Characters of prime power degree in principal blocks (Q6189342)

The author proves the principal block version of a result of \textit{O. Manz} (see [J. Algebra 96, 114--119 (1985; Zbl 0567.20004)] for non-solvable groups and [J. Algebra 94, 211--255 (1985; Zbl 0596.20007)] for solvable groups) that gives the structure of finite groups all of whose irreducible character degrees are a power of some prime (where this could be a different prime for different characters). Here, for each prime \(p\) the finite groups \(G\) are described for which all irreducible characters in the principal \(p\)-block have degrees a power of some prime (where again this could be a different prime for different characters and could be \(p\)). Either \(G/O_{p'}(G)\) is solvable (and so has a unique block and is described by Manz), or there is a normal subgroup \(M\) of \(G\) containing \(O_{p'}(G)\) such that \(M/O_{p'}(G)\) is a direct product of a non-abelian simple group \(S\) satisfying the same property and an abelian \(p\)-group, with \(G/M\) isomorphic to a subgroup of \(\mathrm{Out}(S)\). The simple groups \(S\) with this property are classified.