On the distribution of values of certain word maps. (Q6826575)

Given a word \(w\) in the free group on \(d\) letters, and a finite group \(G\), one may consider a \textit{word map} \(G^d\to G\) induced by substitution. This word map induces a probability distribution \(P_{w,G}\) on \(G\) where, for \(X\subseteq G\), we define \(P_{w,G}(X)=|w_G^{-1}(X)|/|G|^d\). If \(\mu_G\) is the uniform probability distribution on \(G\), then the word \(w\) is called \textit{almost uniform} on an infinite family of finite groups if, for groups \(G\) in this family, \N\[\N\lim_{|G|\to\infty}\|P_{w,G}-\mu_G\|_1=0.\N\]\N The main result of this paper asserts that if \(m_1\) and \(m_2\) are positive integers, then the word \(w=x_1^{m_1}x_2^{m_2}\) is almost uniform on the family of finite simple groups.\N\N In addition, the authors give an alternative proof of a known result: if \(w\in F_d\) is a non-trivial word such that every variable \(x_1\) which occurs in \(w\) occurs once with exponent \(1\) and once with exponent \(-1\), then \(w\) is almost uniform on the family of finite simple groups.\N\N The methods in this paper are character-theoretic: the authors exploit known upper bounds for \(|\chi(g)|\) in terms of \(\chi(1)\), where \(\chi\) is an irreducible complex character of a finite simple group \(G\), and \(g\) is an element of an appropriately chosen conjugacy class \(C\) in \(G\). They combine these bounds with information concerning the behaviour of the \(m\)-th power map \(G\to G\), \(x\mapsto x^m\).