Elements of order 2 in a free centrally solvable group (Q1067004)

Let \({\mathfrak A}^{\ell}\) be the variety of solvable groups of class \(\leq \ell\); \({\mathfrak ZA}^{\ell}\), the variety of centrally solvable groups, i.e. \(G\in {\mathfrak ZA}^{\ell}\Leftrightarrow G/Z(G)\in {\mathfrak A}^{\ell}\). Let \(\Phi_{r,\ell}=F_ r/[F_ r^{(\ell)},F]\) be the free group of \({\mathfrak ZA}^{\ell}\) of rank r. It is known from the works by C. K. Gupta and by the author that the free centrally metabelian group \(\Phi_{r,2}\) for \(r\geq 4\) has the periodic subgroup \(A_ m\simeq C_ 2\times C_ 2\times...\times C_ 2\) of rank \(m=C^ 4_ r\). The main result of this paper is Theorem. For \(\ell >2\), \(r>1\) the group \(\Phi_{r,\ell}\) contains an elementary abelian 2-subgroup \(A_{\infty}\).