Lattices in $\R^n\rtimes\SL_2(\R)$

Abstract

We determine the existence of cocompact lattices in groups of the form $\V\rtimes\SL_2(\R)$, where $\V$ is a finite dimensional real representation of $\SL_2(\R)$. It turns out that the answer depends on the parity of $\dim(\V)$ when the representation is irreducible.