Bounds for the relative n-th nilpotency degree in compact groups

The line of investigation of the present paper goes back to a classical work of W. H. Gustafson of the 1973, in which it is described the probability that two randomly chosen group elements commute. In the same work, he gave some bounds for this kind of probability, providing information on the group structure. We have recently obtained some generalizations of his results for finite groups. Here we improve them in the context of the compact groups.Comment: 9 pages; to appear in Asian-European Journal of Mathematics with several improvement

The probability that xx and yy commute in a compact group

We show that a compact group $G$ has finite conjugacy classes, i.e., is an FC-group if and only if its center $Z(G)$ is open if and only if its commutator subgroup $G'$ is finite. Let $d(G)$ denote the Haar measure of the set of all pairs $(x,y)$ in $G \times G$ for which $[x,y] = 1$; this, formally, is the probability that two randomly picked elements commute. We prove that $d(G)$ is always rational and that it is positive if and only if $G$ is an extension of an FC-group by a finite group. This entails that $G$ is abelian by finite. The proofs involve measure theory, transformation groups, Lie theory of arbitrary compact groups, and representation theory of compact groups. Examples and references to the history of the discussion are given at the end of the paper.Comment: 17 pages; we have cut some points ; to appear in Math. Proc. Cambridge Phil. So

Relative n-isoclinism classes and relative n-th nilpotency degree of finite groups

The purpose of the present paper is to consider the notion of isoclinism between two finite groups and its generalization to n-isoclinism, introduced by J. C. Bioch in 1976. A weaker form of n-isoclinism, called relative n-isoclinism, will be discussed. This will allow us to improve some classical results in literature. We will point out the connections between a relative n-isoclinism and the notions of commutativity degree, n-th nilpotency degree and relative n-th nilpotency degree, which arouse interest in the classification of groups of prime power order in the last years.Comment: 11 pages, to appear in Filomat with revision