Procyclic coverings of commutators in profinite groups. (Q461382)

A covering of a group \(G\) is a family \(\{S_\lambda\}_{\lambda\in\Lambda}\) of subsets of \(G\) such that \(G=\bigcup_{\lambda\in\Lambda}S_\lambda\). R. Baer, in an unpublished paper (but see: [\textit{B. H. Neumann}, Publ. Math. 3, 227-242 (1954; Zbl 0057.25603)]), has proved that if every \(S_\lambda\) is a cyclic subgroup of \(G\) and \(\Lambda\) is finite, then \(G\) is either cyclic or finite. In a similar vein the authors prove the following results on procyclic groups. Theorem A: Let \(G\) be a profinite group in which all commutators are covered by \(m\) procyclic subgroups (\(m\in\mathbb N\)). Then \(G\) possesses a finite characteristic subgroup \(M\) contained in \(G'\) such that the order of \(M\) is \(m\)-bounded and \(G'/M\) is procyclic. Theorem B: Let \(G\) be a pro-\(p\)-group (\(p\) a prime number) such that all commutators are covered by \(m\) procyclic subgroups. Then \(G'\) is either finite of \(m\)-bounded order or procyclic.