On Dedekind Skew Braces

Abstract Skew braces play a central role in the theory of set-theoretic non-degenerate solutions of the Yang–Baxter equation, since their algebraic properties significantly affect the behaviour of the corresponding solutions (see for example [Ballester-Bolinches et al., Adv. Math. 455 (2024), 109880]). Recently, the study of nilpotency-like conditions for the solutions of the Yang–Baxter equation has drawn attention to skew braces of abelian type in which every substructure is an ideal (so-called, Dedekind skew braces); see for example [Ballester-Bolinches et al., Result Math. 80 (2025), Article Number 21]. The aim of this paper is not only to show that the hypothesis that the skew brace is of abelian type can be dropped in essentially all the known results in this context, but also to extend this theory to skew braces whose additive or multiplicative groups are locally cyclic (and, more generally, of finite rank). Our main results — which are in fact much more general than stated here — are as follows: Every finite Dedekind skew brace is centrally nilpotent. Every hypermultipermutational Dedekind skew brace with torsion-free additive group is trivial. We characterize skew braces whose additive or multiplicative group is locally cyclic. If a set-theoretic non-degenerate solution of the Yang–Baxter equation whose structure skew brace is Dedekind and fixes the diagonal elements, then such a solution must be the twist solution.