Extensions realising a faithful abstract kernel and their automorphisms (Q1340230)

The objective of the paper is the determination and computation of the automorphism resp. outer automorphism groups \(\text{Aut} (E, N)\) resp. \(\text{Out} (E,N)\) (of automorphisms of \(E\) mapping \(N\) to itself), where \(1 \to N \to E \to F \to 1\) is a group extension for which the corresponding abstract kernel \(F \to \text{Out} (N)\) is faithful. The main application in mind is the case of almost crystallographic groups where \(N\) is a maximal nilpotent group of finite index in \(E\); in particular, in this case \(N\) is a characteristic subgroup of \(E\) and consequently \(\text{Out} (E,N) = \text{Out} (E)\). The description of \(\text{Out} (E,N)\) given in the paper is in terms of certain commutative \((3 \times 3)\)-diagrams; it uses certain aspects of group cohomology with nonabelian coefficients (recall that the elements of the second cohomology describe group extensions). If \(N\) is an abelian group this reduces to ordinary cohomology, and similar diagrams have been obtained by Charlap-Vasquez in the case of crystallographic groups (where \(N \cong \mathbb{Z}^n\) and \(F\) is finite) and by Conner-Raymond for the fundamental groups of more general Seifert fiber spaces, with typical fiber the \(n\)-dimensional torus. As an example for the more general case considered, the computation of \(\text{Out}(E)\) for a family of 3-dimensional almost crystallographic groups is given (and the computation for all almost crystallographic groups in dimensions \(\leq 4\) is announced). Also, a geometric interpretation of the terms in the 9-diagrams is discussed when \(E\) is the fundamental group of a \(K(E,1)\)-manifold obtained by a generalized Seifert construction.