On products of soluble groups of finite rank (Q1068939)

A ''rank function'' f(G) is a mapping of the group G into the set of nonnegative integers such that for all subgroups H and K the following inequality holds: f(G)-f(H\(\cap K)\leq f(H)+f(K)\). It is shown that in a soluble-by-finite minimax group G the minimax length m(G) and for every prime p the \(p^{\infty}\)-rank \(r_ p(G)\) are rank functions. Also, the inequality for these functions is an equality if and only if the subset HK of G contains a subgroup of finite index in G. It follows that every soluble-by-finite minimax group factorized by two abelian-by-finite subgroups is metabelian-by-finite. The torsionfree rank \(r_ 0(G)\) in a soluble-by-finite minimax group G is not a ''rank function''. However every soluble-by-finite group G with finite abelian section rank which has two subgroups H and K such that HK contains a subgroup of finite index in G satisfies the rank equality \(r_ 0(G)+r_ 0(H\cap K)=r_ 0(H)+r_ 0(K)\). The proofs reduce to the case where H and K are complements of an abelian normal subgroup of G; essential parts of the proof depend on facts from algebraic number theory such as Dirichlet's unit theorem.