Let G be a finite solvable group. We prove that if $\chi\in{{\operatorname{Irr}}}(G)$ has odd degree and $\chi(1)$ is the minimal degree of the nonlinear irreducible characters of G, then $G/\operatorname{Ker}\chi$ is nilpotent-by-abelian.

We study the zero-sharing behavior among irreducible characters of a finite group. For symmetric groups $\mathsf {S}_n$, it is proved that, with one exception, any two irreducible characters have at least one common zero. To further explore this phenomenon, we introduce the common-zero graph of a finite group G, with nonlinear irreducible characters of G as vertices, and edges connecting characters that vanish on some common group element. We show that for solvable and simple groups, the number of connected components of this graph is bounded above by three. Lastly, the result for $\mathsf {S}_n$ is applied to prove the nonequivalence of the metrics on permutations induced from faithful irreducible characters of the group.

We prove that there exists a universal constant D such that if p is a prime divisor of the index of the Fitting subgroup of a finite group G, then the number of conjugacy classes of G is at least $Dp/\log_2p$. We conjecture that we can take $D=1$ and prove that for solvable groups, we can take $D=1/3$.

In 2014, Baumslag and Wiegold proved that a finite group G is nilpotent if and only if o(xy) = o(x)o(y) for every x, y ∈ G with (o(x), o(y)) = 1. This has led to a number of results that characterize the nilpotence of a group (or the existence of nilpotent Hall subgroups, or the existence of normal Hall subgroups) in terms of prime divisors of element orders. Here, we look at these results with a new twist. The first of our main results asserts that G is nilpotent if and only if o(xy) ⩽ o(x)o(y) for every x, y ∈ G of prime power order with (o(x), o(y)) = 1. As an immediate consequence, we recover the Baumslag–Wiegold theorem. The proof of this result is elementary. We prove some variations of this result that depend on the classification of finite simple groups.

Baumslag and Wiegold have recently proven that a finite group G is nilpotent if and only if o(xy) = o(x)o(y) for every x, y ∈ G with (o(x), o(y)) = 1. Motivated by this surprisingly new result, we have obtained related results that just consider sets of prime divisors of element orders. For instance, the first of our main results asserts that G is nilpotent if and only if π(o(xy)) = π(o(x)o(y)) for every x, y ∈ G of prime power order with (o(x), o(y)) = 1. As an immediate consequence, we recover the Baumslag–Wiegold Theorem. While this result is still elementary, we also obtain local versions that, for instance, characterize the existence of a normal Sylow p-subgroup in terms of sets of prime divisors of element orders. These results are deeper and our proofs rely on results that depend on the classification of finite simple groups.

In this paper, it is proved that if $B$ is a Brauer $p$-block of a $p$-solvable group, for some odd prime $p$, then the height of any ordinary character in $B$ is at most $2b$, where $p^b$ is the largest degree of the irreducible characters of the defect group of $B$. Some other results that relate the heights of characters with properties of the defect group are obtained.

Let a finite group A act coprimely on a finite group G and χ ∈ Irr A(G). Isaacs, Lewis and Navarro proved that if G is nilpotent then the degrees of any two A-primitive characters of A-invariant subgroups of G inducing χ coincide. In this note we aim at extending this result by weakening the hypothesis on G.