Some residual properties of locally nilpotent groups. (Q2431548)

The main result of this article is the following: Let \(G\) be a locally nilpotent subgroup of \(\text{GL}(n,F)\), for \(F\) a (commutative) field and \(n\) a positive integer. (i) If \(\text{char}(F)=0\), then (a) \(G\) is nilpotent-divisible by residually-of-finite-exponent and (b) \(G\) is unipotent (thus torsion-free-nilpotent) divisible by residually-periodic; (ii) If \(\text{char}(F)>0\), then (a) \(G\) is Abelian-divisible by residually-of-finite-exponent and (b) \(G\) is residually periodic. A consequence is given for locally nilpotent subgroups of \(\Aut_RM\), where \(M\) is a Noetherian or Artinian module over the commutative ring \(R\). Many counterexamples show how the statement can not be extended.