Vaughan-Lee’s nilpotent loop of size 12 is finitely based

Abstract

From work of Vaughan-Lee in [12] it follows that if a finite nilpotent loop splits into a direct product of factors of prime power order, then its equational theory has a finite basis. Whether the condition on the direct decomposition is necessary has remained open since. In the same paper, Vaughan-Lee gives an explicit example of a nilpotent loop of order 12 that does not factor into loops of prime power order and asks whether it is finitely based. We give a finite basis for his example by explicitly characterizing its term functions. This also allows us to show that the subpower membership problem for this loop can be solved in polynomial time.