Locally nilpotent linear groups with restrictions on their subgroups of infinite central dimension. (Q1014916)

A class \(\mathcal M\) of subgroups of a group \(G\) is said to satisfy the ``weak minimal condition'' if for each descending chain of subgroups \(H_1\geq H_2\geq\cdots\) in \(\mathcal M\) there exists \(n\) such that \(|H_i:H_{i+1}|<\infty\) for all \(i\geq n\). Let \(V\) be an infinite dimensional vector space over a field \(F\), and \(G\) be a subgroup of \(\text{GL}(V)\) with the property that \(\dim_F(V/C_V(G))\) is also infinite. Suppose that the set \(\mathcal M\) of all subgroups \(H\) of \(G\) with \(\dim_F(V/C_V(H))=\infty\) satisfies the weak minimal condition. Then the authors prove that \(G\) is a minimax group in each of the cases: (1) \(G\) is locally nilpotent and non-finitary; or (2) \(G\) is hypercentral and \(\text{char\,}F>0\). Examples show that these theorems are no longer true if ``weak minimal condition'' is replaced by an analogous ``weak maximal condition''.