Nilpotent Lie groups admitting a left invariant structure (Q5944928)

The problem of determining the class of Lie groups admitting a left invariant affine structure arises naturally in several topological settings [for example, \textit{J. Milnor}, Adv. Math. 25, 178-187 (1977; Zbl 0364.55001)]. In this context, Auslander formulated the conjecture that every such Lie group which is in addition nilpotent and simply transitive has to have a one-dimensional subgroup of translations in its center [\textit{L. Auslander}, Am. J. Math. 99, 809-821 (1977; Zbl 0357.22006)]. The first example of a nilpotent affine simply transitive Lie group without translations in dimension \(4\) is due to Fried [\textit{D. Fried}, J. Differ. Geom. 24, 265-273 (1986; Zbl 0608.53026)]. In their note, the authors study the class of filiform Lie groups admitting a left invariant affine structure (a Lie group is called filiform if the nilpotency index of its Lie algebra is maximal) and show that odd-dimensional ones always satisfy the Auslander conjecture, whereas they construct counterexamples in all even dimensions \(n>2\).