The set of all closed subgroups of a profinite carries a natural profinite topology. This space of subgroups can be classified up to homeomorphism in many cases, and tight bounds placed on its complexity as expressed by its scattered height.
The sets of closed and closed-normal subgroups of a profinite group carry a natural profinite topology. Through a combination of algebraic and topological methods the size of these subgroup spaces is calculated, and the spaces partially classified up to homeomorphism.
We solve an open problem of Herfort and Ribes: Profinite Frobenius groups of certain type do occur as closed subgroups of free profinite products of two profinite groups. This also solves a question of Pop about prosolvable subgroups of free profinite products.
We prove that the class of closed subgroups of free profinite monoids is precisely the class of projective profinite groups. In particular, the profinite groups associated to minimal symbolic dynamical systems by Almeida are projective. Our result answers a question raised by Lubotzky during the lecture of Almeida at the Fields Workshop on Profinite Groups and Applications, Carleton University, August 2005. We also prove that any finite subsemigroup of a free profinite monoid consists of idempotents.
We show that every closed normal subgroup of infinite index in a profinite surface group $Γ$ is contained in a semi-free profinite normal subgroup of $Γ$. This answers a question of Bary-Soroker, Stevenson, and Zalesskii.
We answer a question of Margolis from 1997 by establishing that the maximal subgroup of the minimal ideal of a finitely generated free profinite monoid is a free profinite group. More generally if $\mathbf H$ is variety of finite groups closed under extension and containing $\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z$ for infinitely may primes $p$, the corresponding result holds for free pro-$\bar{\mathbf H}$ monoids.
Let $G$ be a profinite group. We prove that the commutator subgroup $G'$ is finite-by-procyclic if and only if the set of all commutators of $G$ is contained in a union of countably many procyclic subgroups.
The generalised Fitting subgroup of a finite group is the group generated by all subnormal subgroups that are either nilpotent or quasisimple. The importance of this subgroup in finite group theory stems from the fact that it always contains its own centraliser, so that any finite group is an abelian extension of a group of automorphisms of its generalised Fitting subgroup. We define a class of profinite groups which generalises this phenomenon, and explore some consequences for the structure of profinite groups.
We give new and improved results on the freeness of subgroups of free profinite groups: A subgroup containing the normal closure of a finite word in the elements of a basis is free; Every infinite index subgroup of a finitely generated nonabelian free profinite group is contained in an infinitely generated free profinite subgroup. These results are combined with the twisted wreath product approach of Haran, an observation on the action of compact groups, and a rank counting argument to prove a conjecture of Bary-Soroker, Fehm, and Wiese, thus providing a quite general sufficient condition for …
Let $w$ be a multilinear commutator word, that is, a commutator of weight $n$ in $n$ different group variables. It is proved that if $G$ is a profinite group in which all pronilpotent subgroups generated by $w$-values are periodic, then the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is locally finite.
Let G be a profinite group. The following results are proved. The commutator subgroup G' is finite if and only if G is covered by countably many abelian subgroups. The group G is finite-by-nilpotent if and only if G is covered by countably many nilpotent subgroups. The main result is that the commutator subgroup G' is finite-by-nilpotent if and only if the set of commutators in G is covered by countably many nilpotent subgroups.
We study the subgroup structure of the étale fundamental group $Π$ of a projective curve over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0. We obtain an analog of the diamond theorem for $Π$. As a consequence we show that most normal subgroups of infinite index are semi-free. In particular every proper open subgroup of a normal subgroup of infinite index is semi-free.
Examples are given of profinite groups that are not strongly complete, and have other `bad' properties, yet have only finitely many open subgroups of each finite index. It is shown that a profinite group with the latter property must be finite if it has finite exponent. The problem of characterizing strongly complete groups in terms of their power subgroups is discussed.
Let $G$ be a group and let $K$ be a commensurated subgroup of $G$. Then there is a totally disconnected, locally compact (t.d.l.c.) group $\hat{G}_K$ that contains the profinite completion of $K$ as an open compact subgroup and also contains $G$ (modulo the finite residual of $K$) as a dense subgroup. Moreover, given an arbitrary group $G$, then every t.d.l.c. group containing an image of $G$ as a dense subgroup can be realised as a quotient of $\hat{G}_K$ for some commensurated subgroup $K$.
