Quasi-powerful p-groups

-groups. For example, we show that they have a regular power structure, and we generalise a result of Fern'andez-Alcober on the order of commutators in powerful

p

-groups to this larger family of groups. We also obtain a bound on the number of generators of a subgroup of a quasi-powerful

p

-group, expressed in terms of the number of generators of the group. We give an infinite family of examples which demonstrates this bound is close to best possible.

Review text

Let $p$ be an odd prime. The paper introduces the notion of \emph{quasi-powerful} (finite) $p$-group; this being a finite $p$-group $G$ with the property that $G/Z(G)$ is powerful, i.e. $G^{\prime}Z(G)/Z(G) \leq \mho_1 (G/Z(G))$. Since their introduction in [\textit{A. Lubotzky} and \textit{A. Mann}, J. Algebra 105, 484--505 (1987; Zbl 0626.20010); J. Algebra 105, 506--515 (1987; Zbl 0626.20022)] powerful $p$-groups have enjoyed a very fruitful life in group-theoretical research, with a multitude of far-reaching uses. The authors foresee quasi-powerful $p$-groups being useful in induction arguments. Since the class of quasi-powerful $p$ groups includes all $p$-groups of class $2$, there exist quasi powerful non-powerful $p$-groups. The authors' hypothesis that quasi-powerful $p$-groups would share many well-known properties of powerful $p$-groups is however borne out by the main results: Theorem $1$ states that a quasi-powerful $p$-group $G$ has a \emph{regular power structure}: For each $i$, $\Omega_i (G)$ is the set of elements of order at most $p^i$, while $\vert G \colon \mho_i(G) \vert = \vert \Omega_i(G) \vert$. Theorem $2$ says that $\mho_i (G)$ is powerful for $i \geq 1$, Theorems $3$ and $4$ provide bounds for the order of commutators of powers of elements $x$ and $y$ of $G$ in terms of $o(x)$ and $o(y)$, while Theorem $5$ is a best possible (See Example $6.1$ taken from [\textit{G. Higman}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 10, 24--30 (1960; Zbl 0093.02603)] analogon to Theorem $1.12$ of Mann and Lubotzky's first paper cited above [Zbl 0626.20010, loc. cit.]: If $H \leq G$, then $d(H) \leq \frac{1}{2} d(G) (d(G) + 3).$\\ \noindent A key ingredient in the proofs is Proposition $3.6$ stating that the subgroup $\mho_1(G)Z(G)$ is powerfully embedded in $G$. The proofs use appropiate versions of the Hall-Petrescu formula and frequently use both results of and techniques similar to [\textit{G. A. Fernández-Alcober}, Isr. J. Math. 162, 75--79 (2007; Zbl 1147.20015)].

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