On the sum of character codegrees of finite groups

Abstract

Let $\chi$ be an irreducible character of a group $G.$ We denote the sum of the codegrees of the irreducible characters of $G$ by $S_c(G)=\sum_{\chi\in {\rm Irr}(G)}{\rm cod}(\chi).$ We consider the question if $S_c(G)\leq S_c(C_n)$ is true for any finite group $G,$ where $n=|G|$ and $C_n$ is a cyclic group of order $n.$ We show this inequality holds for many classes of groups. In particular, we provide an affirmative answer for any finite group whose order is divisible by up to 99 primes. However, we show that the question does not hold true in all cases, by evidence of a counterexample.