The central series for Peiffer commutators in groups with operators (Q917076)

A precrossed module is a pair of groups \((M,N)\) with an action of \(N\) on \(M\) (on the right) together with a group homomorphism \(\partial: M\to N\) which is \(N\)-equivariant. If \(\partial: M\to N\) is a precrossed module and x,y\(\in M\) then the Peiffer commutator \(<x,y>=-x-y+x+y^{\partial x}\). Peiffer commutators are analogous to commutators and if \(<x,y>=0\), the precrossed module is a crossed module. Both precrossed modules and crossed modules have connections with presentations of groups and low dimensional homotopy theory. Motivated by the use of central series of groups and their related Lie algebras in the study of simply connected homotopy types, the authors use Peiffer commutators and a corresponding Peiffer central series of a precrossed module. The structure that plays the rôle of the Lie algebras in the theory of central series is a ``partial Lie algebra'' and the main result is Peiffer analogue of the classical result of Witt. Explicitly it is shown that the quotients of the Peiffer central series form a partial Lie algebra which is free if \(N\) is free and \(\partial: M\to N\) is a free precrossed module.