Linear pro-\(p\)-groups of finite width (Q1374001)

Pro-\(p\) groups of finite width are studied in the book. A pro-\(p\) group \(G\) is said to be of finite width if \[ \max_i\log_p(|\gamma_i(G)/\gamma_{i+1}(G)|) \] is finite. The book is very well written and is a nice complement to the book ``Analytic pro-\(p\) groups'' by \textit{J. D. Dixon, M. P. F. du Sautoy, A. Mann} and \textit{D. Segal} (1991; Zbl 0744.20002). The authors concentrate their attention on just infinite pro-\(p\) groups of finite width. A pro-\(p\) group is just infinite if every of its proper quotients is finite. Every finitely generated pro-\(p\) group has a just infinite quotient. So just infinite pro-\(p\) groups play, in a certain sense, a similar role in the theory of pro-\(p\) groups that is played by simple groups in the theory of finite groups. Well-known examples of just infinite pro-\(p\) groups are pro-\(p\) groups commensurable with \(\text{GL}_n(\mathbb{Z}_p)\). These groups are \(p\)-adic analytic. The authors split the class of just infinite pro-\(p\) groups of finite width into four types: soluble ones; \(p\)-adic analytic ones; those which are not \(p\)-adic analytic, but are linear over the field of power series \(\mathbb{F}_p((t))\); the rest, i.e. those which are not linear over \(\mathbb{Q}_p\) or \(\mathbb{F}_p((t))\). The soluble ones can be described as groups \(G\) with a finitely generated free abelian normal subgroup \(N\) such that \(G/N\) is finite and acts faithfully and irreducibly on \(N\). The authors deal mainly with groups in the second class in the book. One can attach a \(\mathbb{Q}_p\)-Lie algebra to a group from this class. This makes Lie-algebra methods available as the main technical tool of the book. The groups of the third type, i.e. linear pro-\(p\) groups over \(\mathbb{F}_p((t))\) are treated together with the groups of the second type, whenever it needs no extra efforts. In fact this type of groups gives rise to uncountably many just infinite pro-\(p\) groups of finite width as proved in Chapter XIII. Only two classes of the fourth type of groups are known. The profinite completion of the famous residually finite \(2\)-groups constructed by Grigorchuk and the class of the so called Nottingham groups. All these groups share many properties, e.g. they are very large, more precisely, they contain every countably based pro-\(p\) group. However, in contrast to the examples constructed by Grigorchuk, Nottingham groups are hereditary just infinite, i.e. every open subgroup is just infinite as well. The book is concluded with a list of open problems on just infinite pro-\(p\) groups of finite width.