Probabilistically nilpotent groups of class two

Let \(G\) be a finite group, the class-\(k\) nilpotency degree \(d_{k}(G)\) of \(G\) is defined by \[ d_{k}(G)= \big | \{ (x_{1}, \ldots, x_{k+1}) \in G^{k+1} \mid [x_{1},\ldots,x_{k+1}]=1 \} \big | \Big / \big | G^{k+1} \big |. \] In particular, \(G\) is nilpotent of class \(k\) if and only if \(d_{k}(G)=1\), so the class-\(k\) nilpotency degree is a statistical relaxation of class-\(k\) nilpotency. In this paper, the authors call a group \(G\) probabilistically nilpotent of class \(k\) if \(d_{k}(G)\) is bounded away from zero. It is well-known that \(d_{1}(G) \leq 5/8\) for any nonabelian group \(G\) [\textit{W. H. Gustafson}, Am. Math. Mon. 80, 1031--1034 (1973; Zbl 0276.60013)]. Another important result, proved by \textit{P. M. Newmann} [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 21, No. 5, 456--458 (1989; Zbl 0695.20018)], states that if \(d_{1}(G)\) is bounded away from zero, then \(G\) has a subgroup \(H\) such that \([G:H]\) and \(|H'|\) are both bounded. In the paper under review, the authors determine the structure of finite groups \(G\) such that \(d_{2}(G)\) is bounded away from zero: if \(d_{2}(G)\geq \epsilon > 0\), then \(G\) has a class-4 nilpotent normal subgroup \(H\) such that \([G:H]\) and \(|\gamma_{4}(H)|\) are both bounded in terms of \(\epsilon\). They also prove that if \(G\) is an infinite group whose commutators have boundedly many conjugates (or \(G\) satisfies a certain more general commutator covering condition), then \(G\) is finite-by-class-\(3\)-nilpotent-by-finite.

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