On the structure of nilpotent groups of a certain type (Q1310484)

Let \({\mathcal N}_ 0\) be the class of all finitely generated infinite nilpotent groups \(N\) with finite commutator subgroup \([N,N]\). Now let us consider \(N\in {\mathcal N}_ 0\) and the short exact sequence 1) \(TN\to N\to FN\), where \(TN\) is the torsion subgroup of \(N\) and \(FN\) the torsion-free quotient. Let \({\mathcal N}_ 1\) be the class of all groups \(N\) such that: 1) \(N\in {\mathcal N}_ 0\); 2) \(TN\) is commutative; 3) the short exact sequence \(TN\to N\to FN\) splits on the right, such that \(N\) is a semidirect product for an action \(\omega: FN\to \text{Aut } FN\). Let \(t\) be the height of \(\ker \omega\); here the height of \(\ker\omega\) in \(FN\) is the largest positive integer \(t\) such that \(\ker \omega \subseteq tFN\). In this work the following main result is proved. Theorem 1.1. Let \(N\in {\mathcal N}_ 1\). Then (i) \(t=1\) or 2, or (ii) \(FN\) is cyclic. Some applications in homotopy theory are mentioned.