The Amit–Ashurst conjecture for finite metacyclic p-groups

Abstract

The Amit conjecture about word maps on finite nilpotent groups has been shown to hold for certain classes of groups. The generalised Amit conjecture says that the probability of an element occurring in the image of a word map on a finite nilpotent group G is either 0, or at least 1/|G|. Noting the work of Ashurst, we name the generalised Amit conjecture the Amit–Ashurst conjecture and show that the Amit–Ashurst conjecture holds for finite p-groups with a cyclic maximal subgroup.