On the number of irreducible real-valued characters of a finite group

We prove that there exists an integer-valued function f on positive integers such that if a finite group G has at most k real-valued irreducible characters, then vertical bar G/Sol(G)vertical bar <= f(k), where Sol(G) denotes the largest solvable normal subgroup of G. In the case k = 5, we further classify G/Sol(G). This partly answers a question of Iwasaki [15] on the relationship between the structure of a finite group and its number of real-valued irreducible characters. Published by Elsevier Inc.