On finite groups whose derived subgroup has bounded rank. (Q607825)

J. Wiegold proved that a group \(G\) (eventually infinite) with \(|G:Z(G)|=n\) has an upper bound for the derived subgroup \(G'\) of the form \(|G'|\leq n^{{\frac{1}{2}}\log_2 n}\). L. Pyber, motivated by similar evidences, conjectured the existence of a constant \(c\) such that \(|H:Z(H)|\leq |H'|^{c\cdot\mathrm{rk}(H')}\), where \(H\) is a capable finite group and \(\mathrm{rk}(H')\) denotes the rank of \(H'\) (in the usual sense). The work under review answers positively Pyber's Conjecture, showing that \(c=4\) in Corollary 4. A more general result is shown in Theorem 3, where the authors prove that a finite group \(G\) with derived subgroup \(G'\) of rank \(r\) has \(|G:Z_2(G)|\leq |G'|^{2r}\). It is good to point out that the results of this paper deal with a precise line of investigation in literature, involving variations on the theme of the celebrated Schur's Theorem and its converse. I. Schur proved in fact that a group \(G\) with finite \(G/Z(G)\) has finite \(G'\). The converse is no longer true, but, weaker formulations may be proved, replacing in a suitable way \(Z(G)\) with another term \(Z_i(G)\) of the upper central series of \(G\) (\(i\geq 1\)), or, \(G'\) with another term \(\gamma_i(G)\) of the lower central series of \(G\). These observations emphasize the importance of Pyber's Conjecture and the importance of having bounds, which correlate the size of \(G/Z_i(G)\) with that of \(\gamma_j(G)\) for suitable \(i,j\geq 1\).