The Schur property for subgroup lattices of groups

A classical theorem of Schur states that if the centre of a group G has finite index, then the commutator subgroup G′ of G is finite. A lattice analogue of this result is proved in this paper: if a group G contains a modularly embedded subgroup of finite index, then there exists a finite normal subgroup N of G such that G/N has modular subgroup lattice. Here a subgroup M of a group G is said to be modularly embedded in G if the lattice is modular for each element x of G. Some consequences of this theorem are also obtained; in particular, the behaviour of groups covered by finitely many subgroups with modular subgroup lattice is described. Received: 16 October 2007, Final version received: 22 February 2008