Let $w$ be a multilinear commutator word. In the present paper we describe recent results that show that if $G$ is a profinite group in which all $w$-values are contained in a union of finitely (or in some cases countably) many subgroups with a prescribed property, then the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ has the same property as well. In particular, we show this in the case where the subgroups are periodic or of finite rank.
We show that a profinite group with the same first-order theory as the direct product over all odd primes $p$ of the dihedral group of order $2p$, is necessarily isomorphic to this direct product.
We show that the maximal subgroup of the free profinite semigroup associated by Almeida to an irreducible sofic shift is a free profinite group, generalizing an earlier result of the second author for the case of the full shift (whose corresponding maximal subgroup is the maximal subgroup of the minimal ideal). A corresponding result is proved for certain relatively free profinite semigroups. We also establish some other analogies between the kernel of the free profinite semigroup and the $\J$-class associated to an irreducible sofic shift.
The main result of this paper is the following theorem. Let q be a prime, A an elementary abelian group of order q^3. Suppose that A acts as a coprime group of automorphisms on a profinite group G in such a manner that C_G(a)' is periodic for each nontrivial element a in A. Then G' is locally finite.
We consider profinite groups in which all commutators are contained in a union of finitely many procyclic subgroups. It is shown that if G is a profinite group in which all commutators are covered by m procyclic subgroups, then G possesses a finite characteristic subgroup M contained in G' such that the order of M is m-bounded and G'/M is procyclic. If G is a pro-p group such that all commutators in G are covered by m procyclic subgroups, then G' is either finite of m-bounded order or procyclic.
A subgroup $G$ of a product $\prod\limits_{i\in\mathbb{N}}G_i$ is \emph{rectangular} if there are subgroups $H_i$ of $G_i$ such that $G=\prod\limits_{i\in\mathbb{N}}H_i$. We say that $G$ is \emph{weakly rectangular} if there are finite subsets $F_i\subseteq \mathbb{N}$ and subgroups $H_i$ of $\bigoplus\limits_{j\in F_i} G_j$ that satisfy $G=\prod\limits_{i\in\mathbb{N}}H_i$. %We say that $G$ is a \emph{subdirect product} of the family $\{G_i\}_{i\in I}$ if $G$ is weakly rectangular and %$G\cap\bigoplus\limits_{i\in I} G_i=\bigoplus\limits_{i\in\mathbb{N}}H_i$. In this paper we discuss when a c…
Let w be a group-word. Suppose that the set of all w-values in a profinite group G is contained in a union of countably many cosets of subgroups. We are concerned with the question to what extent the structure of the verbal subgroup w(G) depends on the properties of the subgroups. We prove the following theorem. Let C be a class of groups closed under taking subgroups, quotients, and such that in any group the product of finitely many normal C-subgroups is again a C-subgroup. If w is a multilinear commutator and G is a profinite group such that the set of all w-values is contained in a union o…
We completely describe the finitely generated pro-$p$ subgroups of the profinite completion of the fundamental group of an arbitrary $3$-manifold. We also prove a pro-$p$ analogue of the main theorem of Bass--Serre theory for finitely generated pro-$p$ groups.
We prove the following results. Let w be a multilinear commutator word. If G is a profinite group in which all w-values are contained in a union of countably many periodic subgroups, then the verbal subgroup w(G) is locally finite. If G is a profinite group in which all w-values are contained in a union of countably many subgroups of finite rank, then the verbal subgroup w(G) has finite rank as well. As a by-product of the techniques developed in the paper we also prove that if G is a virtually soluble profinite group in which all w-values have finite order, then w(G) is locally finite and has…
Given a group word $w$ and a group $G$, the set of $w$-values in $G$ is denoted by $G_w$ and the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is the one generated by $G_w$. In the present paper we consider profinite groups admitting a word $w$ such that the cardinality of $G_w$ is less than $2^{\aleph_0}$ and $w(G)$ is generated by finitely many $w$-values. For several families of words $w$ we show that under these assumptions $w(G)$ must be finite. Our results are related to the concept of conciseness of group words.
