In differential geometry, the Margulis lemma (named after Grigory Margulis) is a result about discrete subgroups of isometries of a non-positively curved Riemannian manifold (e.g. the hyperbolic n-space). Roughly, it states that within a fixed radius, usually called the Margulis constant, the structure of the orbits of such a group cannot be too complicated. More precisely, within this radius around a point all points in its orbit are in fact in the orbit of a nilpotent subgroup (in fact a bounded finite number of such).