Sylow subgroups and the number of irreducible characters of degrees divisible by a prime $p$

Abstract

Let $G$ be a finite group and $p$ a prime. We establish an upper bound for the derived length of a Sylow $p$-subgroup of $G$ in terms of the number of irreducible characters of $G$ whose degrees are divisible by $p$. We also prove that if $B$ is a $p$-block of a finite $p$-solvable group $G$ with defect group $D$, then the derived length of $D$ is at most one more than the number of ordinary irreducible characters of positive height in $B$.