The average character degree of finite groups and Gluck's conjecture (Q6110523)

Let \(G\) be a finite group, \(\mathrm{sol}(G)\) the solvable radical of \(G\) and let \(k(G)\) be the number of conjugacy classes of \(G\). The average size of the conjugacy classes is defined as \(\mathrm{acs}(G)=|G|\cdot k(G)^{-1}\). In [\textit{R. M. Guralnick} and \textit{G. R. Robinson}, J. Algebra 300, No. 2, 509--528 (2006; Zbl 1100.20045)], it was proved that \(|G:\mathrm{sol}(G)| \leq \mathrm{acs}(G)^{2}\). In the paper under review, the author considers the average degree of the irreducible characters of \(G\) defined as \(\mathrm{acd}(G)=k(G)^{-1} \cdot \sum_{\chi \in \mathrm{Irr}(G)}\chi(1)\). Using the CFSG, he proves (Theorem A) that if \(\mathrm{sol}(G)=1\), then \(|G|\) is bounded from above in terms of \(\mathrm{acd}(G)\). Let \(N \trianglelefteq G\), \(\lambda \in \mathrm{Irr}(N)\) and let \(\mathrm{Irr}(G|\lambda)\) be the set of irreducible characters of \(G\) that lie over \(\lambda\). The author defines \(\mathrm{acd}(G | \lambda)=|\mathrm{Irr}(G|\lambda)|^{-1}\cdot \sum_{\chi \in \mathrm{Irr}(G|\lambda)}\chi(1)\). With this notation, he proves Theorem B: Let \(G\) be a solvable group. Then there exists \(\lambda \in \mathrm{Irr}(F(G))\) linear such that \(|G: F(G)| \leq \mathrm{acd}(G| \lambda)^{\alpha}\), where \(\alpha < 2.596\).