Non-solvable groups with few vanishing elements (Q6901055)

A vanishing element of a finite group \(G\) is an element \(g\in G\) such that \( \chi(g)=0 \) for some irreducible complex character \(\chi\) of \( G \). Let \( \operatorname{Vo}(G) \) denote the set of orders of the vanishing elements of \( G \). Suppose \( G \) has trivial solvable radical. Using the classification of finite simple groups and the existence of characters of \(p\)-defect zero for most primes \( p\) in finite simple groups, the following results are established: If each pair of distinct elements of \( \operatorname{Vo}(G) \) is either coprime or has a prime as greatest common divisor, then the socle of \( G \) is \( A_5\times A_5 \) or \( G \) is almost simple. If \( \operatorname{Vo}(G) \) contains at most two numbers that are not prime-powers, or if \( \lvert \operatorname{Vo}(G) \rvert \leq 5 \), then \( G \) is almost simple. Lists of possible socles of the almost simple groups are also provided.