Words, permutations, and the nonsolvable length of a finite group (Q2233684)

Summary: We study the impact of certain identities and probabilistic identities on the structure of finite groups. More specifically, let \(w\) be a nontrivial word in \(d\) distinct variables and let \(G\) be a finite group for which the word map \(w_G \colon G^d \rightarrow G\) has a fiber of size at least \(\rho |G|^d\) for some fixed \(\rho > 0\). We show that, for certain words \(w\), this implies that \(G\) has a normal solvable subgroup of index bounded above in terms of \(w\) and \(\rho\). We also show that, for a larger family of words \(w\), this implies that the nonsolvable length of \(G\) is bounded above in terms of \(w\) and \(\rho\), thus providing evidence in favor of a conjecture of Larsen. Along the way we obtain results of independent interest on permutation groups; e.g. we show, roughly, that most elements of large finite permutation groups have large support.