The Auslander conjecture for NIL-affine crystallographic groups. (Q1777256)

The paper deals with a generalization of Auslander's conjecture, as follows. Let \(N\) be a nilpotent simply connected, connected Lie group and let \(\text{Aff}(N)\) be the semidirect product \(\text{Aff}(N)=N\rtimes\Aut(N)\). The group \(\text{Aff}(N)\) acts on \(N\) in the natural way. A subgroup \(\Gamma\) of \(\text{Aff}(N)\) is called NIL-crystallographic if the action of \(\Gamma\) on \(N\) is crystallographic, i.e., properly discontinuous and with compact orbit space. The generalized Auslander conjecture states that every NIL-crystallographic group \(\Gamma\) is virtually polycyclic. The usual Auslander conjecture is the special case that \(N\) is the Abelian group \(\mathbb{R}^n\). This is settled for special cases only, e.g., for \(n\leq 6\) (announced by \textit{H. Abels, G. A. Margulis}, and \textit{G. A. Soifer} [C. R.~Acad.~Sci., Paris, Sér.~I 324, No. 3, 253-258 (1997; Zbl 0933.22015)]). In the paper under review the generalized Auslander conjecture is proved for \(\dim N\leq 5\). Concerning the converse, \textit{K. Dekimpe} proved [Topology 42, No. 4, 821-832 (2003; Zbl 1036.20044)] that every torsion free virtually polycyclic group \(\Gamma\) has an embedding \(\sigma\colon\Gamma\to\text{Aff}(N)\) for some \(N\) as above, such that \(\sigma(\Gamma)\) is crystallographic. Thus, a proof of the generalized Auslander conjecture would provide a complete geometric description of the class of virtually polycyclic groups, or stated differently, a complete algebraic description of the class of NIL-affine crystallographic groups.