Hilbert divisors and degrees of irreducible Brauer characters (Q6961680)

This article proves that irreducible Brauer characters in \(2\)-blocks with non-trivial abelian defect groups have Hilbert divisor strictly greater than one, thus confirming a conjecture by \textit{Y. Liu} and \textit{W. Willems} [J. Algebra 558, 595--610 (2020; Zbl 1455.20011)] in this setting. The authors also settle affirmatively a problem of \textit{W. Feit} [The representation theory of finite groups. North-Holland Publishing Company (1982; Zbl 0493.20007), Problem II, p. 166] concerning the \(2\)-part of the degree of such characters.\N\NThe strategy involves a reduction to quasi-simple groups using the classification of \(2\)-blocks with abelian defect groups, a careful analysis of Cartan matrices (notably for the groups \(\mathrm{J}_1\) and \(\mathrm{Co}_3\)) and control of character heights. Further tools include Morita equivalence and structural arguments based on the Fitting subgroup and central extensions.