On finitely generated profinite groups II, products in quasisimple groups

Abstract

We prove two results. (1) There is an absolute constant $D$ such that for any finite quasisimple group $S$, given 2D arbitrary automorphisms of $S$, every element of $S$ is equal to a product of $D$ `twisted commutators' defined by the given automorphisms. (2) Given a natural number $q$, there exist $C=C(q)$ and $M=M(q)$ such that: if $S$ is a finite quasisimple group with $| S/\mathrm{Z}(S)| >C$, $\beta_{j}$ $ (j=1,...,M)$ are any automorphisms of $S$, and $q_{j}$ $ (j=1,...,M)$ are any divisors of $q$, then there exist inner automorphisms $\alpha_{j}$ of $S$ such that $S=\prod_{1}^{M}[S,(\alpha_{j}\beta_{j})^{q_{j}}]$. These results, which rely on the Classification of finite simple groups, are needed to complete the proofs of the main theorems of Part I.