Residually nilpotent fundamental groups of compact Sol-3-manifolds (Q530265)

One of the eight Thurston 3-dimensional geometries is the SOL geometry. A 3-manifold which arises as the quotient under a cocompact discrete group of SOL-isometries is called a SOL manifold. Such a group of isometries, which is isomorphic to the fundamental group of the SOL manifold, is studied in this paper. In particular, criteria for the residual nilpotence of these groups is given. A group is residually nilpotent if and only if the intersection of its lower central series is the trivial subgroup consisting of just the identity element. The analysis is given in terms of a 2 by 2 integral matrix associated to a certain representation of the full isometry group. Similar results are given for the question of when these groups are residually \(p\)-finite groups, a stronger condition.