Several aspects of relations between braces and non-degenerate involutive set-theoretic solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation are discussed and many consequences are derived. In particular, for each positive integer n a finite square-free multipermutation solution of the Yang-Baxter equation with multipermutation level n and an abelian involutive Yang-Baxter group is constructed. This answers a problem of Gateva-Ivanova and Cameron. It is also proved that finite non-degenerate involutive settheoretic solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation whose associated involutive Yang-Baxter group is abelian are retractable in the sense of Etingof, Schedler and Soloviev. Earlier the authors proved this with the additional square-free hypothesis on the solutions. Retractability of solutions is also proved for finite square-free non-degenerate involutive set-theoretic solutions associated to a left brace.

We study series of left ideals of skew left braces that are analogs of upper central series of groups. These concepts allow us to define left and right nilpotent skew left braces. Several results related to these concepts are proved and applications to infinite left braces are given. Indecomposable solutions of the Yang–Baxter equation are explored using the structure of skew left braces.

Abstract. In 1992 Drinfeld posed the question of finding the set-theoretic solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation. Recently, Gateva-Ivanova and Van den Bergh and Etingof, Schedler and Soloviev have shown a group-theoretical interpretation of involutive non-degenerate solutions. Namely, there is a oneto-one correspondence between involutive non-degenerate solutions on finite sets and groups of I-type. A group G of I-type is a group isomorphic to a subgroup of Fa n Sym n so that the projection onto the first component is a bijective map, where Fa n is the free abelian group of rank n and Sym n is the symmetric group of degree n. The projection of G onto the second component Sym n we call an involutive Yang-Baxter group (IYB group). This suggests the following strategy to attack Drinfeld's problem for involutive nondegenerate set-theoretic solutions. First classify the IYB groups and second, for a given IYB group G, classify the groups of I-type with G as associated IYB group. It is known that every IYB group is solvable. In this paper some results supporting the converse of this property are obtained. More precisely, we show that some classes of groups are IYB groups. We also give a non-obvious method to construct infinitely many groups of I-type (and hence infinitely many involutive non-degenerate set-theoretic solutions of the YangBaxter equation) with a prescribed associated IYB group.

Given a left brace G, a method to construct all the involutive, nondegenerate set-theoretic solutions (Y, s) of the YBE, such that G(Y, s) ∼ = G is given. This method depends entirely on the brace structure of G.

It is shown that square free set theoretic involutive non-degenerate solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation whose associated permutation group (referred to as an involutive Yang-Baxter group) is abelian are retractable in the sense of Etingof, Schedler and Soloviev. This solves a problem of Gateva-Ivanova in the case of abelian IYB groups. It also implies that the corresponding finitely presented abelian-by-finite groups (called the structure groups) are poly-Z groups. Secondly, an example of a solution with an abelian involutive Yang-Baxter group which is not a generalized twisted union is constructed. This answers in the negative another problem of Gateva-Ivanova. The constructed solution is of multipermutation level 3. Retractability of solutions is also proved in the case where the natural generators of the IYB group are cyclic permutations. Moreover, it is shown that such solutions are generalized twisted unions.