Margulis lemma for compact Lie groups (Q2465401)

Margulis lemma asserts that there exists a neighbourhood \(U\) of the identity of a connected Lie group \(G\) such that if \(\Gamma\) is any discrete subgroup of \(G\), then \(\Gamma\cap U\) generates a nilpotent group. This property can be generalized in various ways and has important consequences, e.g. in Riemannian geometry. A motivation of the present paper is asking when \(\Gamma\cap U\) generates an abelian group. The main result (Theorem A) states that for a compact connected Lie group \(G\) there is a neighbourhood \(U\) of the identity such that for any finite subgroup \(\Gamma\), \(\Gamma\cap U\) generates an abelian group \(A\). Moreover, it is shown that for each \(n\), there exists an integer \(w(n)>0\), such that if \(H\) is a closed subgroup of an \(n\)-dimensional compact connected Lie group \(G\), then the quotient, \(H/H_0\), has an abelian subgroup of index \(\leq w(n)\), where \(H_0\) is the identity component of \(H\) (Theorem B). A corollary of this result is that the fundamental group of a homogeneous space \(G/H\), with \(G\) compact connected of dimension \(n\), has an abelian subgroup of index \(\leq w(n)\). Next, the authors apply these results to Riemannian geometry. Namely, given an integer \(n\) and \(v > 0\), there is a constant \(w(n, v) > 0\) such that if a closed \(n\)-manifold \(M\) has nonnegative sectional curvature (or more generally almost nonnegative sectional curvature), unit diameter and the volume at some point in the Riemannian universal covering of \(M\) is greater than or equal to \(v>0\), then the fundamental group of \(M\) contains an abelian subgroup of index \(\leq w(n, v)\).