Automorphism groups of polycyclic-by-finite groups and arithmetic groups. (Q859796)

Let \(\Gamma\) be any polycyclic-by-finite group. Let \(\text{Out}(\Gamma)=\Aut(\Gamma)/\text{Inn}(\Gamma)\) be the outer automorphism group of \(\Gamma\). The authors give a detailed description of the groups \(\Aut(\Gamma)\) and \(\text{Out}(\Gamma)\). They prove that \(\text{Out}(\Gamma)\) is an arithmetic group. In contrast, they construct examples of polycyclic-by-finite groups every of which has an automorphism group which even does not contain an arithmetic group of finite index. As an application of these results, an extension of arithmeticity results of Sullivan's in rational homotopy theory is obtained.