Lecture Notes in Mathematics

Thestudyofthesubgroupgrowthofin?nitegroupsisanareaofmathematical research that has grown rapidly since its inception at the Groups St. Andrews conferencein1985.Ithasbecomearichtheoryrequiringtoolsfromandhaving applications to many areas of group theory. Indeed, much of this progress is chronicled by Lubotzky and Segal within their book 42]. However, one area within this study has grown explosively in the last few years. This is the study of the zeta functions of groups with polynomial s- groupgrowth, inparticularfortorsion-free?nitely-generatednilpotentgroups. These zeta functions were introduced in 32], and other key papers in the - velopment of this subject include 10, 17], with 19, 23, 15] as well as 42] presenting surveys of the area. The purpose of this book is to bring into print signi?cant and as yet unpublished work from three areas of the theory of zeta functions of groups. First, there are now numerous calculations of zeta functions of groups by doctoralstudentsofthe?rstauthorwhichareyettobemadeintoprintedform outside their theses. These explicit calculations provide evidence in favour of conjectures, or indeed can form inspiration and evidence for new conjectures. We record these zeta functions in Chap.2. In particular, we document the functional equations frequently satis?ed by the local factors. Explaining this phenomenon is, according to the ?rst author and Segal 23], "one of the most intriguing open problems in the area".