Bounding the number of p'-degrees from below

Abstract

Let $G$ be a finite group of order divisible by a prime $p$ and let $P\in\Syl_p(G)$. We prove a recent conjecture by Hung stating that $|\Irr_{p'}(G)|\geq \frac{\exp(P/P')-1}{p-1}+2\sqrt{p-1}-1.$ Let $a\ge 2$ be an integer and suppose that $p^a$ does not exceed the exponent of the center of $P$. We then also show that the number of conjugacy classes of elements of $G$ for which $p^a$ is the exact $p$-part of their order is at least $p^{a-1}$.