Subgroups close to normal subgroups (Q1100556)

Let G be a group and H a subgroup. It is shown that the set of indices \(\{\) [H: \(H\cap gHg^{-1}]|\) \(g\in G\}\) has a finite upper bound n if and only if there is a normal subgroup \(N\trianglelefteq G\) which is commensurable with H; i.e., such that [H:N\(\cap H]\) and [N:N\(\cap H]\) are finite; moreover, the latter indices admit bounds depending only on n. If the bounded index hypothesis is assumed only for g running over some subgroup \(K\leq G\), the conclusion holds with ``normal'' weakened to ``normalized by K''. More detailed information is gotten under the assumption that \(\{[H:H\cap gHg^{-1}]|\) \(g\in G\}=\{1,p\}\) for p prime. In particular, when \(p=2\) there exists \(N\trianglelefteq G\) such that either H has index 2 in N, or N has index 2 in H.