Using graph-theoretic techniques for f.g. subgroups of $F^{\mathbb{Z}[t]}$ we provide a criterion for a f.g. subgroup of a f.g. fully residually free group to be of finite index. Moreover, we show that this criterion can be checked effectively. Also we obtain an analogue of Greenberg-Stallings Theorem for f.g. fully residually free groups, and prove that a f.g. non-abelian subgroup of a f.g. fully residually free group is of finite index in its commensurator.
We prove that the finitely presentable subgroups of residually free groups are separable and that the subgroups of type $\mathrm{FP}_\infty$ are virtual retracts. We describe a uniform solution to the membership problem for finitely presentable subgroups of residually free groups.
Let $m$ and $k$ be integers such that $|m|, \, |k| >1$ and $\gcd (m,k)=1$. We show that all Baumslag-Solitar groups $BS(m,mk)$ are non-residually finite groups hyperbolic relative to residually finite subgroups. By a result of Osin (2007), this implies that there exists a non-residually finite hyperbolic group, thus solving a long-standing open problem of Gromov (1987). We also show that all $BS(m, mk)$ are non-Hopfian groups hyperbolic relative to Hopfian subgroups.
Let w be a multilinear commutator and n a positive integer. Suppose that G is a residually finite group in which every product of at most 896 w-values has order dividing n. Then the verbal subgroup w(G) is locally finite.
We exhibit the first examples of residually finite non-linear Gromov hyperbolic groups. Our examples are constructed as amalgamated products of torsion-free cocompact lattices in the rank 1 Lie group $\mathrm{Sp}(d,1)$, $d\geq 2$ along maximal cyclic subgroups.
We establish a general criterion for the finite presentability of subdirect products of groups and use this to characterize finitely presented residually free groups. We prove that, for all $n\in\mathbb{N}$, a residually free group is of type ${\rm{FP}}_n$ if and only if it is of type ${\rm{F}}_n$. New families of subdirect products of free groups are constructed, including the first examples of finitely presented subgroups that are neither ${\rm{FP}}_\infty$ nor of Stallings-Bieri type. The template for these examples leads to a more constructive characterization of finitely presented residua…
Let $ n, q $ be positive integers. We show that if $ G $ is a finitely generated residually finite group satisfying the identity $ [x,_ny^q]\equiv 1, $ then there exists a function $ f(n) $ such that $ G $ has a nilpotent subgroup of finite index of class at most $ f(n) $. We also extend this result to locally graded groups.
We show that there is no uniform polynomial isoperimetric function for finitely presented subgroups of direct products of free groups, by producing a sequence of subgroups $G_r\leq F_2^{(1)} \times \dots \times F_2^{(r)}$ of direct products of 2-generated free groups with Dehn functions bounded below by $n^{r}$. The groups $G_r$ are obtained from the examples of non-coabelian subdirect products of free groups constructed by Bridson, Howie, Miller and Short. As a consequence we obtain that residually free groups do not admit a uniform polynomial isoperimetric function.
We show that a K-approximate subgroup A of a residually nilpotent group G is contained in boundedly many cosets of a finite-by-nilpotent subgroup, the nilpotent factor of which is of bounded step. Combined with an earlier result of the author, this implies that A is contained in boundedly many translates of a coset nilprogression of bounded rank and step. The bounds are effective and depend only on K; in particular, if G is nilpotent they do not depend on the step of G. As an application we show that there is some absolute constant c such that if G is a residually nilpotent group, and if there…
We prove that, for a finitely generated residually finite group, having solvable word problem is not a sufficient condition to be a subgroup of a finitely presented residually finite group. The obstruction is given by a residually finite group with solvable word problem for which there is no effective method that allows, given some non-identity element, to find a morphism onto a finite group in which this element has a non-trivial image. We also prove that the depth function of this group grows faster than any recursive function.
We prove that a finitely generated soluble residually finite group has polynomial index growth if and only if it is a minimax group. We also show that if a finitely generated group with PIG is residually finite-soluble then it is a linear group. These results apply in particular to boundedly generated groups; they imply that every infinite BG residually finite group has an infinite linear quotient.
