On the lower central series of the free nilpotent groups of finite rank

Abstract

In their article, “On the derived subgroup of the free nilpotent groups of finite rank” R. D. Blyth, P. Moravec, and R. F. Morse describe the structure of the derived subgroup of a free nilpotent group of finite rank n as a direct product of a nonabelian group and a free abelian group, each with a minimal generating set of cardinality that is a given function of n. They apply this result to computing the nonabelian tensor squares of the free nilpotent groups of finite rank. We generalize their main result to investigate the structure of the other terms of the lower central series of a free nilpotent group of finite rank, each again described as a direct product of a nonabelian group and a free abelian group. In order to compute the ranks of the free abelian components and the size of minimal generating sets for the nonabelian components we introduce what we call weight partitions.