Date: Fri, 11 Aug 95 09:50:24 BST 
From: George Havas <havas@dcs.st-and.ac.uk>
To: group-pub-forum@maths.Bath.AC.UK
Subject: Central factors of deficiency zero groups
Cc: havas@dcs.st-and.ac.uk

I am pleased to report that Edmund Robertson and I have just finished a paper:

CENTRAL FACTORS OF DEFICIENCY ZERO GROUPS

   Here is our abstract:

We answer a question of some twenty years standing: are the central
factors of nilpotent groups of deficiency zero 3-generated? We provide
a negative answer by giving an explicit presentation for
a 3-generator, 3-relator group of order $2^{17}$ and class 5 which
has central factors which are 4-generated but not 3-generated.
We outline the computational techniques which lead to this result.

Further details, including a complete Technical Report, are available
via my home pages:

wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~havas
www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~havas