Elementary amenable groups of cohomological dimension 3

Abstract

We show that torsion-free elementary amenable groups of Hirsch length $\leq3$ are solvable, of derived length $\leq3$. This class includes all solvable groups of cohomological dimension 3. We show also that groups in the latter subclass are either polycyclic, semidirect products $BS(1,n)\rtimes\mathbb{Z}$ or properly ascending HNN extensions with base $\mathbb{Z}^2$ or $π_1(Kb)$.