Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
For every field F of characteristic p ≥ 0, we construct an example of a finite dimensional nilpotent F-algebra R whose adjoint group A(R) is not centreby- metabelian, in spite of the fact that R is Lie centre-by-metabelian and satisfies the identities x2p = 0 when p > 2 and x8 > 0 when p = 2. The existence of such algebras answers a question raised by A. E. Zalesskii, and is in contrast to positive results obtained by Krasilnikov, Sharma and Srivastava for Lie metabelian rings and by Smirnov for the class Lie centre-by-metabelian nil-algebras of exponent 4 over a field of characteristic 2 of cardinality at least 4.