UNIMODULAR GROUPS OF TYPE ℝ³ ⋊ ℝ

There are 7 types of 4-dimensional solvable Lie groups of the form ${\mathbb{R}^3}\;{\times}_{\varphi}\;{\mathbb{R}}$ which are unimodular and of type (R). They will have left. invariant Riemannian metrics with maximal symmetries. Among them, three nilpotent groups $({\mathbb{R}^4},\;Nil^3\;{\times}\;{\mathbb{R}\;and\;Nil^4)$ are well known to have lattices. All the compact forms modeled on the remaining four solvable groups $Sol^3\;{\times}\;{\mathbb{R}},\;Sol_0^4,\;Sol_0^'4\;and\;Sol_{\lambda}^4$ are characterized: (1) $Sol^3\;{\times}\;{\mathbb{R}}$ has lattices. For each lattice, there are infra-solvmanifolds with holonomy groups 1, ${\mathbb{Z}}_2\;or\;{\mathbb{Z}}_4$. (2) Only some of $Sol_{\lambda}^4$, called $Sol_{m,n}^4$, have lattices with no non-trivial infra-solvmanifolds. (3) $Sol_0^{'4}$ does not have a lattice nor a compact form. (4) $Sol_0^4$ does not have a lattice, but has infinitely many compact forms. Thus the first Bieberbach theorem fails on $Sol_0^4$. This is the lowest dimensional such example. None of these compact forms has non-trivial infra-solvmanifolds.