On \(p\)-saturable groups. (Q2460000)

\textit{M. Lazard}, in his paper [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 26, 389-603 (1965; Zbl 0139.02302)] from 1965, gave a group theoretic characterization for a topological group to be \(p\)-adic analytic. Namely he proved that a topological group is \(p\)-adic analytic if and only if it has an open \(p\)-saturable subgroup. The group-theoretic aspects of his work were taken up and reinterpreted in the 1980s by Lubotzky and Mann. Starting with their concept of uniformly powerful pro-\(p\) groups they reconstructed most of the group-theoretic consequences of Lazard's theory without any heavy `analytic' machinery. A uniformly powerful pro-\(p\) group is \(p\)-saturable but not vice versa as \textit{B. Klopsch} showed [in Math. Z. 249, No. 4, 713-730 (2005; Zbl 1065.22005)]. In this paper the author gives a new group theoretic characterization of \(p\)-saturable groups. A pro-\(p\) group \(G\) is called a PF-group if it has a central series of closed subgroups \(N_1\geq N_2\geq\cdots\) with \(\bigcap_{i=1}^\infty N_i=1\) and \([N_i,\undersetbrace{(p-1)\text{-times}}\to{G,\dots,G}]\leq N_{i+1}^p\). Then the main theorem of the paper is the following Theorem. Let \(G\) be a torsion-free finitely generated pro-\(p\) group. Then the following conditions are equivalent: (1) \(G\) is a \(p\)-saturable group; (2) \(G\) is a PF-group; (3) the quotient \(G/\Phi(G)^p\) is a PF-group, where \(\Phi(G)\) is the Frattini subgroup. This theorem combined with Lazard's isomorphism between the category of \(p\)-saturable groups and the category of \(p\)-saturable Lie algebras allows the author to deduce the correspondence between certain families of subgroups of \(G\) and ideals of the corresponding Lie algebra \(L\) of \(G\). In particular it is proved that lower central series of \(G\) and \(L\) coincide, that \(G\) is nilpotent if and only if \(L\) is nilpotent, and that \(G\) is solvable if and only if \(L\) is solvable. Finally the author proves that most normal subgroups of a \(p\)-saturable group are again \(p\)-saturable. Theorem. Let \(G\) be a \(p\)-saturable group and \(N\) a closed normal subgroup of \(G\). Then: (1) If \(N\) is contained in \(\Phi(G)\), then \(N\) is \(p\)-saturable; (2) \(N\) is a Lie subalgebra of \({\mathcal G}\) if and only if \(N^p=\{n^p\mid n\in\mathbb{N}\}\).