NORMAL AUTOMORPHISMS OF A FREE METABELIAN NILPOTENT GROUP

An automorphism φ of a group G is said to be normal if φ(H) = H for each normal subgroup H of G. These automorphisms form a group containing the group of inner automorphisms. When G is a non-abelian free (or free soluble) group, it is known that these groups of automorphisms coincide, but this is not always true when G is a free metabelian nilpotent group. The aim of this paper is to determine the group of normal automorphisms in this last case.

Representations of infinite soluble groups

The purpose of this paper is to study the following two questions.(1) When does the group algebra of a soluble group have infinite dimensional irreducible modules?(2) When is the group algebra of a torsion free soluble group primitive?In relation to the first question, Roseblade [13] has proved that if G is a polycyclic group and k an absolute field then all irreducible kG-modules are finite dimensional. Here we prove a converse.

Cyclically separated groups

We call a group G cyclically separated if for any given cyclic subgroup B in G and subgroup A of finite index in B, there exists a normal subgroup N of G of finite index such that N ∩ B = A. This is equivalent to saying that for each element x ∈ G and integer n ≥ 1 dividing the order o(x) of x, there exists a normal subgroup N of G of finite index such that Nx has order n in G/N. As usual, if x has infinite order then all integers n ≥ 1 are considered to divide o(x). Cyclically separated groups, which are termed “potent groups” by some authors, form a natural subclass of residually finite groups and finite cyclically separated groups also form an interesting class whose structure we are able to describe reasonably well. Construction of finite soluble cyclically separated groups is given explicitly. In the discussion of infinite soluble cyclically separated groups we meet the interesting class of Fitting isolated groups, which is considered in some detail. A soluble group G of finite rank is Fitting isolated if, whenever H = K/L (L ⊲ K ≤ G) is a torsion-free section of G and F(H) is the Fitting subgroup of H then H/F(H) is torsion-free abelian. Every torsion-free soluble group of finite rank contains a Fitting isolated subgroup of finite index.

On the Cohomological Dimension of Soluble Groups

It is known that every torsion-free soluble group G of finite Hirsch number hG is countable, and its homological and cohomological dimensions over the integers and rationals satisfy the inequalitiesWe prove that G must be finitely generated if the equality hG = cdQG holds. Moreover, we show that if G is a countable soluble group of finite Hirsch number, but not necessarily torsion-free, and if hG = cdQG, then hḠ = cdQḠ for every homomorphic image Ḡ of G.