Group presentation, p-adic analytic groups and lattices in \(SL_ 2({\mathbb{C}})\) (Q794765)

Let p be a prime. A pro-p group is, by definition, a projective limit of finite p-groups. For every discrete group \(\Gamma\) one has a canonical pro-p completion \(T_{\hat p}\). An adaptation of Roquette's proof of a theorem of Golod and Shafarevich on finite p-groups yields the following generalization: if G is a p-adic analytic pro-p group not isomorphic to \({\mathbb{Z}}_{\hat p}\) with minimal finite presentation \(<X;R>\) (in the category of pro-p groups), then \(4.\#R\geq(\#X)^ 2.\) For a finitely generated discrete group \(\Gamma\) the dimension \(d_ p(\Gamma)\) of the largest p-elementary abelian quotient of \(\Gamma\) equals the minimal cardinality \(d(\Gamma_{\hat p})\) of a (topologically) generating set for \(\Gamma_{\hat p}\). Then from the generalized Golod-Shafarevich theorem the following result is derived: if \(\Gamma\) is a discrete group with finite presentation \(<X;R>\), and if \(\Gamma_{\hat p}\) is p-adic analytic and not isomorphic to \({\mathbb{Z}}_{\hat p}\), then \(\#X-\#R\leq d_ p(\Gamma)-d_ p(\Gamma)^ 2/4,\) i.e., the deficiency \(def(\Gamma)\) of \(\Gamma\) is at most \(d_ p(\Gamma)-d_ p(\Gamma)^ 2/4.\) To apply this result sufficient criteria for \(\Gamma\) are sought in order that \(\Gamma_{\hat p}\) be p-adic analytic. One such criterion is that \(\Gamma\) be polycyclic-by-finite. An application of this criterion is that for any non-trivial finitely generated nilpotent group \(\Gamma\) not isomorphic to \({\mathbb{Z}}\) or \({\mathbb{Z}}\times {\mathbb{Z}}\) with minimal presentation \(<X;R>\) the inequalities \(4.\#R>(\#X)^ 2,\quad def(\Gamma)<1\) hold. Another sufficient criterion is that \(\Gamma\) is an arithmetic subgroup with the so-called congruence subgroup property with respect to a simply connected simple algebraic group over an algebraic number field. The final two sections contain some results on the deficiency of lattices in semisimple Lie groups with real rank 1 and a proof of the fact that no arithmetic lattice in \(SL_ 2({\mathbb{C}})\) has the congruence subgroup property.