On finiteness of some verbal subgroups in profinite groups

Abstract

Given a group word $w$ and a group $G$, the set of $w$-values in $G$ is denoted by $G_w$ and the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is the one generated by $G_w$. In the present paper we consider profinite groups admitting a word $w$ such that the cardinality of $G_w$ is less than $2^{\aleph_0}$ and $w(G)$ is generated by finitely many $w$-values. For several families of words $w$ we show that under these assumptions $w(G)$ must be finite. Our results are related to the concept of conciseness of group words.