Paper detail

Verbal width in anabelian groups

The class $A$ of anabelian groups is defined as the collection of finite groups without abelian composition factors. We prove that the commutator word $[x_1,x_2]$ and the power word $x_1^p$ have bounded width in $A$ when $p$ is an odd integer. By contrast the word $x^{30}$ does not have bounded width in $A$. On the other hand any given word $w$ has bounded width for those groups in $A$ whose composition factors are sufficiently large as a function of $w$. In the course of the proof we establish that sufficiently large almost simple groups cannot satisfy $w$ as a coset identity.