BFC-theorems for higher commutator subgroups

Abstract

Abstract A BFC-group is a group in which all conjugacy classes are finite with bounded size. In 1954, B. H. Neumann discovered that if G is a BFC-group then the derived group G′ is finite. Let w=w(x1,…,xn) be a multilinear commutator. We study groups in which the conjugacy classes containing w-values are finite of bounded order. Let G be a group and let w(G) be the verbal subgroup of G generated by all w-values. We prove that if |xG|≤m for every w-value x, then the derived subgroup of w(G) is finite of order bounded by a function of m and n. If |xw(G)|≤m for every w-value x, then [w(w(G)),w(G)] is finite of order bounded by a function of m and n.