A note on non-metabelian \(\mathcal{A}_4\)-groups (Q6601247)

A group \(G\) is metabelian if \(G'\) is abelian. Fix a prime \(p\). A non-abelian \(p\)-group \(G\) is an \(\mathcal{A}_t\)-group if \(G\) contains a non-abelian subgroup of index \(p^{t-1}\) and all subgroups of index \(p^t\) are abelian. The authors prove that if \(G\) is a metabelian \(\mathcal{A}_4\)-group, then \(p^6\leqslant |G| \leqslant p^9\). They do this by showing that \(p^4\leqslant |G'| \leqslant p^6\) and \(p^2\leqslant |G/G'| \leqslant p^3\).