Right 2-Engel elements and commuting automorphisms of groups (Q5936917)

The authors consider the set \(R_2(G)\) of group elements \(g\) of a group \(G\) satisfying for all \(x\in G\) the relation \([[g,x],x]=1\) (right 2-Engel elements) and the set of automorphisms \({\mathcal A}(G)\) of \(G\) satisfying \(g\alpha(g)=\alpha(g)g\) for all \(g\in G\). Under the canonical isomorphism \(\text{Inn}(G)\cong G/Z(G)\) we have that \(\text{Inn}(G)\cap{\mathcal A}(G)\) is mapped onto \(R_2(G)/Z(G)\), also \(R_2(G)\) is contained in the hypercenter whenever \(G\) is finite. The main object of this paper is the class of groups \(G\) with \(Z(G)=1\) and \({\mathcal A}(G)\neq\{\text{id}_G\}\): here \(({\mathcal A}(G))^2=\{\text{id}_G\}\) and \({\mathcal A}(G)\) is a group, \((R_2(G))^2=1\), also \(R_2(G)\subseteq C_G(G')\) and all elements of \(G^2R_2(G)\) are fixed by all \(\alpha\in{\mathcal A}(G)\) (Theorem 1.3). -- Every group \(G\) which is an extension of an elementary Abelian 2-group by an elementary Abelian 2-group satisfies \(R_2(G)\neq 1\), an example with \(Z(G)=1\) is given in the proof of Theorem 1.2. -- If \(R_2(G)=1\) for some group \(G\), then also \(R_2(\Aut(G))=\{\text{id}_G\}\) (Theorem 1.5).