Diophantine problems in solvable groups

Abstract

We study the Diophantine problem (decidability of finite systems of equations) in different classes of finitely generated solvable groups (nilpotent, polycyclic, metabelian, free solvable, etc.), which satisfy some natural “non-commutativity” conditions. For each group [Formula: see text] in one of these classes, we prove that there exists a ring of algebraic integers [Formula: see text] that is interpretable in [Formula: see text] by finite systems of equations ([Formula: see text]-interpretable), and hence that the Diophantine problem in [Formula: see text] is polynomial time reducible to the Diophantine problem in [Formula: see text]. One of the major open conjectures in number theory states that the Diophantine problem in any such [Formula: see text] is undecidable. If true this would imply that the Diophantine problem in any such [Formula: see text] is also undecidable. Furthermore, we show that for many particular groups [Formula: see text] as above, the ring [Formula: see text] is isomorphic to the ring of integers [Formula: see text], so the Diophantine problem in [Formula: see text] is, indeed, undecidable. This holds, in particular, for free nilpotent or free solvable non-abelian groups, as well as for non-abelian generalized Heisenberg groups and uni-triangular groups [Formula: see text]. Then, we apply these results to non-solvable groups that contain non-virtually abelian maximal finitely generated nilpotent subgroups. For instance, we show that the Diophantine problem is undecidable in the groups [Formula: see text].