Generic infinite generation, fixed-point-poor representations and compact-element abundance in disconnected Lie groups

Abstract

The semidirect product $\mathbb{G}=\mathbb{L}\rtimes \mathbb{K}$ attached to a compact-group action on a connected, simply-connected solvable Lie group has a dense set of compact elements precisely when the $s\in \mathbb{K}$ operating on $\mathbb{L}$ fixed-point-freely constitute a dense set. This (along with a number of alternative equivalent characterizations) extends the Wu's analogous result for connected Lie $\mathbb{K}$, and also provides ample supplies of examples of almost-connected Lie groups $\mathbb{G}$ which do not have dense sets of compact elements, even though their identity components $\mathbb{G}_0$ do. This corrects prior literature on the subject, claiming the property equivalent for $\mathbb{G}$ and $\mathbb{G}_0$. In a related discussion we characterize those connected Lie groups $\mathbb{G}$ with large sets of $d$-tuples generating dense subgroups $\Gamma\le \mathbb{G}$ for which the derived subgroup $\Gamma^{(1)}$ fails to be finitely-generated: $\mathbb{G}$ must either be non-trivial topologically perfect or have non-nilpotent maximal solvable quotient.