On generalisations of conciseness (Q6894598)

A word \(w\) in \(k\) variables is concise in a class of groups \(\mathcal{C}\) if for every \(G \in \mathcal{C}\), the finiteness of the set of \(w\)-values \(w\{G\}\) implies that the verbal subgroup \(w(G) = \langle w\{G\} \rangle\) is finite. A weaker property, semiconciseness, requires only that the commutator subgroup \([w(G), G]\) be finite. The paper proves that these properties are distinct by showing that Ol'shanskii's word, a known counterexample to conciseness, is actually semiconcise.\N\NTheorem 1.1 establishes that if \(w_o\{G\}\) is finite for Ol'shanskii's word \(w_o\), then \([w_o(G), G]\) is finite. The proof reduces to the metabelian case and uses the fact that every word is concise in the class of virtually metabelian groups. The author further introduces \(1/m\)-conciseness, where the finiteness of \(w\{G\}\) implies that the iterated commutator subgroup \([w(G), G, \stackrel{\small(m)\normalsize}{\ldots}, G]\) is finite. Theorem 1.2 shows that semiconciseness and \(1/m\)-conciseness are equivalent for all \(m \geq 1\), collapsing the apparent hierarchy. The key argument proves that if \([w(G), G, \stackrel{\small(m)\normalsize}{\ldots}, G]\) is finite for some \(m\), then \([w(G), G]\) is already finite, using the centrality of iterated commutators and bilinearity properties.