On the uniqueness of roots in virtually nilpotent groups (Q1818944)

After revisiting the concept of the torsion subgroup of a group with respect to a set of prime numbers \(P\) (as introduced by Ribenboim), we show that, for all \(p\) in \(P\), \(p\)th roots are unique in a virtually nilpotent group if and only if \(P\)-roots are unique in both its Fitting subgroup and its Fitting quotient. This more general notion of torsion also turns out to be sufficient to understand completely the kernel of the \(P\)-localization homomorphism of a virtually nilpotent group. Using this result, we characterize the finitely generated virtually nilpotent groups such that, when dividing out the \(P\)-torsion subgroup, \(P\)-roots exist and are unique in the resulting quotient.