On bi-skew braces and brace blocks (Q2684787)

A \textit{bi-skew brace} is a skew brace \((A, + , \cdot)\) such that also \((A, \cdot, +)\) is. Such a structure was introduced in [\textit{L. N. Childs}, New York J. Math. 25, 574--588 (2019; Zbl 1441.12001)] in relation to Hopf-Galois structures. In the paper under review, the authors provide a first systematic study of bi-skew braces, focusing on their connection with set-theoretic solution of the Yang-Baxter equation and their nilpotency and solubility. In this regard, they give a positive answer in the case of bi-skew braces to Byott's conjecture which states that if \(A\) is a skew brace such that \((A, \cdot)\) is soluble, also \((A, \circ)\) is (see [\textit{N. P. Byott}, New York J. Math. 21, 883--903 (2015; Zbl 1358.12001)]). Additionally, they use bi-skew braces to classify all the skew braces having multiplicative group isomorphic to \(\mathbb{Z}\), solving a problem posed in [\textit{L. Vendramin}, Adv. Group Theory Appl. 7, 15--37 (2019; Zbl 1468.16050)]. Finally, they give a description of brace blocks, defined by \textit{A. Koch} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 226, No. 9, Article ID 107047, 15 p. (2022; Zbl 1498.16043)] to be families of group operations on a given set such that any two of them yield a bi-skew brace.