \(g\) of \(G\). For the prime number \(3\), we have the following conjecture which can be invoked with Theorem B above. Conjecture A: Let \(G\) be a \(3\)-group of order \(3^{n}\). Then \(G\) has an irreducible character that vanishes at exactly \(3^{n}-3^{n-1}+6\) elements if and only if \(G\) is a \(3\)-group of maximal class with an abelian maximal subgroup. Considering the minimum number of elements of the finite group \(G\) taking the zero value among the non-linear irreducible characters of \(G\) and writing as notation: \(mz(p^{n})=\min\{mz(G) : |G| = p^{n}\}\), the authors, with the help of some computer calculations, proposed the following conjecture: Conjecture B: Let \(G\) be a \(p\)-group of order \(p^{n}\). Then \(mz(p^{n})=mz(G)\) if and only if \(G\) has maximal class with an abelian maximal normal subgroup.