Exponential radicals of solvable Lie groups (Q1599098)

For any connected Lie group \(G\), we consider the metric induced by some left-invariant Riemannian structure on \(G\). An element \(g\) of \(G\) is said to be strictly exponentially distorted in \(G\) if the length of \(g^n\) in \(G\) grows as \(\log(|n|+ 1)\). The author defines the exponential radical \(\text{Exp}(G)\) of \(G\) as the set of all strictly exponentially distorted elements of \(G\). Then, the main results of this paper are as follows. Let \(G\) be a connected simply-connected solvable Lie group, and let \(N\) be the maximal connected normal nilpotent subgroup of \(G\). We have: (1) \(\text{Exp}(G)\subseteq N\), (2) \(\text{Exp}(G)\) is a connected normal Lie subgroup in \(G\), (3) \(\text{Exp}(G)\) is strictly exponentially distorted in \(G\), (4) \(\text{Exp}(G/\text{Exp}(G))= \{1\}\). The author applies these results to study the relative growth functions of subgroups in polycyclic groups. Let \(\Gamma\) be a group generated by a finite set \(X\) and let \(\Pi\) be a subgroup of \(\Gamma\). Then the relative growth function of \(\Pi\) is defined by the formula \(\gamma^\Gamma_\Pi(n)= \# \{g\in\Pi\mid \|g\|_X\leq n\}\), where \(\|g\|_X\) denotes the word length of \(g\) with respect to \(X\). Further, given two functions \(f,g:\mathbb{N}\to \mathbb{N}\), we put \(f\preceq g\) if there exist constants \(c, k>0\) such that \(f(n)\leq cg(kn)\). We say that \(f\) is equivalent to \(g\) and write \(f\sim g\) if \(f\preceq g\) and \(g\preceq f\). A function \(f\) is said to be polynomial if \(f\preceq n^d\) for some \(d\in\mathbb{N}\). If \(f\sim 2^n\), we say that \(f\) is exponential. Now let \(\Gamma\) be a polycyclic group and let \(\Pi\) be a subgroup \(\Gamma\). Then the relative growth of \(\Pi\) is shown to be either polynomial or exponential.