Solomon's induction in quasi-elementary groups

Abstract

Given a finite group G, we address the following question: which multiples of the trivial representation are linear combinations of inductions of trivial representations from proper subgroups of G? By Solomon's induction theorem, all multiples are if G is not quasi-elementary. We complement this by showing that all multiples of p are if G is p-quasi-elementary and not cyclic, and that this is best possible.