Given a prime $p$, a group is called residually $p$ if the intersection of its $p$-power index normal subgroups is trivial. A group is called virtually residually $p$ if it has a finite index subgroup which is residually $p$. It is well-known that finitely generated linear groups over fields of characteristic zero are virtually residually $p$ for all but finitely many $p$. In particular, fundamental groups of hyperbolic 3-manifolds are virtually residually $p$. It is also well-known that fundamental groups of 3-manifolds are residually finite. In this paper we prove a common generalization of …
We provide polynomial lower bounds for residual finiteness of residually finite, finitely generated solvable groups that admit infinite order elements in the Fitting subgroup of strict distortion at least exponential. For this class of solvable groups which include polycyclic groups with a nontrivial exponential radical and the metabelian Baumslag-Solitar groups, we improve the lower bounds found in the literature. Additionally, for the class of residually finite, finitely generated solvable groups of infinite Prüfer rank that satisfy the conditions of our theorem, we provide the first nontriv…
A result of Bridson, Howie, Miller and Short states that if $S$ is a subgroup of type $FP_{n}(\mathbb{Q})$ of the direct product of $n$ limit groups over free groups, then $S$ is virtually the direct product of limit groups over free groups. Furthermore, they characterise finitely presented residually free groups. In this paper these results are generalised to limit groups over Droms right-angled Artin groups. Droms RAAGs are the right-angled Artin groups with the property that all of their finitely generated subgroups are again RAAGs. In addition, we show that the generalised conjugacy proble…
Given a group-word w and a group G, the verbal subgroup w(G) is the one generated by all w-values in G. The word w is called concise if w(G) is finite whenever the set of w-values in G is finite. It is an open question whether every word is concise in residually finite groups. Let w=w(x_1,..,x_k) be a multilinear commutator word, n a positive integer and q a prime power. In the present article we show that the word [w^q,_n y] is concise in residually finite groups while the word [w,_n y] is boundedly concise in residually finite groups.
We construct an infinite finitely generated recursively presented residually finite algorithmically finite group $G$ answering thereby a question of Myasnikov and Osin. Moreover, $G$ is "very infinite" and "very algorithmically finite" in the sense that $G$ contains an infinite abelian normal subgroup while all finite Cartesian powers of $G$ are algorithmically finite (i.e., for any positive integer $n$, there is no algorithm which writes out an infinite sequence of pairwise different elements of $G^n$). We also state several related problems.
For a residually finite group $G$, its normal subgroups $G\supset G_1\supset G_2\cdots$ with $\cap_{n\in\mathbb N}G_n=\{e\}$ and for a growth function $γ$ we construct a unitary representation $π_γ$ of $G$. For the minimal growth, $π_γ$ is weakly equivalent to the regular representation, and for the maximal growth it is weakly equivalent to the direct sum of the quasiregular representations on the quotients $G/G_n$. In the case of intermediate growth we show two examples of different behaviour of $π_γ$.
Given a group-word w and a group G, the verbal subgroup w(G) is the one generated by all w-values in G. The word w is said to be concise if w(G) is finite whenever the set of w-values in G is finite. In the sixties P. Hall asked whether every word is concise but later Ivanov answered this question in the negative. On the other hand, Hall's question remains wide open in the class of residually finite groups. In the present article we show that various generalizations of the Engel word are concise in residually finite groups.
A. H. Rhemtulla proved that if a group is a residually finite p-group for infinitely many primes p, then it is two-sided orderable. In problem 10.30 of the Kourovka notebook 14th. edition, N. Ya. Medvedev asked if there is a non-right-orderable group which is a residually finite p-group for at least two different primes p. Using a result of Dave Witte, we will show that many subgroups of finite index in GL_3(Z) give examples of such groups. On the other hand we will show that no such example can exist among solvable by finite groups.
