On Engel-like congruences
Let G* denote a nonprincipal ultrapower of a group G. In 1986 M.~Boffa posed a question equivalent to the following one: if G does not satisfy a positive law, does G* contain a free nonabelian subsemigroup? We give the affirmative answer to this question in the large class of groups containing all residually finite and all soluble groups, in fact, all groups considered in traditional textbooks on group theory.
In this note we determine explicit formulas for the relative commutator of groups with respect to the subvarieties of -nilpotent groups and of -solvable groups. In particular these formulas give a characterization of the extensions of groups that are central relatively to these subvarieties.