Commutators as products of squares
Commutators as products of squares
It is shown that if <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper G"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>G</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">G</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> is the free group of rank 2 freely generated by <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="x"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>x</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">x</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> and <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="y"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mi>y</mml:mi> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">y</mml:annotation> …