Some commutativity criteria. II (Q1192085)

This paper follows the authors' earlier part I [ibid. 84, 135-141 (1990; Zbl 0725.20025)]. They call a group a \(P_ n\)-group if all sets of \(n\) elements commute, and the main result of the earlier paper was that all infinite \(P_ n\)-groups are abelian. They now turn their attention to finite \(P_ n\)-groups, and show that such a group is necessarily abelian if its order is at least \(2n\), but that all groups of order less than \(2n\) are \(P_ n\)-groups (Theorem 1). By contrast they show that monoids (that is: semigroups with a neutral element), for which the definition clearly also makes sense, behave rather differently, by determining (Theorem 2) the exact structure of all non-commutative \(P_ 2\)-monoids. They mention the unsolved problems of the structure of non-commutative \(P_ 3\)-monoids and non-commutative \(P_ 2\)-semigroups without a neutral element.