In this paper we measure how efficiently a finite simple group $G$ is generated by its elements of order $p$, where $p$ is a fixed prime. This measure, known as the $p$-width of $G$, is the minimal $k\in \mathbb{N}$ such that any $g\in G$ can be written as a product of at most $k$ elements of order $p$. Using primarily character theoretic methods, we sharply bound the $p$-width of some low rank families of Lie type groups, as well as the simple alternating and sporadic groups.
We show that the wreath product $G \wr \mathbb{Z}^n$ of any finitely generated group $G$ with $\mathbb{Z}^n$ has finite palindromic width. We also show that $C \wr A$ has finite palindromic width if $C$ has finite commutator width and $A$ is a finitely generated infinite abelian group. Further we prove that if $H$ is a non-abelian group with finite palindromic width and $G$ any finitely generated group, then every element of the subgroup $G' \wr H$ can be expressed as a product of uniformly boundedly many palindromes. From this we obtain that $P \wr H$ has finite palindromic width if $P$ is a …
We investigate the palindromic width of finitely generated solvable groups. We prove that every finitely generated $3$-step solvable group has finite palindromic width. More generally, we show the finiteness of palindromic width for finitely generated abelian-by-nilpotent-by-nilpotent groups. For arbitrary solvable groups of step $\geq 3$, we prove that if $G$ is a finitely generated solvable group that is an extension of an abelian group by a group satisfying the maximal condition for normal subgroups, then the palindromic width of $G$ is finite. We also prove that the palindromic width of $\…
For a finite group generated by involutions, the involution width is defined to be the minimal $k\in\mathbb{N}$ such that any group element can be written as a product of at most $k$ involutions. We show that the involution width of every non-abelian finite simple group is at most $4$. This result is sharp, as there are families with involution width precisely 4.
In this paper we show that there exists an uncountable family of finitely generated simple groups with the same positive theory as any non-abelian free group. In particular, these simple groups have infinite $w$-verbal width for all non-trivial words $w$.
In this paper we consider the palindromic width of free nilpotent groups. In particular, we prove that the palindromic width of a finitely generated free nilpotent group is finite. We also prove that the palindromic width of a free abelian-by-nilpotent group is finite.
A group has finite palindromic width if there exists $n$ such that every element can be expressed as a product of $n$ or fewer palindromic words. We show that if $G$ has finite palindromic width with respect to some generating set, then so does $G \wr \mathbb{Z}^{r}$. We also give a new, self-contained, proof that finitely generated metabelian groups have finite palindromic width. Finally, we show that solvable groups satisfying the maximal condition on normal subgroups (max-n) have finite palindromic width.
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 be constructed with decidable word and conjugacy problems.
We prove that the nilpotent product of a set of groups $A_{1},\dots, A_{s}$ has finite palindromic width if and only if the palindromic widths of $A_{i}, i=1,\dots, s,$ are finite. We give a new proof that the commutator width of $F_n \wr K$ is infinite, where $F_n$ is a free group of rank $n \geq 2$ and $K$ a finite group. This result, combining with a result of Fink \cite{f1} gives examples of groups with infinite commutator width but finite palindromic width with respect to some generating set.
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 vanishes. Moreover, a recursive presentation of such a group with decidable word and conjugacy problems is constructed.
Let $G$ be a finite group, $π(G)$ be the set of prime divisors dividing the order of $G$ and $π_e(G)$ (spectrum) denote the set of element orders of $G$. We define $w_o(G)$ = $|π(G)|$ the width of order of $G$ and $w_s(G)$ = max$\{|π(k)| | k \in π_e(G)\}$ the width of spectrum of $G$. In this paper, we discuss the cases of $w_o(G)$ and $w_s(G)$ are small, prove several new results and give a survey about the two widths of groups.
Let S be a generating set of a group G. We say that G has FINITE WIDTH relative to S if G=(S\cup S^{-1})^k for a suitable natural number k. We say that a group G is a group of FINITE C-WIDTH if G has finite width with respect to all conjugation-invariant generating sets. We give a number of examples of groups of finite C-width, and, in particular, we prove that the commutator subgroup F' of Thompson's group F is a group of finite C-width. We also study the behaviour of the class of all groups of finite C-width under some group-theoretic constructions; it is established, for instance, that this…
We present new infinite families of expander graphs of vertex degree 4, which is the minimal possible degree for Cayley graph expanders. Our first family defines a tower of coverings (with covering indices equals 2) and our second family is given as Cayley graphs of finite groups with very short presentations with only 2 generators and 4 relations. Both families are based on particular finite quotients of a group G of infinite upper triangular matrices over the ring M(3,F2). We present explicit vector space bases for the finite abelian quotients of the lower exponent-2 groups of G by upper tri…
Recently George Bergman proved that the symmetric group of an infinite set possesses the following property which we call by the {\it universality of finite width}: given any generating set $X$ of the symmetric group of an infinite set $Ω,$ there is a uniform bound $k \in \N$ such that any permutation $σ\in \text{Sym}(Ω)$ is a product of at most $k$ elements of $X \cup X^{-1},$ or, in other words, $\text{Sym}(Ω)=(X^{\pm 1})^k.$ Bergman also formulated a sort of general conjecture stating that `the automorphism groups of structures that can be put together out of many isomorphic copies of thems…
Twin-width is a recently introduced graph parameter with applications in algorithmics, combinatorics, and finite model theory. For graphs of bounded degree, finiteness of twin-width is preserved by quasi-isometry. Thus, through Cayley graphs, it defines a group invariant. We prove that groups which are abelian, hyperbolic, ordered, solvable, or with polynomial growth, have finite twin-width. Twin-width can be characterised by excluding patterns in the self-action by product of the group elements. Based on this characterisation, we propose a strengthening called uniform twin-width, which is sta…
In the first, mostly expository, part of this paper, a graded Lie algebra is associated to every group G given with an N-series of subgroups. The asymptotics of the Poincare series of this algebra give estimates on the growth of the group G. This establishes the existence of a gap between polynomial growth and growth of type $e^{\sqrt n}$ in the class of residually-p groups, and gives examples of finitely generated p-groups of uniformly exponential growth. In the second part, we produce two examples of groups of finite width and describe their Lie algebras, introducing a notion of Cayley graph…
A palindrome is a word that reads the same left-to-right as right-to-left. We show that every simple group has a finite generating set $X$, such that every element of it can be written as a palindrome in the letters of $X$. Moreover, every simple group has palindromic width $pw(G,X)=1$, where $X$ only differs by at most one Nielsen-transformation from any given generating set. On the contrary, we prove that all non-abelian finite simple groups $G$ also have a generating set $S$ with $pw(G,S)>1$. As a by-product of our work we also obtain that every just-infinite group has finite palindromic wi…
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 subgroup $H\leq G$ has finite commutator width, which however can be arbitrarily large, and that $G$ contains a subgroup of infinite commutator width. The proofs were assisted by the computer algebra system GAP.
We say that a finite subset of the unit sphere in $\mathbf{R}^d$ is transitive if there is a group of isometries which acts transitively on it. We show that the width of any transitive set is bounded above by a constant times $(\log d)^{-1/2}$. This is a consequence of the following result: If $G$ is a finite group and $ρ: G \rightarrow \mbox{U}_d(\mathbf{C})$ a unitary representation, and if $v \in \mathbf{C}^d$ is a unit vector, there is another unit vector $w \in \mathbf{C}^d$ such that \[ \sup_{g \in G} |\langle ρ(g) v, w \rangle| \leq (1 + c \log d)^{-1/2}.\] These results answer a questi…
