Divisibility and laws in finite simple groups. (Q2634867)

For any group \(\Gamma\), the divisibility function \(D_\Gamma\colon\Gamma\to\mathbb N\cup\{\infty\}\) is defined by \(D_\Gamma(\gamma)=\min\{[\Gamma:\Lambda]\mid\Lambda<\Gamma,\;\gamma\notin\Lambda\}\). Let \(\mathbf F_2\) be the free group with two generators and \(S=\{a,a^{-1},b, b^{-1}\}\) its natural symmetric generating set. Denote the associated word length function by \(|\cdot|\colon\mathbf F_2\to\mathbb N\) and set \(D_{\mathbf F_2}(n)=\max\{D_{\mathbf F_2}(\gamma)\mid\gamma\in\mathbf F_2,\;|\gamma|\leq n\}\). For a group \(\Gamma\), we say that \(\Gamma\) satisfies the (two-variable) law \(w\in\mathbf F_2\) if \(w(g,h)=e\) for any \(g,h\in\Gamma\). In the given paper, the authors provide new bounds for \(D_{\mathbf F_2}(n)\) and construct short laws for the symmetric groups \(\mathrm{Sym}(n)\). The construction is random and relies on the classification of finite simple groups. They also give bounds on the length of laws for finite simple groups of Lie type.