Nearly odd-order and nearly real finite groups

Abstract

Two families of groups close to groups of odd order, and two families of groups close to real groups will be described. The first two are the family of finite groups in which all real irreducible ordinary characters are linear, and the family of all finite groups with the dual condition on the conjugacy classes, namely, groups in which all real conjugacy classes are contained in the center of the group. We will see that each group in one of these families is a direct product of a group of odd order with a 2-group. The families close to real groups are the family of finite groups in which every non-real irreducible ordinary character is linear, and dually, the family of all finite groups in which every non-real conjugacy class is contained in the center. For a group G in the first family we show that the collection of real elements R(G) is a normal subgroupG has a normal π-complement where π = π (∣G: R(G)∣), and a Hall π-subgroup which is either abelian or a nearly real 2-group. A group is in the second family is either abelian, or real or a 2-group. Descriptions and examples of 2-groups satisfying the above conditions will be discussed next. Some of these 2-groups are related to groups treated by several authors. We consider these related groups as well. The interest in the groups mentioned above was triggered by the observation that if G is a finite group in which the square of each irreducible character has at most two irreducible constituents, then all real irreducible characters of G are linear. In the last section of this article we discuss such groups and groups related to them.