When are group shifts of finite type?

Abstract

It is known that a group shift on a polycyclic group is necessarily of finite type. We show that, for trivial reasons, if a group does not satisfy the maximal condition on subgroups, then it admits non-SFT abelian group shifts. In particular, we show that if group is elementarily amenable or satisfies the Tits alternative, then it is virtually polycyclic if and only if all its group shifts are of finite type. Our theorems are minor elaborations of results of Schmidt and Osin.