Let $q$ be a prime. Let $G$ be a residually finite group satisfying an identity. Suppose that for every $x \in G$ there exists a $q$-power $m=m(x)$ such that the element $x^m$ is a bounded Engel element. We prove that $G$ is locally virtually nilpotent. Further, let $d,n$ be positive integers and $w$ a non-commutator word. Assume that $G$ is a $d$-generator residually finite group in which all $w$-values are $n$-Engel. We show that the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ has $\{d,n,w\}$-bounded nilpotency class.
We show that Out(G) is residually finite if G is a one-ended group that is hyperbolic relative to virtually polycyclic subgroups. More generally, if G is one-ended and hyperbolic relative to proper residually finite subgroups, the group of outer automorphisms preserving the peripheral structure is residually finite. We also show that Out(G) is virtually p-residually finite for every prime p if G is one-ended and toral relatively hyperbolic, or infinitely-ended and virtually p-residually finite.
We show that the first $L^2$-betti number of a finitely generated residually finite group can be estimated from below by using ordinary first betti numbers of finite index normal subgroups. As an application we construct a finitely generated infinite residually finite torsion group with positive first $L^2$-betti number.
We study the structure of discrete subgroups of the group $G[[r]]$ of complex formal power series under the operation of composition of series. In particular, we prove that every finitely generated fully residually free group is embeddable to $G[[r]]$.
We prove that the class of residually C groups is closed under taking graph products, provided that C is closed under taking subgroups, finite direct products and that free-by-C groups are residually C. As a consequence, we show that local embeddability into various classes of groups is stable under graph products. In particular, we prove that graph products of residually amenable groups are residually amenable, and that locally embeddable into amenable groups are closed under taking graph products.
We describe elementary examples of finitely presented sofic groups which are not residually amenable (and thus not initially subamenable or LEA, for short). We ask if an amalgam of two amenable groups over a finite subgroup is residually amenable and answer this positively for some special cases, including countable locally finite groups, residually nilpotent groups and others.
Let $G=\ast_{i=1}^{n}G_{i}$ and let $ϕ$ be a symmetric endomorphism of $G$. If $ϕ$ is a monomorphism or if $G$ is a finitely generated residually finite group, then the fixed subgroup $Fix(ϕ)=\{g\in G:ϕ(g)=g\}$ of $ϕ$ has Kurosh rank at most $n$.
We explore an elementary construction that produces finitely presented groups with diverse homological finiteness properties -- the {\em binary subgroups}, $B(Σ,μ)<G_1\times\dots\times G_m$. These full subdirect products require strikingly few generators. If each $G_i$ is finitely presented, $B(Σ,μ)$ is finitely presented. When the $G_i$ are non-abelian limit groups (e.g. free or surface groups), the $B(Σ,μ)$ provide new examples of finitely presented, residually-free groups that do not have finite classifying spaces and are not of Stallings-Bieri type. These examples settle a question of Mina…
We study a family of finitely generated residually finite groups. These groups are doubles $F_2*_H F_2$ of a rank-$2$ free group $F_2$ along an infinitely generated subgroup $H$. Varying $H$ yields uncountably many groups up to isomorphism.
We study subgroups and quotients of outer automorphism groups of right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs). We prove that for all RAAGS, the outer automorphism group is residually finite and, for a large class of RAAGs, it satisfies the Tits alternative. We also investigate which of these automorphism groups contain non-abelian solvable subgroups.
We show that there is no algorithm deciding whether the maximal residually free quotient of a given finitely presented group is finitely presentable or not. Given a finitely generated subgroup G of a finite product of limit groups, we discuss the possibility of finding an explicit set of defining equations (i.e. of expressing G as the maximal residually free quotient of an explicit finitely presented group).
Let $G$ be a residually finite group. To any decreasing sequence $\mathcal S = (H_n)_n $ of finite index subgroups of $G$ is associated a unitary representation $ρ_{\mathcal S}$ of $G$ in the Hilbert space $\bigoplus_{n=0}^{+\infty} \ell^2 (G/H_n) $. This paper investigates the following question: when does the representation $ρ_{\mathcal S} $ weakly contain the regular representation $λ$ of $G$?
