A note on finitely generated nilpotent groups (Q5937435)

\textit{P. Pickel} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 160, 327-341 (1971; Zbl 0235.20027)] proved that there exist only a finite number of isomorphic classes of finitely generated nilpotent groups which have isomorphic profinite completions. His proof makes essential use of Borel's finiteness results regarding the commensurable finitely generated nilpotent groups and it seems very hard to extend this method to cover other classes of groups. The objective of this paper is to explore another approach, more arithmetic and algebro-geometric, to Pickel's result and to pave the way for the case of non-nilpotent discrete subgroups of algebraic groups. This approach uses some results due to \textit{G. Hochschild} and \textit{G. D. Mostow} [J. Algebra 13, 535-543 (1969; Zbl 0242.20047)] on the structure of the groups of automorphisms of solvable algebraic groups, finiteness theorems due to \textit{A. Borel} and \textit{J.-P. Serre} [Comm. Math. Helv. 39, 111-164 (1964; Zbl 0143.05901)], and also \(p\)-adic Lie theory [\textit{A. Borel}, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 16, 101-126 (1963; Zbl 0135.08902); \textit{M. Lazard}, ibid. 26, 389-603 (1965; Zbl 0139.02302)].