Principal and doubly homogeneous quandles (Q1984755)

Idempotent left distributive left quasigroups are called quandles. Such algebras play an important role in knot theory and were defined by \textit{D. Joyce} [J. Pure Applied Algebra, 23, 37--65 (1982; Zbl 0474.57003)]. A quandle \((Q,\ast)\) is (doubly) homogeneous if its automorphism group \(\Aut(Q)\) acts on \(Q\) (doubly) transitively. Let \((G,\cdot)\) be a group and \(f\in \Aut(G)\). Then \((Q,\ast)\) with \[a\ast b=a\cdot f(a^{-1}\cdot b)\] is called \textit{principal} quandle and denoted by \(Q_{\Hom}(G,f)\). If a group \((G,\cdot)\) is abelian, the quandle \((Q,\ast)\) is the well-known affine quandle. Principal quandles form a subclass of homogeneous ones and are called \textit{generalized Alexander quandles} in [\textit{W. E. Clark} and \textit{M. Saito}, J. Knot Theory Ramifications 25, No. 14, Article ID 1650080, 17 p. (2016; Zbl 1361.57005)]. Doubly transitive quandles \((Q,\ast)\) (i.e. the inner group of the quandle acts transitively on \(Q\)) were investigated by \textit{L. Vendramin} [J. Math. Soc. Japan 69(3), 1051--1057 (2017; Zbl 1373.20081)]. By Vendramin's results every finite such quandle is an affine simple one. In this paper, the author investigates diffrent aspects of principal quandles such as the lattice of congruences or the group of automorphisms and gives some characterization of connected and Latin principal quandles. Among others he shows that each connected quandle is a disjoint union of principal subquandles and the automorphism group \(\Aut(Q)\) of a principal connected quandle \(Q_{\Hom}(G,f)\) is a semidirect product of the group \((G,\cdot)\) and the centralizer \(C_{\Aut(G)}(f)\) of \(\{f\}\). He also studies simple and strictly simple quandles (such without proper subquandles). In particular, he proves that simple affine quandles are always finite and finite simple quandles are strictly simple if and only if they are doubly homogeneous if and only if they are Latin. The author extends Vendramin's results [loc. cit.] for doubly transitive quandles and shows that each finite doubly homogeneous quandle is a power of strictly simple quandles.