FINITELY GENERATED G′ AND POSITIVE LAWS (Q2777971)

The author conjectures that if \(G\) is a finitely generated relatively free group then the commutator subgroup \(G'\) is finitely generated if and only if \(G\) satisfies a positive law. This is shown to be the case for a large class \(C\) of groups that includes all residually finite and all solvable groups. More precisely, the class \(C=\bigcup_n\Delta_n\), where \(\Delta_1\) is the class of groups contained in all finite products of varieties \(B_1B_2\cdots B_m\), where \(B_i\) is a solvable variety or a restricted Burnside variety of finite exponent and \(\Delta_{n+1}\) is the class of groups which are locally \(\Delta_n\) groups or residually \(\Delta_n\) groups. The class \(C\) was introduced by \textit{R. G. Burns, O. Macedońska} and \textit{Yu. Medvedev} [in J. Algebra 195, No. 2, 510-525 (1997; Zbl 0886.20022)].