On left conjugacy closed loops with a nucleus of index two. (Q1766183)

In an LCC loop the set of left translations is closed under conjugation inside the left multiplication group. Every loop \(L\) with coinciding left and middle nucleus \(N_\ell\) of index two inside \(L\) is LCC. Such loops are of a special form described in the paper. Indeed, they are obtained by a doubling process starting from the group \(N_\ell\). This is used to show that a finite such loop has non-trivial right nucleus \(N_r\). However, using a free group, the author constructs an infinite examples with \(N_r\) trivial. In a similar fashion LCC loops with right nucleus \(N_r\) of index two are treated. As above they can be obtained by doubling \(N_r\) in a specific way. This is used to show that the center of the group \(N_r\) must be non-trivial. Many examples are given. In particular, it is shown for all \(n\geq 3\) that there exist LCC loops of order \(2n\) with \(N_r\) cyclic of order \(n\) and \(N_\ell\) trivial. Finally, it is shown that for involutorial loops with \(N_r\) of index~2 the Bol condition is equivalent to LCC.