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Andreas Thom
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Let $G$ be a group and set $[x,y]:= x^{-1}y^{-1}xy$ as usual and consider it as a binary operation.

Question: Is there a description of the identities that the operation $[.,.]$ satisfies for all groups?

Just to clarify, those identities should not involve ordinary group multiplication, conjugation or inversion (such as the Hall-Witt identity and various other identities) but only commutators and the neutral element.

Of course one has identities of the form $[x,x]=1$ and $[[x,y],[y,x]]=1$ (as pointed out in a comment), but there are also more complicated ones. As an example, one can check the following three-variable identity $$[ [[x,y], z],[z,[y,x]]] = [ [[x,y], z],[[x,y],[z,[y,x]]]]$$ and derive one other of similar type. Are all other identities derived from this?

Let $G$ be a group and set $[x,y]:= x^{-1}y^{-1}xy$ as usual and consider it as a binary operation.

Question: Is there a description of the identities that the operation $[.,.]$ satisfies for all groups?

Just to clarify, those identities should not involve ordinary group multiplication, conjugation or inversion (such as the Hall-Witt identity and various other identities) but only commutators and the neutral element.

Of course one has identities of the form $[x,x]=1$, but there are also more complicated ones. As an example, one can check the following three-variable identity $$[ [[x,y], z],[z,[y,x]]] = [ [[x,y], z],[[x,y],[z,[y,x]]]]$$ and derive one other of similar type. Are all other identities derived from this?

Let $G$ be a group and set $[x,y]:= x^{-1}y^{-1}xy$ as usual and consider it as a binary operation.

Question: Is there a description of the identities that the operation $[.,.]$ satisfies for all groups?

Just to clarify, those identities should not involve ordinary group multiplication, conjugation or inversion (such as the Hall-Witt identity and various other identities) but only commutators and the neutral element.

Of course one has identities of the form $[x,x]=1$ and $[[x,y],[y,x]]=1$ (as pointed out in a comment), but there are also more complicated ones. As an example, one can check the following three-variable identity $$[ [[x,y], z],[z,[y,x]]] = [ [[x,y], z],[[x,y],[z,[y,x]]]]$$ and derive one other of similar type. Are all other identities derived from this?

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Andreas Thom
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Identities of commutators

Let $G$ be a group and set $[x,y]:= x^{-1}y^{-1}xy$ as usual and consider it as a binary operation.

Question: Is there a description of the identities that the operation $[.,.]$ satisfies for all groups?

Just to clarify, those identities should not involve ordinary group multiplication, conjugation or inversion (such as the Hall-Witt identity and various other identities) but only commutators and the neutral element.

Of course one has identities of the form $[x,x]=1$, but there are also more complicated ones. As an example, one can check the following three-variable identity $$[ [[x,y], z],[z,[y,x]]] = [ [[x,y], z],[[x,y],[z,[y,x]]]]$$ and derive one other of similar type. Are all other identities derived from this?