Surjective word maps and Burnside's \(p^aq^b\) theorem (Q1656356)

In [Ann. Math. (2) 154, No. 2, 383--406 (2001; Zbl 1003.20014)], \textit{M. W. Liebeck} and \textit{A. Shalev} proved that for a given nontrivial word \(w\) every element of every sufficiently large finite simple group \(G\) can be expressed as a product of \(C(w)\) values of \(w\) in \(G,\) where \(C(w)\) depends only on \(w.\) This was improved firstly to \(C(w)=3\) and finally to \(C(w)=2\) in subsequent papers by \textit{M. Larsen} et al. [Ann. Math. (2) 174, No. 3, 1885--1950 (2011; Zbl 1283.20008); Int. Math. Res. Not. 2013, No. 10, 2323--2348 (2013; Zbl 1329.20014)]. Improving \(C(w)\) to 1 is not possible in general, as is shown by power words \(x^n\), which cannot be surjective on any finite group of order non-coprime to \(n.\) However, certain word maps are surjective on all groups: for example surjectivity of the commutator word \([x_1, x_2]\) was conjectured by \textit{Ø. Ore} in 1951 [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 2, 307--314 (1951; Zbl 0043.02402)] and proved in 2010 [\textit{M. W. Liebeck} et al., J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 12, No. 4, 939--1008 (2010; Zbl 1205.20011)]. The main result of the paper is the following remarkable theorem. Let \(N=p^aq^b\) with primes \(p\), \(q\) and non-negative integers \(a\), \(b\): the word map \((x,y) \mapsto x^Ny^N\) is surjective on all finite non-abelian simple groups. This theorem implies the classical Burnside \(p^aq^b\)-theorem. Another nice consequence is that if \(N_1\) and \(N_2\) are positive integers such that \(N_1N_2\) is divisible by at most two primes, then \(x^{N_1}y^{N_2}\) is surjective on all finite non-abelian simple groups. As a corollary, given a set \(\pi\) of two primes, every element of a finite non-abelian simple is a product of two \(\pi^\prime\)-elements. The authors notice that it is not true that for every odd integer \(N\) the word map \(x\mapsto x^Ny^N\) is always surjective on every non-abelian simple group \(G.\) However, they prove the following result which generalizes the celebrated Feit-Thompson theorem. If \(N\) is an odd positive integer, then \(x^Ny^Nz^N\) is surjective on all finite quasisimple groups. In fact, every element of every finite quasisimple group is a product of three 2-elements. The paper contains also asymptotic results about the surjectivity of \(x^Ny^N\) that depend on the number of prime factors of the integer \(N.\)