Counterexamples to a rank analog of the Shepherd-Leedham-Green-Mckay theorem on finite p-groups of maximal nilpotency class

By the Shepherd-Leedham-Green-McKay theorem on finite p-groups of maximal nilpotency class, if a finite p-group of order p n has nilpotency class n−1, then f has a subgroup of nilpotency class at most 2 with index bounded in terms of p. Some counterexamples to a rank analog of this theorem are constructed that give a negative solution to Problem 16.103 in The Kourovka Notebook. Moreover, it is shown that there are no functions r(p) and l(p) such that any finite 2-generator p-group whose all factors of the lower central series, starting from the second, are cyclic would necessarily have a normal subgroup of derived length at most l(p) with quotient of rank at most r(p). The required examples of finite p-groups are constructed as quotients of torsion-free nilpotent groups which are abstract 2-generator subgroups of torsion-free divisible nilpotent groups that are in the Mal’cev correspondence with “truncated” Witt algebras.