Nonsoluble Length Of Finite Groups with Commutators of Small Order

Abstract

Let p be a prime. Every finite group G has a normal series each of whose quotients either is p-soluble or is a direct product of nonabelian simple groups of orders divisible by p. The non-p-soluble length of G is defined as the minimal number of non-p-soluble quotients in a series of this kind. We deal with the question whether, for a given prime p and a given proper group variety V, there is a bound for the non-p-soluble length of finite groups whose Sylow p-subgroups belong to V. Let the word w be a multilinear commutator. In the present paper we answer the question in the affirmative in the case where p is odd and the variety is the one of groups in which the w-values have orders dividing a fixed number.