Let $m,n$ be positive integers and $p$ a prime. We denote by $ν(G)$ an extension of the non-abelian tensor square $G \otimes G$ by $G \times G$. We prove that if $G$ is a residually finite group satisfying some non-trivial identity $f \equiv~1$ and for every $x,y \in G$ there exists a $p$-power $q=q(x,y)$ such that $[x,y^φ]^q = 1$, then the derived subgroup $ν(G)'$ is locally finite (Theorem A). Moreover, we show that if $G$ is a residually finite group in which for every $x,y \in G$ there exists a $p$-power $q=q(x,y)$ dividing $p^m$ such that $[x,y^φ]^q$ is left $n$-Engel, then the non-abelia…
A group-word w is called concise if whenever the set of w-values in a group G is finite it always follows that the verbal subgroup w(G) is finite. More generally, a word w is said to be concise in a class of groups X if whenever the set of w-values is finite for a group $G\in X$, it always follows that w(G) is finite. P. Hall asked whether every word is concise. Due to Ivanov the answer to this problem is known to be negative. Dan Segal asked whether every word is concise in the class of residually finite groups. In this direction we prove that if w is a multilinear commutator and q is a prime…
We prove that every subnormal subgroup of p-power index in a right-angled Artin group is conjugacy p-separable. As an application, we prove that every right-angled Artin group is conjugacy separable in the class of torsion-free nilpotent groups. As another application, we prove that the outer automorphism group of a right-angled Artin group is virtually residually p-finite. We also prove that the Torelli group of a right-angled group is residually torsion-free nilpotent, hence residually p-finite and bi-orderable.
We show that there exist non-unitarizable groups without non-abelian free subgroups. Both torsion and torsion free examples are constructed. As a by-product, we show that there exist finitely generated torsion groups with non-vanishing first $L^2$-Betti numbers. We also relate the well-known problem of whether every hyperbolic group is residually finite to an open question about approximation of $L^2$-Betti numbers.
We show that an infinite residually finite boundedly generated group has an infinite chain of finite index subgroups with ranks uniformly bounded, and give (sublinear) upper bounds on the ranks of arbitrary finite index subgroups of boundedly generated groups (examples which come close to achieving these bounds are presented). This proves a strong form of a conjecture of Abert, Jaikin-Zapirain, and Nikolov which asserts that the rank gradient of infinite boundedly generated residually finite groups is $0$. Furthermore, our first result establishes a variant of a conjecture of Lubotzky on the r…
Free products of two residually finite groups with amalgamated retracts are considered. It is proved that a cyclic subgroup of such a group is not finitely separable if, and only if, it is conjugated with a subgroup of a free factor which is not finitely separable in this factor. A similar result is obtained for the case of separability in the class of finite p-groups.
Let m, n be positive integers, v a multilinear commutator word and w = v^m. We prove that if G is a residually finite group in which all w-values are n-Engel, then the verbal subgroup w(G) is locally nilpotent. We also examine the question whether this is true in the case where G is locally graded rather than residually finite. We answer the question affirmatively in the case where m = 1. Moreover, we show that if u is a non-commutator word and G is a locally graded group in which all u-values are n-Engel, then the verbal subgroup u(G) is locally nilpotent.
Let $G$ be a generalized Baumslag-Solitar group and $\mathcal{C}$ be a class of groups containing at least one non-unit group and closed under taking subgroups, extensions, and Cartesian products of the form $\prod_{y \in Y}X_{y}$, where $X, Y \in \mathcal{C}$ and $X_{y}$ is an isomorphic copy of $X$ for every $y \in Y$. We give a criterion for $G$ to be residually a $\mathcal{C}$-group provided $\mathcal{C}$ consists only of periodic groups. We also prove that $G$ is residually a torsion-free $\mathcal{C}$-group if $\mathcal{C}$ contains at least one non-periodic group and is closed under tak…
We classify finitely generated, residually finite automorphism-induced HNN-extensions in terms of the residual separability of a single associated subgroup. This classification provides a method to construct automorphism-induced HNN-extensions which are not residually finite. We prove that this method can never yield a "new" counter-example to Gromov's conjecture on the residual finiteness of hyperbolic groups.
