On the closedness of a locally cyclic subgroup in a metabelian group. (Q2352683)

Let \(G\) be a metabelian group and let \(H\leq G\). The dominion of \(H\) is the set of all elements \(a\in G\) such that, for all metabelian \(K\) and for all homomorphisms \(f_1,f_2\colon G\to K\) such that \(f_1(h)=f_2(h)\) for all \(h\in H\) then \(f_1(a)=f_2(a)\). This set is denoted by \(\text{dom}_G^{\text{metab}}(H)\) and \(\text{dom}_G^{\text{metab}}(-)\) is a closure operator on the lattice of subgroups of \(G\), meaning that (i) \(H\leq\text{dom}_G^{\text{metab}}(H)\), (ii) \(\text{dom}_G^{\text{metab}}(\text{dom}_G^{\text{metab}}(H))=\text{dom}_G^{\text{metab}}(H)\), and (iii) \(\text{dom}_G^{\text{metab}}(H_1)\subseteq\text{dom}_G^{\text{metab}}(H_2)\), whenever \(H_1\leq H_2\). The subgroup \(H\) is said to be closed if \(H=\text{dom}_G^{\text{metab}}(H)\). The question then arises as to which subgroups are closed and this paper is concerned with this question. The main theorem is as follows: Let \(G\) be metabelian and suppose that \(H\) is finite cyclic or torsion-free locally cyclic. Suppose that the following conditions hold (a) \(H\leq G'\), (b) \(H^G\) splits into the direct product of certain of the conjugates of \(H\), (c) \(H^G\) is a direct factor of \(G'\). Then \(H\) is closed in \(G\).