Nonsolvable groups have a large proportion of vanishing elements (Q6103902)

Let \(G\) be a finite group, an element \(g \in G\) is nonvanishing if \(\chi(g) \not= 0\) for every irreducible character \(\chi \in \mathrm{Irr}(G)\), otherwise \(g\) is vanishing. In this paper, the authors prove that if \(G\) is a nonsolvable group, then the proportion of vanishing elements of \(G\) is at least \(1067/1260\) (and this lower bound is optimal since it is reached by the alternating group \(A_{7}\)). As a tool in the proof of the previous result, the authors show that if \(G\) is an almost simple group with socle \(S\), then all the elements in \(G \setminus S\) are vanishing.