On the transfer reducibility of certain Farrell-Hsiang groups (Q894962)

By \textit{A. C. Bartels} et al. [J. Am. Math. Soc. 27, No. 2, 339--388 (2014; Zbl 1307.18012)] virtually poly-\(\mathbb{Z}\)-groups satisfy the Farrell--Jones conjecture. This result was obtained using the Farrell--Hsiang method from \textit{A. Bartels} and \textit{W. Lück} [Math. Ann. 354, No. 1, 209--226 (2012; Zbl 1298.18010)]. In this article, the author gives a proof that virtually poly-\(\mathbb{Z}\)-groups satisfy the Farrell--Jones conjecture using only standard inheritance properties of the conjecture and the concept of transfer reducibility which was also used to prove the Farrell--Jones conjecture for hyperbolic [\textit{A. Bartels} et al., Invent. Math. 172, No. 1, 29--70 (2008; Zbl 1143.19003)] and CAT(0)-groups [\textit{A. Bartels} and \textit{W. Lück}, Ann. Math. (2) 175, No. 2, 631--689 (2012; Zbl 1256.57021)]. This serves the purpose of unifying the existing proofs. An essential ingredient in the proof that the involved groups are transfer reducible is a result from \textit{R. Oliver} [Comment. Math. Hel. 50, 155--177 (1975; Zbl 0304.57020)] that shows that every finite group \(G\), which is not an extension of a \(q\)-group by a cyclic-mod-\(p\) group for some primes \(p\) and \(q\), admits an action on a finite, contractible \(G\)-CW complex \(X\) without a global fixed point. The author also gives an dimension bound on \(X\) which was not explicitly stated by Oliver.