English

Automorphisms and monomorphisms of direct products of virtually solvable minimax groups

Group Theory 2026-04-29 v2

Abstract

This paper studies automorphisms and monomorphisms of direct products Γ=Γ1××Γr\Gamma=\Gamma_1\times\cdots\times\Gamma_r of finitely generated virtually solvable minimax groups, a class containing all virtually polycyclic groups. Under an indecomposability assumption on the Q\mathbb Q-algebraic hulls, we prove that every monomorphism of Γ\Gamma factorizes uniquely as φ=θζ\varphi=\theta\cdot\zeta, where θ\theta sends each factor into a permuted factor with Q\mathbb Q-isomorphic hull and ζ\zeta is central and off-diagonal. Conversely, every such pair defines a monomorphism of Γ\Gamma, and φ\varphi is an automorphism if and only if θ\theta is. This indecomposability assumption is sharp: we show it cannot be weakened to direct indecomposability of the factors. The proof proceeds in three steps: first by establishing the corresponding central mixing property for finite-dimensional Lie algebras and algebraic Lie algebras, then for connected linear algebraic groups, and finally by transferring these results to minimax groups via Q\mathbb Q-algebraic hulls. This extends the previously known nilpotent case both from automorphisms to monomorphisms and from finitely generated torsion-free nilpotent groups to the broader class of finitely generated virtually solvable minimax groups. As applications, we characterize co-Hopfian direct products and derive formulas for Reidemeister numbers and Reidemeister spectra.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.24167,
  title  = {Automorphisms and monomorphisms of direct products of virtually solvable minimax groups},
  author = {Jonas Deré and Ken Vandermeersch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.24167},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

v1: 34 pages. v2: 30 pages; simplified proofs, weaker assumption on the hulls, and new counterexamples demonstrating sharpness