English

Index-stable compact $p$-adic analytic groups

Group Theory 2020-07-21 v2

Abstract

A profinite group is index-stable if any two isomorphic open subgroups have the same index. Let pp be a prime, and let GG be a compact pp-adic analytic group with associated Qp\mathbb{Q}_p-Lie algebra L(G)\mathcal{L}(G). We prove that GG is index-stable whenever L(G)\mathcal{L}(G) is semisimple. In particular, a just-infinite compact pp-adic analytic group is index-stable if and only if it is not virtually abelian. Within the category of compact pp-adic analytic groups, this gives a positive answer to a question of C. Reid. In the Appendix, J-P. Serre proves that GG is index-stable if and only if the determinant of any automorphism of L(G)\mathcal{L}(G) has pp-adic norm 1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2006.08000,
  title  = {Index-stable compact $p$-adic analytic groups},
  author = {Francesco Noseda and Ilir Snopce and Jean-Pierre Serre},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.08000},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Main body by F. Noseda and I. Snopce. Added: Appendix by J-P. Serre; Remark after Theorem 1; Theorem 9; Remark 10; Corollary 11. Modified: abstract

R2 v1 2026-06-23T16:19:00.591Z