Commutators in finite quasisimple groups

Abstract

The Ore Conjecture, now established, states that every element of every finite non-abelian simple group is a commutator. We prove that the same result holds for all the finite quasisimple groups, with a short explicit list of exceptions. In particular, the only quasisimple groups with non-central elements which are not commutators are covers of A6, A7, L3(4) and U4(3).