Related papers: On profinite groups admitting a word with only few…

Let $w=w(x_1,...,x_n)$ be a word, i.e. an element of the free group $F = \langle x_1,...,x_n \rangle$. The verbal subgroup $w(G)$ of a group $G$ is the subgroup generated by the set $\{ w(x_1,...,x_n) : x_1,...,x_n \in G \}$ of all…

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…

Let $w$ be a group-word. Suppose that the set of all $w$-values in a profinite group $G$ is contained in a union of countably many subgroups. It is natural to ask in what way the structure of the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ depends on the…

Based on the notions of conciseness and semiconciseness, we show that these properties are not equivalent by proving that a word originally presented by Ol'shanskii is semiconcise but not concise. We further establish that every…

Examples are given of profinite groups that are not strongly complete, and have other `bad' properties, yet have only finitely many open subgroups of each finite index. It is shown that a profinite group with the latter property must be…

It is proved that every finitely generated profinite group with fewer than $2^{\aleph_0}$ conjugacy classes of elements of infinite order is finite

It is proved that a profinite group $G$ has fewer than $2^{\aleph_0}$ conjugacy classes of $p$-elements for an odd prime $p$ if and only if its $p$-Sylow subgroups are finite. (Here, by a $p$-element one understands an element that either…

A profinite group is called small if it has only finitely many open subgroups of index n for each positive integer n. We show that every Frattini cover of a small profinite group is small. A profinite group is called strongly complete if…

Let $w=w(x_1,\ldots,x_r)$ be a lower central word or a derived word. We show that the word $w(u_1,\ldots,u_r)$ is concise whenever $u_1,\ldots,u_r$ are non-commutator words in disjoint sets of variables, thus proving a generalized version…

Let w be a multilinear commutator word. We prove that if e is a positive integer and G is a finite group in which any nilpotent subgroup generated by w-values has exponent dividing e then the exponent of the corresponding verbal subgroup…

A group $G$ is said to have restricted centralizers if for every $x\in G$ the centralizer $C_G(x)$ either is finite or has finite index in $G$. Shalev showed that a profinite group with restricted centralizers is virtually abelian. Here we…

We show that for any finite group $G$ and for any $d$ there exists a word $w\in F_{d}$ such that a $d$-tuple in $G$ satisfies $w$ if and only if it generates a solvable subgroup. In particular, if $G$ itself is not solvable, then it cannot…

We show that if $w$ is a multilinear commutator word and $G$ a finite group in which every metanilpotent subgroup generated by $w$-values is of rank at most $r$, then the rank of the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is bounded in terms of $r$ and $w$…

Let $w$ be a word in $k$ variables. For a finite nilpotent group $G$, a conjecture of Amit states that $N_w(1) \ge |G|^{k-1}$, where $N_w(1)$ is the number of $k$-tuples $(g_1,...,g_k)\in G^{(k)}$ such that $w(g_1,...,g_k)=1$. Currently,…

A group $G$ is said to have restricted centralizers if for each $g \in G$ the centralizer $C_G(g)$ either is finite or has finite index in $G$. Shalev showed that a profinite group with restricted centralizers is virtually abelian. We take…

Let $w=w(x_1,\ldots,x_r)$ be an outer commutator word. We show that the word $w(u_1,\ldots,u_r)$ is concise whenever $u_1,\ldots,u_r$ are non-commutator words in disjoint sets of variables. This applies in particular to words of the form…

Let $F$ be a free non-abelian group. We show that for any group word $w$ the set $w[F]$ of all values of $w$ in $F$ is rational in $F$ if and only if $w[F] = 1$ or $w[F] = F.$ We generalize this to a wide class of free products of groups.

Let $w = w(x_1,..., x_n)$ be a word, i.e. an element of the free group $F =<x_1,...,x_n>$ on $n$ generators $x_1,..., x_n$. The verbal subgroup $w(G)$ of a group $G$ is the subgroup generated by the set $\{w (g_1,...,g_n)^{\pm 1} | g_i \in…

Let $\mathfrak C$ be a class of finite groups which is closed for subgroups, quotients and direct products. Given a profinite group $G$ and an element $x\in G$, we denote by $P_{\mathfrak{C}}(x,G)$ the probability that $x$ and a randomly…

Let $G$ be the fundamental group of a graph of finitely generated virtually free groups with virtually cyclic edge groups. We shaw that $G$ is cohomologically good if $G$ is residually finite. If $G$ is LERF, we prove that G splits…