ON COMPUTING THE NON-ABELIAN TENSOR SQUARES OF THE FREE 2-ENGEL GROUPS (Q4650685)

Let \(G\) be a group. The non-Abelian tensor square \(G\otimes G\) of the group \(G\) is the group generated by the symbols \(g\otimes h\), where \(g,h\in G\), subject to the relations \[ gg'\otimes h=({^gg'}\otimes{^gh})(g\otimes h)\text{ and }g\otimes hh'=(g\otimes h)({^hg}\otimes{^hh'}), \] for all \(g,g',h,h'\in G\), where \(^gg'\) denotes the conjugation action \(gg'g^{-1}\). A group \(G\) is called 2-Engel if it satisfies the left normed commutator \([x,y,y]\). The main result of the paper under review is the following Theorem 1.4. The non-Abelian tensor square of the free 2-Engel group of rank \(n>2\) is a direct product of a free Abelian group of rank \(\tfrac 13n(n^2+2)\) and an \(n(n-1)\)-generated nilpotent group of class 2 whose derived subgroup has exponent \(3\). Using the proof of Theorem 1.4 the authors prove Corollary 1.5. The non-Abelian tensor square of the Burnside group of rank \(n>2\) and exponent 3 is a direct product of an elementary Abelian 3-group of rank \(\tfrac 13n(n^2+2)\) and an \(n(n-1)\)-generated nilpotent group of class 2 having exponent 3. -- The main tool to prove these results is commutator calculus.