Torsion-free soluble groups, completions, and the zero divisor conjecture (Q1117009)

The class of locally indicable groups has played a noticeable role in the history of the Zero Divisor Conjecture (ZTC). Torsion-free metabelian-by- finite groups need not be locally indicable but they satisfy a generalized form of this property: Let G be a finitely generated torsion- free metabelian-by-finite group and N be some of its normal subgroups of finite index. Then there exists a normal subgroup K in G, \(K\subseteq N\), such that G/K is torsion-free of finite rank; it is known, that within this last class of groups various notions of finite rank coincide. This result (Th.A) with the following fact (Th.D1) - the group ring of a torsion-free soluble group of finite rank over any field of characteristic zero is a domain - imply that the group ring k[G] of any torsion-free soluble group G of derived length \(\leq 3\) over a field k of characteristic zero is a domain. The authors assert this last result (Th.D) having been their main motivation until the time the paper was first submitted (June 86). Further, the completion \(k[G]^{\wedge}\doteq \lim_{\leftarrow}k[G]/\Delta^ i\) of the group ring of a polycyclic pro-p-group G over a field k of characteristic \(p>0\) is considered. In section 4, using the results of the first of the authors [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 52, 495-516 (1986; Zbl 0633.14024)], it is proved: \(k[G]^{\wedge}\) is a Noetherian local ring which in the case of G being torsionfree is a domain with finite global dimension; from this result follows Th. D1. Since then \textit{J. A. Moody}'s results in K-theory [Thesis, Univ. Columbia (1986)] have made it possible for the authors in cooperation with Moody to give a complete solution of ZTC for all soluble groups. However, this well-written paper gives another way (by methods of inverse limits and completions) to derive the above-mentioned special case of ZTC, that is to prove Th.D.