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

We construct words with small image in a given finite alternating or unimodular group. This shows that word width in these groups is unbounded in general.

Let G be a finite group of nilpotency class 2 and w a group word. In this short paper we show that the probability that a random n-tuple of elements from G satisfies w is at least one over the order of G. This answers a special case of a…

Finite groups with very few character values are characterized. The following is the main result of this article: a finite non-abelian group has precisely four character values if and only if it is the generalized dihedral group of a…

Just infinite groups play a significant role in profinite group theory. For each $c \geq 0$, we consider more generally JNN$_c$F profinite (or, in places, discrete) groups that are Fitting-free; these are the groups $G$ such that every…

Given a profinite group $G$ and a family $\mathcal{F}$ of finite groups closed under taking subgroups, direct products and quotients, denote by $\mathcal{F}(G)$ the set of elements $g \in G$ such that $\{x \in G\ |\ \langle g,x \rangle \…

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 well known that the set of values of a lower central word in a group $G$ need not be a subgroup. For a fixed lower central word $\gamma_r$ and for $p\ge 5$, Guralnick showed that if $G$ is a finite $p$-group such that the verbal…

Finitely generated (non-abelian) free metabelian pro-p groups, and wreath products of f.g. free abelian pro-p groups, are all finitely axiomatizable in the class of all profinite groups.

A finite word $w$ is called \textit{closed} if it has length at most 1 or it contains a proper factor that occurs both as a prefix and as a suffix but does not have internal occurrences in $w$. An infinite word $u$ is called…

Let F_k be the free group on k generators. A word w \in F_k is called primitive if it belongs to some basis of F_k. We investigate two criteria for primitivity, and consider more generally, subgroups of F_k which are free factors. The first…

A soluble pro-p group of finite rank is finitely axiomatizable in the class of all profinite groups if and only if for each open subgroup H, the image of Z(H) in the abelianization of H is finite, subject to some suitable hypothesis of…

Let $G$ be a finite group, define $I(G)=\{x\in G : x^{2}=1\}$, $C(G)=$ set of the cyclic subgroups of $G$, $i(G)=|I(G)|$ and $c(G)=|C(G)|$. In this article, we will classify finite groups with $i(G)=c(G)-r$ for $r=0,1,$ and $2$. We also…

A finitely generated group $\G$ equipped with a word-length is said to satisfy property RD if there are $C, s\geq 0$ such that, for all non-negative integers $n$, we have $\|a\|\leq C (1+n)^s \|a\|_2$ whenever $a\in\C\G$ is supported on…

Let $k$ be a perfect field such that for every $n$ there are only finitely many field extensions, up to isomorphism, of $k$ of degree $n$. If $G$ is a reductive algebraic group defined over $k$, whose characteristic is very good for $G$,…

A word hyperbolic group $G$ is called GFERF if every quasiconvex subgroup coincides with the intersection of finite index subgroups containing it. We show that in any such group, the product of finitely many quasiconvex subgroups is closed…

Suppose that G is a finitely generated group and W is the formal language of words defining the identity in G. We prove that if G is a nilpotent group, the fundamental group of a finite volume hyperbolic three-manifold, or a right-angled…

A conjecture of Boone and Higman from the 1970's asserts that a finitely generated group $G$ has solvable word problem if and only if $G$ can be embedded into a finitely presented simple group. We comment on the history of this conjecture…

We survey recent work ranging around the question in how far a group, or a property of a group, is determined by the set of finite quotient groups. Our focus lies on $S$-arithmetic groups, branch groups, and their relatives.

We say that a finite group $G$ satisfies the independence property if, for every pair of distinct elements $x$ and $y$ of $G$, either $\{x,y\}$ is contained in a minimal generating set for $G$ or one of $x$ and $y$ is a power of the other.…

We investigate whether a finitely generated profinite group G could have a finitely generated infinite image. A result of Dan Segal shows that this is impossible if G is prosoluble. We prove that such an image does not exist if G is…