On the degree of polynomial subgroup growth of nilpotent groups (Q2105847)

For a finitely generated group \(G\) let \[ \zeta^\leq_G (s) = {\sum'}_{H\leq G} [G:H]^{-s} \] and \[ \zeta^\triangleleft_G (s) = {\sum'}_{H\triangleleft G} [G:H]^{-s}, \] where \(\sum'\) indicates summation over subgroups (respectively normal subgroups) of \(G\) whose index \([G:H]\) is finite. If \(R\) is a ring, the functions \(\zeta^\leq_R (s)\) and \(\zeta^\triangleleft_R (s)\) are defined in a similar manner, as sums over subrings and (two-sided) ideals of \(R\). In particular \(\zeta^\triangleleft_R (s)\) is a generalisation of Dedekind's zeta function. The present paper studies two quantities that describe the basic analytic properties of such zeta functions, denoted as: \begin{itemize} \item[(a)] the abscissa of convergence, and \item[(b)] the order of the pole at \(s=\alpha\), \end{itemize} with appropriate decoration to denote the structure and flavour of the zeta function considered. After giving an account of previous results, the author shows (Theorem A) that if \(N\) is a non-abelian, finitely generated, torsion-free, nilpotent group of Hirsch length \(h\) and nilpotency class \(c\), then \[ \alpha^\leq_N \leq \begin{cases} h-\frac12,& c=2,\\ h-\frac1{c-1},& c>2, \end{cases} \] and \[ \alpha^\triangleleft_N \leq h-1. \] The author also studies the relationship of the abscissae for arithmetic subgroups of isomorphic unipotent group schemes (Theorem B) and for various tensor products involving rings additively isomorphic to \({\mathbb Z}^h\) (Theorems C, D and E).