Abstract
The flat rank of a totally disconnected locally compact group G, denoted flat-rk(G), is an invariant of the topological group structure of G. It is defined thanks to a natural distance on the space of compact open subgroups of G. For a topological Kac-Moody group G with Weyl group W, we derive the inequalities alg-rk(W) ≤ flat-rk(G) ≤ rk(|W|0). Here, alg-rk(W) is the maximal Z-rank of abelian subgroups of W, and rk(|W|0) is the maximal dimension of isometrically embedded flats in the CAT0-realization |W|0. We can prove these inequalities under weaker assumptions. We also show that for any integer n ≥ 1 there is a simple, compactly generated, locally compact, totally disconnected group G, with flat-rk(G) = n and which is not linear.
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Baumgartner, U., Remy, B. & Willis, G. Flat rank of automorphism groups of buildings. Transformation Groups 12, 413–436 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00031-006-0050-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00031-006-0050-3