On left nilpotent skew braces of class 2

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to initiate a detailed structure theory of left nilpotent skew braces $B$ of class $2$, i.e. skew braces with $B^3 = 0$. We prove that if $B$ is of nilpotent type, then $B$ is centrally nilpotent. In fact, we show that $B$ is right nilpotent of class at most $2+mr$, i.e. $B^{(2+mr+1)} = 0$, where $m$ and $r$ are the nilpotency classes of the additive group of $B$ and $B^2$, respectively. If $B$ is of abelian type, then $B$ is actually right nilpotent of class $3$, i.e. $B^{(4)} = 0$, and this bound is best possible.