Related papers: Computing commutator length is hard

Let $F$ be a free group. We present for arbitrary $g\in\mathbb{N}$ a LogSpace (and thus polynomial time) algorithm that determines whether a given $w\in F$ is a product of at most $g$ commutators; and more generally an algorithm that…

This paper analyses stable commutator length in groups Z^r * Z^s. We bound scl from above in terms of the reduced wordlength (sharply in the limit) and from below in terms of the answer to an associated subset-sum type problem. Combining…

We give an algorithm to compute stable commutator length in free products of cyclic groups which is polynomial time in the length of the input, the number of factors, and the orders of the finite factors. We also describe some experimental…

Given a free product of groups $G = {\large *}_{j \in J} A_j$ and a natural number $n$, what is the minimal possible commutator length of an element $g^n \in G$ not conjugate to elements of the free factors? We give an exhaustive answer to…

Given groups $A$ and $B$, what is the minimal commutator length of the 2020th (for instance) power of an element $g\in A*B$ not conjugate to elements of the free factors? The exhaustive answer to this question is still unknown, but we can…

We develop a new criterion to tell if a group $G$ has the maximal gap of $1/2$ in stable commutator length (scl). For amalgamated free products $G = A \star_C B$ we show that every element $g$ in the commutator subgroup of $G$ which does…

In the present paper, for a pair $(G,N)$ of a group $G$ and its normal subgroup $N$, we consider the mixed commutator length $\mathrm{cl}_{G,N}$ on the mixed commutator subgroup $[G,N]$. We focus on the setting of wreath products: $…

Let G be a subgroup of PL(I). Then the stable commutator length of every element of [G,G] is zero.

Each element of the commutator subgroup of a group can be represented as a product of commutators. The minimal number of factors in such a product is called the commutator length of the element. The commutator length of a group is defined…

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…

This paper is an attempt to find out which properties of a finite group G can be expressed in terms of commutators of elements of coprime orders. A criterion of solubility of G in terms of such commutators is obtained. We also conjecture…

Let $G$ be the first Grigorchuk group. We show that the commutator width of $G$ is $2$: every element $g\in [G,G]$ is a product of two commutators, and also of six conjugates of $a$. Furthermore, we show that every finitely generated…

Given a group $G$ and elements $x_1,x_2,\dots, x_\ell\in G$, the commutator of the form $[x_1,x_2,\dots, x_\ell]$ is called a commutator of length $\ell$. The present paper deals with groups having only finitely many commutators of length…

We show that stable commutator length is rational on free products of free Abelian groups amalgamated over $\mathbb{Z}^k$, a class of groups containing the fundamental groups of all torus knot complements. We consider a geometric model for…

Every finite group $G$ has a normal series each of whose factors is either a solvable group or a direct product of non-abelian simple groups. The minimum number of nonsolvable factors, attained on all possible such series in $G$, is called…

Let p be a prime. Every finite group G has a normal series each of whose quotients either is p-soluble or is a direct product of nonabelian simple groups of orders divisible by p. The non-p-soluble length of G is defined as the minimal…

We say that an element $g$ of a group $G$ is almost right Engel if there is a finite set ${\mathscr R}(g)$ such that for every $x\in G$ all sufficiently long commutators $[...[[g,x],x],\dots ,x]$ belong to ${\mathscr R}(g)$, that is, for…

For an element $g$ of a group $G$, a right Engel sink of $g$ is a subset of $G$ containing all sufficiently long commutators $[...[[g ,x],x],\dots ,x]$ for all $x\in G$. A left Engel sink of $g$ is a subset of $G$ containing all…

Let $g$ be an element of a finite 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. By Baer's theorem, if $E_n(g)=1$,…

We give an upper and lower estimate for the maximal commutator length of a noncentral element of the elementary subgroup of the general linear group over a skew-field based on the maximal commutator length of an element of the…