We obtain some general restrictions on the continuous endomorphisms of a profinite group G under the assumption that G has only finitely many open subgroups of each index (an assumption which automatically holds, for instance, if G is finitely generated). In particular, given such a group G and a continuous endomorphism phi we obtain a semidirect decomposition of G into a 'contracting' normal subgroup and a complement on which phi induces an automorphism; both the normal subgroup and the complement are closed. If G is isomorphic to a proper open subgroup of itself, we show that G has an infini…
We consider finitely presented,residually finite groups $G$ and finitely generated normal subgroups $A$ such that the inclusion $A\hookrightarrow G$ induces an isomorphism from the profinite completion of $A$ to a direct factor of the profinite completion of $G$. We explain why $A$ need not be a direct factor of a subgroup of finite index in $G$; indeed $G$ need not have a subgroup of finite index that splits as a non-trivial direct product. We prove that there is no algorithm that can determine whether $A$ is a direct factor of a subgroup of finite index in $G$.
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.
In this paper we investigate the following general problem. Let $G$ be a group and let $i(G)$ be a property of $G$. Is there an integer $d$ such that $G$ contains a $d$-generated subgroup $H$ with $i(H)=i(G)$? Here we consider the case where $G$ is a profinite group and $H$ is a closed subgroup, extending earlier work of Lucchini and others on finite groups. For example, we prove that $d=3$ if $i(G)$ is the prime graph of $G$, which is best possible, and we show that $d=2$ if $i(G)$ is the exponent of a finitely generated prosupersolvable group $G$.
For a family of group words $w$ we show that if $G$ is a profinite group in which all $w$-values are contained in a union of finitely many subgroups with a prescribed property, then $w(G)$ has the same property as well. In particular, we show this in the case where the subgroups are periodic or of finite rank. If $G$ contains finitely many subgroups $G_1,G_2,...,G_s$ of finite exponent $e$ whose union contains all $γ_k$-values in $G$, it is shown that $γ_k(G)$ has finite $(e,k,s)$-bounded exponent. If $G$ contains finitely many subgroups $G_1,G_2,...,G_s$ of finite rank $r$ whose union contain…
A profinite group $G$ is just infinite if every closed normal subgroup of $G$ is of finite index. We prove that an infinite profinite group is just infinite if and only if, for every open subgroup $H$ of $G$, there are only finitely many open normal subgroups of $G$ not contained in $H$. This extends a result recently established by Barnea, Gavioli, Jaikin-Zapirain, Monti and Scoppola, who proved the same characterisation in the case of pro-$p$ groups. We also use this result to establish a number of features of the general structure of profinite groups with regard to the just infinite propert…
A group $G$ is said to have restricted centralizers if for each $g$ in $G$ the centralizer $C_G(g)$ either is finite or has finite index in $G$. Shalev showed that a profinite group with restricted centralizers is virtually abelian. Given a set of primes $π$, we take interest in profinite groups with restricted centralizers of $π$-elements. It is shown that such a profinite group has an open subgroup of the form $P\times Q$, where $P$ is an abelian pro-$π$ subgroup and $Q$ is a pro-$π'$ subgroup. This significantly strengthens a result from our earlier paper.
We initiate the study of profinite groups of non-negative deficiency. The principal focus of the paper is to show that the existence of a finitely generated normal subgroup of infinite index in a profinite group $G$ of non-negative deficiency gives rather strong consequences for the structure of $G$. To make this precise we introduce the notion of $p$-deficiency ($p$ a prime) for a profinite group $G$. This concept is more useful in the study of profinite groups then the notion of deficiency. We prove that if the $p$-deficiency of $G$ is positive and $N$ is a finitely generated normal subgroup…
Let $w$ be a group-word. Suppose that the set of all $w$-values in a profinite group $G$ is contained in a union of countably many subgroups. It is natural to ask in what way the structure of the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ depends on the properties of the covering subgroups. The present article is a survey of recent results related to that question. In particular we survey results on finite and countable coverings of word-values (mostly commutators) by procyclic, abelian, nilpotent, and soluble subgroups, as well as subgroups with finiteness conditions. The last section of the paper is devoted to …
The purpose of this paper is to link anisotropy properties of an algebraic group together with compactness issues in the topological group of its rational points. We nd equivalent conditions on a smooth ane algebraic group scheme over a non-Archimedean local eld for the associated rational points to admit maximal compact subgroups. We use the structure theory of pseudo-reductive groups provided, whatever the characteristic, by Conrad, Gabber and Prasad. We also investigate thoroughly maximal prop subgroups in the semisimple case, using Bruhat-Tits theory.
