On the cohomology of polycyclic-by-finite groups (Q1072623)

Let k[G] be the group algebra of a polycyclic-by-finite group G over the field k. The author shows that \(H^*(G,V)=\oplus_{n\geq 0}H^ n(G,V)\) is a noethrian module over the cohomology ring \(H^*(G,R)\) under the action of the cup product. This result for finite groups was obtained by \textit{L. Evens} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 101, 224-239 (1961; Zbl 0104.251)] using the Hochschild-Serre spectral sequence. The author proves his generalization using similar tools and Evans' result. In the second section, the author adds the assumption that G has no non- trivial finite normal subgroups. Then k[G] is prime. He shows that, if V is a finitely generated k[G] module and \(P_ G(V;t)=\sum_{n\geq 0}\dim_ kH^ n(G,V)t^ n\), then the power series \(P_ G(V;t)\) can be summed, and in particular, \(P_ G(V;-1)=(-1)^ hp(V)/p(k[G])\) where h is the Hirsch number of G and p(\(\cdot)\) denotes the Goldie rank.