Factor Spaces of Solvable Groups

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the topological structure of solvmanifolds i.e. spaces on which solvable Lie groups of transformations act transitively. The special case of nilmanifolds in which the group of transformations is nilpotent has been studied by Malcev [5]. Examples of two dimensional solvmanifolds are the torus, Klein bottle, cylinder, mobius strip. The central results are THEOREM A. Two compact solvmanifolds having the same fundamental group are isomorphic. THEOREM B. Any solvmanifold is covered a finite number of times by the direct product of a compact solvmanifold and a euclidean space; moreover, the covering group is abelian. THEOREM C. If S is an algebraically subgroup (cf. ?9 for definition) of the solvable Lie group G, then G/S is homeomorphic to the direct product of a compact solvmanifold and a euclidean space. Theorem C applies for example, if S is a closed subgroup which is generated by its connected identity-component together with elements s1, s2, -such that all the eigenvalues of Adsi are positive (i = 1, 2, * ). The assertion in Theorem A, applied to nilmanifolds, was proved by Malcev [5]. The situation in that case is simplified by virtue of the fact that two nilpotent groups which operate transitively and effectively on spaces with same fundamental group are isomorphic-a fact which is not true in the case of general solvmanifolds. Accordingly, there is a natural homeomorphism between nilmanifolds with isomorphic fundamental groups but there is no natural homeomorphism in the case of solvmanifolds. In the absence of uniqueness, therefore, proof of the existence of the homeomorphisin in Theorem A is rather elusive. After a number of algebraic maneuvers, proof of Theorem A is reduced to comparing two fibre bundles over homeomorphic toroids-the fibres being the orbits of transformation groups which are isomorphic as abstract topological groups. The main topological lemma asserts the existence of an equivariant homeomorphism between the two bundles. The major algebraic fact which underlies our method is the theorem of ?5 on uniform subgroups of solvable groups. In Theorem B, the covering need not be univalent-as is illustrated by the mobius band. The sufficiency condition in Theorem C yields as a special case a result of Chevalley: the factor space of a solvable Lie group by a connected subgroup is a product of circles and straight lines. Theorem A yields more generally