Commutators and commutator subgroups in profinite groups (Q502715)

A covering of a group \(G\) is a family \(\{S_i\}_{i\in I}\) of subsets of \(G\) such that \(G=\bigcup_{i\in I}\,S_i\). When a group \(G\) is covered by finitely many subgroups, it is natural to expect that some structural information about \(G\) can be deduced from the properties of the covering subgroups. In recent years, some ``commutator'' variations of the above questions became a subject of research activity. When the set of all commutators in a group \(G\) is contained in a union of finitely many subgroups, it is natural to ask whether the structure of the commutator subgroup \(G'\) depends on the properties of the covering subgroups. The questions of this kind become even more intriguing when the groups are profinite. In that case, the interplay of algebraic and topological considerations adds a new quality to the obtained results. By Baire's category theorem if a profinite group is covered by countably many subgroups, then at least one of the subgroups is open. Thus, in case of profinite groups one can successfully deal with problems on countable coverings rather than just finite ones. A survey of results in this direction can be found in [the authors, Rend. Semin. Mat. Univ. Padova 137, 237--257 (2017; Zbl 1393.20012)]. The main result in the article under review is the following theorem. Theorem 1.1. The commutator subgroup of a profinite group \(G\) is finite-by-procyclic if and only if the set of all commutators of \(G\) is contained in a union of countably many procyclic subgroups.