Automorphism groups of free soluble groups (Q1895551)

Let \(F\) be a free soluble group of derived length \(k\) and rank \(m\) and \(\Phi\) any group of automorphisms of \(F\). The author's Theorem A is that \(\Phi\) contains either a free subgroup of rank 2 or a soluble normal subgroup of finite index and derived length bounded by functions of \(k\) and \(m\) only. The proof of this interesting result depends crucially on the theory of skew linear groups and is one of only a tiny number of purely group theoretic results so far proved in this way. This arises as follows. Let \(K\) be a field (of characteristic zero in the application). The group algebra \(KF\) is an Ore domain; let \(D\) denote its division ring of quotients. Suppose \(G\) is a subgroup of \(\text{GL}(n,D)\) containing no free subgroup of rank 2. What is required is a detailed description of the structure of such a \(G\). This is the content of the author's Theorems B and C and the corollaries. For example (Theorem C), if \(\text{char }K=0\) then \(G\) has a soluble normal subgroup of finite index bounded by a function of \(n\) only and derived length bounded by a function of \(k\) and \(n\) only; if \(\text{char }K\neq 0\) and \(G\) is finitely generated, then \(G\) has a soluble normal subgroup of finite index of derived length bounded by a function of \(k\) and \(n\) only.