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Group Rings with Solvable Unit Groups of Minimal Derived Length

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Abstract

Let F be a field of characteristic p > 2 and G a nonabelian nilpotent group containing elements of order p. Write F G for the group ring. The conditions under which the unit group 𝒰(F G) is solvable are known, but only a few results have been proved concerning its derived length. It has been established that if G is torsion, the minimum derived length is ⌈log2(p + 1)⌉, and this minimum occurs if and only if |G′| = p. In the present note, we show that the same holds if G has elements of infinite order.

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Correspondence to Gregory T. Lee.

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The first named author was supported by “Programma Professori Visitatori 2013” of GNSAGA. This research was also supported by the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” and NSERC of Canada. The article was written while the first two named authors were visiting the Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”.

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Lee, G.T., Sehgal, S.K. & Spinelli, E. Group Rings with Solvable Unit Groups of Minimal Derived Length. Algebr Represent Theor 17, 1597–1601 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10468-013-9461-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10468-013-9461-8

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