Verbal sets and cyclic coverings. (Q615847)

In [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 14, 321-341 (1964; Zbl 0122.26906)] \textit{R. F. Turner-Smith} wrote a classic contribution on a problem of P. Hall, dealing with the finiteness of the verbal subgroup \(w(G)\) of an arbitrary word \(w\) in \(n\) variables over an arbitrary group \(G\). In the work of Turner-Smith it is proved that \(w(G)\) is finite, whenever the set \[ w\{G\}=\{w(g_1,\dots,g_n)\mid g_1,\dots,g_n\in G\} \] is finite and \(w\) is an outer commutator word. The restriction on the quality of \(w\) plays a fundamental role in the proofs. Unfortunately, the scenario is not very clear, once this restriction is omitted and the paper under review investigates such a point. In Theorem A the authors show that a group \(G\), in which \(w\{G\}\) is covered by finitely many cyclic subgroups and \(w\) is not a commutator word, has \(w(G)\) which is an extension of a finite group by a cyclic group. Theorem B shows that a variation on this theme is possible for the lower commutator words. Consequently, Theorem C generalizes a well-known criterion of nilpotence of P. Hall in the following way: Let \(n\geq 1\) and \(G\) an extension of a locally finite group by a nilpotent group such that the set of all lower commutators \([x_1,x_2,\dots, x_n]\) of weight \(n\) on elements of \(G\) is covered by a finite set of cyclic subgroups. Then the \(n\)-th term of the lower central series \(\gamma_n(G)\) of \(G\) is either finite or cyclic. Moreover, if \(\gamma_n(G)\) is infinite, then \(G\) is nilpotent of class \(n\).