English

When right n-Engel elements of a group form a subgroup?

Group Theory 2009-06-16 v1

Abstract

Let Rn(G)R_n(G) denotes the set of all right nn-Engel elements of a group GG. We show that in any group GG whose 5th term of lower central series has no element of order 2, R3(G)R_3(G) is a subgroup. Furthermore we prove that R4(G)R_4(G) is a subgroup for locally nilpotent groups GG without elements of orders 2, 3 or 5; and in this case the normal closure <x>G<x >^G is nilpotent of class at most 7 for each xR4(G)x\in R_4(G). Using a group constructed by Newman and Nickel we also show that, for each n5n\geq 5, there exists a nilpotent group of class n+2n+2 containing a right nn-Engel element xx and an element aGa\in G such that both [x1,na][x^{-1},_n a] and [xk,na][x^{k},_n a] are of infinite order for all integers k2k\geq 2. We finish the paper by proving that at least one of the following happens: (1) There is an infinite finitely generated kk-Engel group of exponent nn for some positive integer kk and some 2-power number nn. (2) There is a group generated by finitely many bounded left Engel elements which is not an Engel group.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0906.2439,
  title  = {When right n-Engel elements of a group form a subgroup?},
  author = {A. Abdollahi and H. Khosravi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.2439},
  year   = {2009}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:13:02.101Z