Higher commutator theory for congruence modular varieties (Q1786457)

The paper develops basic properties of higher commutators in congruence modular varieties. The binary commutator, discovered in the 1970s, is an essential structural notion generalizing centrality, abelianness, solvability, nilpotence etc. from group theory. The notions of higher commutator and higher centrality were first introduced by \textit{A. Bulatov} [Contrib. Gen. Algebra. 13, 41--54 (2001; Zbl 0986.08003)] to study polynomial equivalence of Maltsev clones on a finite set. While for groups the higher commutator is equal to the iterated binary commutator, it is not so already in congruence permutable varieties. Of particular importance is the notion of supernilpotence (defined from the higher commutator) which is stronger and in some sense more natural than nilpotence (defined from the iterated binary commutator). For congruence permutable varieties, \textit{E. Aichinger} and \textit{N. Mudrinski} [Algebra Univers. 63, No. 4, 367--403 (2010; Zbl 1206.08003)] established basic properties of the higher commutator and \textit{J. Opršal} [Algebra Univers. 76, No. 3, 367--383 (2016; Zbl 1357.08002)] contributed a language-independent, relational description of higher centrality. This paper pushes the theory to the much more complex congruence modular case. The main contribution is a proof of symmetry, additivity, and the homomorphism property for higher commutators in congruence modular varieties. In the last chapter, it is proved that the higher commutator can be equivalently defined via a generalization of the two-term condition for the binary commutator.