Groups with multiplicative subgroup growth (Q5935805)

Let \(G\) be a finitely generated profinite group and \(a_n(G)\) the number of open subgroups of index \(n\). In this paper the author considers the question, to what extend multiplicativity of \(a_n(G)\) determines the structure of \(G\). In fact, the author considers also the number \(a_n^\triangleleft(G)\) of normal subgroups of index \(n\) and even more general the number \(a_n^A\) of \(A\)-invariant subgroups of index \(n\) of \(G\), where \(A\) is a subgroup of \(\Aut(G)\). The following results are proved in the paper. Theorem 1. Let \(G\) be a finitely generated profinite group. Then the following statements are equivalent: 1. \(G\) is pronilpotent. 2. For any \(A\), \(a_n^A(G)\) is multiplicative. 3. There is some \(A\) with \(\text{Inn}(G)\leq A\leq\Aut(G)\), such that \(a_n^A(G)\) is submultiplicative. 4. \(G\) is prosolvable, and there is some \(A\) which fixes all \(p'\)-Hall groups of \(G\), such that \(\text{Inn}(G)\leq N_{\Aut(G)}(A)\) and \(a_n^A\) is multiplicative. Theorem 2. Let \(G\) be a finitely generated profinite group. Assume that every even \(n\) with at least 3 distinct prime factors can be written as \(n=dt\) with \((d,t)=1\) and \(d>1\), \(t>1\), such that \(a_n^\triangleleft(G)=a_d^\triangleleft(G)a_t^\triangleleft(G)\). Then \(G\) is prosolvable. Theorem 3. Let \(G\) be a finitely generated profinite group. 1. Let \(n=\prod p_i^{e_i}\) be the prime factorization of \(n\). Assume that for every \(i\neq j\) we have \(p_i\nmid(p_j^{e_j})(p_j^{e_j-1})\cdots(p_j-1)\). Then \(a_n^\triangleleft(G)=\prod a_{p_i^{e_i}}^\triangleleft(G)\). 2. If \(G\) is prosolvable, then 1. is true with \(a_n(G)\) instead of \(a_n^\triangleleft(G)\). 3. Let \(p\) be a prime, \(n\) an integer, such that \((n,p(p-1))=1\) and \(n\) has no divisor \(d\equiv 1\pmod p\). Then \(a_{pn}^\triangleleft(G)=a_p^\triangleleft(G)a_n^\triangleleft(G)\). As an application the author determines all groups with monotonic growth. Theorem 4. Let \(G\) be a finitely generated profinite group. Assume that \(a_n^\triangleleft(G)\) is monotonic. Then \(G\) is trivial, cyclic of order \(2\) or infinite cyclic.