On solvable groups with one vanishing class size

Abstract

Let $G$ be a finite group, and let cs$(G)$ be the set of conjugacy class sizes of $G$. Recalling that an element $g$ of $G$ is called a \emph{vanishing element} if there exists an irreducible character of $G$ taking the value $0$ on $g$, we consider one particular subset of cs$(G)$, namely, the set vcs$(G)$ whose elements are the conjugacy class sizes of the vanishing elements of $G$. Motivated by the results in \cite{BLP}, we describe the class of the finite groups $G$ such that vcs$(G)$ consists of a single element \emph{under the assumption that $G$ is supersolvable or $G$ has a normal Sylow $2$-subgroup} (in particular, groups of odd order are covered). As a particular case, we also get a characterization of finite groups having a single vanishing conjugacy class size \emph{which is either a prime power or square-free}.