The Small Index Property for Free Nilpotent Groups

Let F be a relatively free algebra of infinite rank ?. We say that F has the small index property if any subgroup of Γ = Aut(F) of index at most ? contains the pointwise stabilizer Γ_(U) of a subset U of F of cardinality less than ?. We prove that every infinitely generated free nilpotent/abelian group has the small index property, and discuss a number of applications.