We prove that the inverse limit of certain iterated wreath products in product action have complete Hausdorff dimension spectrum with respect to their unique maximal filtration of open normal subgroups. Moreover we can produce explicitly subgroups with a specified Hausdorff dimension.
We provide elementary proofs of the Nielsen-Schreier Theorem and the Kurosh Subgroup Theorem via wreath products. Our proofs are diagrammatic in nature and work simultaneously in the abstract and profinite categories. A new proof that open subgroups of quasifree profinite groups are quasifree is also given.
We address two questions of Simon Thomas. First, we show that for any n>2 one can find a four generated free subgroup of SLn(Z) which is profinitely dense. More generally, we show that an arithmetic group Γwhich admits the congruence subgroup property, has a profinitely dense free subgroup with an explicit bound of its rank. Next, we show that the set of profinitely dense, locally free subgroups of such an arithmetic group Γis uncountable.
In this article we improve the known uniform bound for subgroup growth of Chevalley groups over $\mathbf{G}(\mathbb{F}_p[[t]])$. We introduce a new parameter, the ridgeline number $v(\mathbf{G})$, and give new bounds for the subgroup growth of $\mathbf{G}(\mathbb{F}_p[[t]])$ expressed through $v(\mathbf{G})$. We achieve this by deriving a new estimate for the codimension of $[U,V]$ where $U$ and $V$ are vector subspaces in the Lie algebra of $\mathbf{G}$.
A profinite group is called small if it has only finitely many open subgroups of index n for each positive integer n. We show that every Frattini cover of a small profinite group is small. A profinite group is called strongly complete if every subgroup of finite index is open. We show that two profinite groups that are elementarily equivalent, in the first-order language of groups, are isomorphic if one of them is strongly complete, extending a result of Moshe Jarden and Alexander Lubotzky which treats the case of finitely generated profinite groups.
In this paper we initiate a systematic study of the abstract commensurators of profinite groups. The abstract commensurator of a profinite group $G$ is a group $Comm(G)$ which depends only on the commensurability class of $G$. We study various properties of $Comm(G)$; in particular, we find two natural ways to turn it into a topological group. We also use $Comm(G)$ to study topological groups which contain $G$ as an open subgroup (all such groups are totally disconnected and locally compact). For instance, we construct a topologically simple group which contains the pro-2 completion of the Gri…
A profinite group G is just infinite if every non-trivial closed normal subgroup of G is of finite index, and hereditarily just infinite if every open subgroup is just infinite. Hereditarily just infinite profinite groups need not be virtually pro-p, as shown in a recent paper of Wilson. The same paper gives a criterion on an inverse system of finite groups that is sufficient to ensure the limit is either virtually abelian or hereditarily just infinite. We give criteria of a similar nature that characterise the just infinite and hereditarily just infinite properties under the assumption that G…
We prove that a profinite group $G$ with positive rank gradient does not satisfy a group law. In the case when $G$ is a pro-$p$ group we show that $G$ contains a nonabelian dense free subgroup.
Let $S$ be a finitely generated pro-$p$ group. Let $\Emb(S)$ be the class of profinite groups $G$ that have $S$ as a Sylow subgroup, and such that $S$ intersects non-trivially with every non-trivial normal subgroup of $G$. In this paper, we investigate the question of whether or not $\Emb(S)$ has finitely many isomorphism classes. For instance, we give an example where $\Emb(S)$ contains an infinite ascending chain of soluble groups, and on the other hand show that $\Emb(S)$ contains only finitely many isomorphism classes in the case that $S$ is just infinite.
The article deals with profinite groups in which the centralizers are pronilpotent (CN-groups). It is shown that such groups are virtually pronilpotent. More precisely, let G be a profinite CN-group, and let F be the maximal normal pronilpotent subgroup of G. It is shown that F is open and the structure of the finite quotient G/F is described in detail.
Let R be any ring (with 1), Γa group and RΓthe corresponding group ring. Let H be a subgroup of Γof finite index. Let M be an RΓ-module, whose restriction to RH is projective. Moore's conjecture: Assume for every nontrivial element x in Γ, at least one of the following two conditions holds: M1) the subgroup generated by x intersects H non-trivially (in particular this holds if Γis torsion free). M2) ord(x) is finite and invertible in R. Then M is projective as an RΓ-module. More generally, the conjecture has been formulated for crossed products R*Γand even for strongly graded rings R(Γ). We pr…