Isometry groups of singular spaces (Q1329035)

We discuss the group of isometries of a finite dimensional inner metric space whose curvature (in Alexandrov's sense) is never \(\infty\). (Such a space can be singular.) Our main result asserts that the isometry group of such a space is a Lie group. Namely we prove that it contains no smaller group. We combine this result with a (minor) modification of our generalized Margulis' Lemma in ``The fundamental groups of almost nonnegatively curved manifold'' [Ann. Math., II. Ser. 136, No. 2, 253-333 (1992; Zbl 0770.53028)] and get a finiteness theorem of isomorphism classes of fundamental groups of Riemannian manifolds under the assumption of lower sectional curvature bound.