Topological invariants of groups and Koszul modules

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We provide a uniform vanishing result for the graded components of the finite length Koszul module associated to a subspace K⊆∧2V as well as a sharp upper bound for its Hilbert function. This purely algebraic statement has interesting applications to the study of a number of invariants associated to finitely generated groups, such as the Alexander invariants, the Chen ranks, and the degree of growth and virtual nilpotency class. For instance, we explicitly bound the aforementioned invariants in terms of the first Betti number for the maximal metabelian quotients of (1) the Torelli group associated to the moduli space of curves, (2) nilpotent fundamental groups of compact Kähler manifolds, and (3) the Torelli group of a free group.