Related papers: Generators and commutators in finite groups; abstr…

Among compact Hausdorff groups G whose maximal profinite quotient is finitely generated, we characterize those that possess a proper dense normal subgroup. We also prove that the abstract commutator subgroup [H,G] is closed for every closed…

If G is a semidirect product N by H with N normal and finitely generated then G has the property that every finite group is a quotient of some finite index subgroup of G if and only if one of N and H has this property. This has applications…

Given a group $G$, we write $g^G$ for the conjugacy class of $G$ containing the element $g$. A theorem of B. H. Neumann states that if $G$ is a group in which all conjugacy classes are finite with bounded size, then the commutator subgroup…

We prove that in every finitely generated profinite group, every subgroup of finite index is open; this implies that the topology on such groups is determined by the algebraic structure. This is deduced from the main result about finite…

Groups that can be approximated by finite groups have been the center of much research. This has led to the investigations of the subgroups of metric ultraproducts of finite groups. This paper attempts to study the dual problem: what are…

In this note we prove that if $G$ is a finitely generated profinite group then the verbal subgroup $G^{q}$ is open. Equivalently in a $d$-generator finite group every product of $q$th powers is a product of $f(d,q)$ $q$th powers.

In this expanded account of a talk given at the Oberwolfach Arbeitsgemeinschaft "Totally Disconnected Groups", October 2014, we discuss results of Nikolay Nikolov and Dan Segal on abstract quotients of compact Hausdorff topological groups,…

Let G be a profinite group. The following results are proved. The commutator subgroup G' is finite if and only if G is covered by countably many abelian subgroups. The group G is finite-by-nilpotent if and only if G is covered by countably…

The semidirect product $\mathbb{G}=\mathbb{L}\rtimes \mathbb{K}$ attached to a compact-group action on a connected, simply-connected solvable Lie group has a dense set of compact elements precisely when the $s\in \mathbb{K}$ operating on…

We show that a compact group $G$ has finite conjugacy classes, i.e., is an FC-group if and only if its center $Z(G)$ is open if and only if its commutator subgroup $G'$ is finite. Let $d(G)$ denote the Haar measure of the set of all pairs…

In 1904, Issai Schur proved the following result. If $G$ is an arbitrary group such that $G/\Z(G)$ is finite, where $\Z(G)$ denotes the center of the group $G$, then the commutator subgroup of $G$ is finite. A partial converse of this…

We generalize a result of Hochman in two simultaneous directions: Instead of realizing an effectively closed $\mathbb{Z}^d$ action as a factor of a subaction of a $\mathbb{Z}^{d+2}$-SFT we realize an action of a finitely generated group…

By a coprime commutator in a profinite group $G$ we mean any element of the form $[x, y]$, where $x,y\in G$ and $(|x|,|y|)=1$. It is well-known that the subgroup generated by the coprime commutators of $G$ is precisely the pronilpotent…

It is shown that there exists a finitely generated infinite simple group of infinite commutator width, and that the commutator width of a finitely generated infinite boundedly simple group can be arbitrarily large. Besides, such groups can…

We present a contribution to the structure theory of locally compact groups. The emphasis is on compactly generated locally compact groups which admit no infinite discrete quotient. It is shown that such a group possesses a characteristic…

It is shown that there exist finitely generated infinite simple groups of infinite commutator width and infinite square width on which there exists no stably unbounded conjugation-invariant norm, and in particular stable commutator length…

In this expository note we provide a proof of Artin's theorem which states that the commutator subgroup of a free group on two generators is not finitely generated. The proof employs the infinite grid as in two other proofs in the…

A finitely generated group $G$ is said to be condensed if its isomorphism class in the space of finitely generated marked groups has no isolated points. We prove that every product variety $\mathcal{UV}$, where $\mathcal{U}$ (respectively,…

Let $g$ be an element of a group $G$. For a positive integer $n$, let $E_n(g)$ be the subgroup generated by all commutators $[...[[x,g],g],\dots ,g]$ over $x\in G$, where $g$ is repeated $n$ times. We prove that if $G$ is a profinite group…

We first give a short group theoretic proof of the following result of Lackenby. If $G$ is a large group, $H$ is a finite index subgroup of $G$ admitting an epimorphism onto a non--cyclic free group, and $g$ is an element of $H$, then the…