The residual closure of a subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is the intersection of all virtually normal subgroups of $G$ containing $H$. We show that if $G$ is generated by finitely many cosets of $H$ and if $H$ is commensurated, then the residual closure of $H$ in $G$ is virtually normal. This implies that separable commensurated subgroups of finitely generated groups are virtually normal. A stream of applications to separable subgroups, polycyclic groups, residually finite groups, groups acting on trees, lattices in products of trees and just-infinite groups then flows from this main result.
Suppose that $G$ is a group, $H$ and $K$ are proper isomorphic central subgroups of $G$, and $\mathfrak{G}$ is an HNN-extension of $G$ with the associated subgroups $H$ and $K$. We prove necessary and sufficient conditions for $\mathfrak{G}$ to be residually a $\mathcal{C}$-group, where $\mathcal{C}$ is a class of groups closed under taking subgroups, extensions, homomorphic images, and Cartesian products of the form $\prod_{y \in Y}X_{y}$, where $X, Y \in \mathcal{C}$ and $X_{y}$ is an isomorphic copy of $X$ for each $y \in Y$.
We prove that if a group possesses a deficiency 1 presentation where one of the relators is a commutator then it is the integers times the integers, is large, or is as far as possible from being residually finite. Then we use this to show that a mapping torus of an endomorphism of a finitely generated free group is large if it contains the integers times the integers as a subgroup of infinite index, as well as showing that such a group is large if it contains a Baumslag-Solitar group of infinite index and has a finite index subgroup with first Betti number at least 2. We give applications to f…
Let G be the free product of groups A and B with commuting subgroups H \leqslant A and K \leqslant B, and let C be the class of all finite groups or the class of all finite p-groups. We derive the description of all C-separable cyclic subgroups of G provided this group is residually a C-group. We prove, in particular, that if A, B are finitely generated nilpotent groups and H, K are p'-isolated in the free factors, then all p'-isolated cyclic subgroups of G are separable in the class of all finite p-groups. The same statement is true provided A, B are free and H, K are p'-isolated and cyclic.
A residually finite (profinite) group $G$ is just infinite if every non-trivial (closed) normal subgroup of $G$ is of finite index. This paper considers the problem of determining whether a (closed) subgroup $H$ of a just infinite group is itself just infinite. If $G$ is not virtually abelian, we give a description of the just infinite property for normal subgroups in terms of maximal subgroups. In particular, we show that such a group $G$ is hereditarily just infinite if and only if all maximal subgroups of finite index are just infinite. We also obtain results for certain families of virtual…
We present novel constructions concerning the homology of finitely generated groups. Each construction draws on ideas of Gilbert Baumslag. There is a finitely presented acyclic group $U$ such that $U$ has no proper subgroups of finite index and every finitely presented group can be embedded in $U$. There is no algorithm that can determine whether or not a finitely presentable subgroup of a residually finite, biautomatic group is perfect. For every recursively presented abelian group $A$ there exists a pair of groups $i:P_A\hookrightarrow G_A$ such that $i$ induces an isomorphism of profinite c…
An automorphism $α$ of a group $G$ is normal if it fixes every normal subgroup of $G$ setwise. We give an algebraic description of normal automorphisms of relatively hyperbolic groups. In particular, we prove that for any relatively hyperbolic group $G$, $Inn(G)$ has finite index in the subgroup $Aut_n(G)$ of normal automorphisms. If, in addition, $G$ is non-elementary and has no non-trivial finite normal subgroups, then $Aut_n(G)=Inn(G)$. As an application, we show that $Out(G)$ is residually finite for every finitely generated residually finite group $G$ with more than one end.
This paper investigates the asymptotic behaviour of the minimal number of generators of finite index subgroups in residually finite groups. We analyze three natural classes of groups: amenable groups, groups possessing an infinite soluble normal subgroup and virtually free groups. As a tool for the amenable case we generalize Lackenby's trichotomy theorem on finitely presented groups.
