Finite groups with small centralizers of word-values (Q2291632)

Let \(p\) be a prime number and \(n\) be an integer \(\geq2\) not divided by \(p\). If \(H\) is any finite abelian group of exponent \(n\), we call \(B\) the base group of the standard wreath product \(H \wr K\), where \(K\simeq\mathbb{Z}_p\). It is easy to see that in the semidirect pro\-duct \(G\) of \([B,\, K]\) by \(K\) all subgroups of order \(p\) are self-centralizing. If we let \(w\) be the group-word \(x^n\), then the groups constructed above are examples of finite groups of \textit{arbitrary large} orders in which \(w(G)\neq1\) and all centralizers \(C_G(x)\) of non-trivial \(w\)-values \(x\) of \(G\) have order bounded by \(p\) (Remark 2). Here the assumption \(n\geq2\) for the word \(x^n\) is a crucial one for the existence of such examples; indeed, it is well-known that if all non-trivial elements of a finite group have centralizers of order at most \(m\), then the order of the group is bounded by a function of \(m\). The aim of the paper under review is to show that there are many other words \(w\) for which a bound (in terms of \(w\) and \(m\)) is possible for a finite group \(G\) in which \(w(G)\neq1\) and all centralizers of non-trivial \(w\)-values have order at most \(m\): this for instance the case of multilinear commutator words of weight at least \(2\) (Theorem 1) and the \(n\)th Engel word for all \(n\) (Theorem 2).