Group rings whose set of symmetric elements is Lie metabelian. (Q889598)

Let \(R\) be a commutative ring and \(G\) a group having an involution \(*\). Write \(RG^+\) for the set of elements in the group ring \(RG\) that are symmetric with respect to the induced involution. Over the past two decades, a lot of attention has been devoted to determining if Lie identities satisfied by \(RG^+\) are also satisfied by the whole group ring. Along this line, we say that \(RG^+\) is Lie metabelian if \([[s_1,s_2],[s_3,s_4]]=0\) for all \(s_i\in RG^+\). \textit{F. Levin} and \textit{G. Rosenberger} [Result. Math. 26, No. 1-2, 83-88 (1994; Zbl 0817.20003)] proved that if \(R\) is such that \(2\neq 0\), \(G\) is finite and has no elements of order \(2\) or \(3\), then \(FG^+\) is Lie metabelian if, and only if, \(G\) is abelian when \(*\) is the classical involution (namely that induced by the map \(g\mapsto g^{-1}\) on \(G\)). Recently \textit{F. Catino} et al. [Forum Math. 26, No. 5, 1459-1471 (2014; Zbl 1351.16024)] generalized that result to group rings of torsion groups with arbitrary involution having no elements of order \(2\) over fields of characteristic different from \(2\) and \(3\). In the paper under review the authors study the case in which \(R\) has characteristic \(0\), \(G\) is an arbitrary group and \(*\) is the classical involution providing a characterization of when \(RG^+\) is Lie metabelian (Theorem 1.1). In details they prove that this happens if, and only if, one of the following conditions holds: (1) \(\langle g\in G\mid g^2\neq 1\rangle\) is abelian; (2) \(G\) contains an elementary abelian subgroup of index \(2\); (3) \(G\) has an abelian subgroup \(B\) of index \(2\) and an element \(x\) of order \(4\) such that \(b^x=b^{-1}\) for every \(b\in B\); (4) the center of \(G\) is \(\{g\in G\mid g^2=1\}\) and it has index \(4\) in \(G\).