Average number of zeros of characters of finite groups

Abstract

There has been some interest on how the average character degree affects the structure of a finite group. We define, and denote by $ \mathrm{anz}(G) $, the average number of zeros of characters of a finite group $ G $ as the number of zeros in the character table of $ G $ divided by the number of irreducible characters of $ G $. We show that if $ \mathrm{anz}(G) < 1 $, then the group $ G $ is solvable and also that if $ \mathrm{anz}(G) < \frac{1}{2} $, then $ G $ is supersolvable. We characterise abelian groups by showing that $ \mathrm{anz}(G) < \frac{1}{3} $ if and only if $ G $ is abelian.