Assouad-Nagata dimension of connected Lie groups (Q1936621)

This paper deals with (asymptotic) metric-dependent dimension functions, the most general of which is the asymptotic dimension, \(\operatorname{asdim}\). One says \(\operatorname{asdim}(X,d)\leq n\) if there is an increasing function \(D:(0,\infty)\to (0,\infty)\) such that, for every \(s>0\), there is an \((n+1)\)-element open cover \(\mathcal{U}\) such that every \(s\)-scale component of every member of \(\mathcal{U}\) has diameter at most \(D(s)\) (\(x\) and \(y\) are in the same \(s\)-scale component of \(U\) if there is a finite sequence \(\langle x_i:i\leq k\rangle\) of points in \(U\) such that \(x_0=x\), \(x_k=y\) and \(d(x_i,x_{i+1})<s\) whenever \(i<n\)). The Assouad-Nagata dimension results if \(D\) is taken to be linear, i.e., \(D(s)=C\cdot s\) for some constant \(C\); if \(D\) is taken affine, i.e., of the form \(D(s)=C\cdot s+k\) for some \(C\) and \(k\), then one gets the asymptotic Assouad-Nagata dimension \(\operatorname{asdim_{AN}}\). The main result of the paper states that, if \(G\) is a connected Lie group with a left-invariant Riemannian metric, then \(\operatorname{asdim_{AN}}G=\dim G/C\), where \(\dim\) is the covering dimension and \(C\) is a maximal compact subgroup. A by-product of the investigation is the result that, for a polycyclic group with its word-length metric, the dimension \(\operatorname{asdim_{AN}}\) is equal to its Hirsch-length.