A $k$-free like group is a $k$-generated group $G$ with a sequence of $k$-element generating sets $Z_n$ such that the girth of $G$ relative to $Z_n$ is unbounded and the Cheeger constant of $G$ relative to $Z_n$ is bounded away from 0. By a recent result of Benjamini-Nachmias-Peres, this implies that the critical bond percolation probability of the Cayley graph of $G$ relative to $Z_n$ tends to $1/(2k-1)$ as $n\to \infty$. Answering a question of Benjamini, we construct many non-free groups that are $k$-free like for all sufficiently large $k$.
Let $F$ be either a free nilpotent group of a given class and of finite rank or a free solvable group of a certain derived length and of finite rank. We show precisely which ones have the $R_{\infty}$ property. Finally, we also show that the free group of infinite rank does not have the $R_{\infty}$ property.
We give a topological framework for the study of Sela's limit groups: limit groups are limits of free groups in a compact space of marked groups. Many results get a natural interpretation in this setting. The class of limit groups is known to coincide with the class of finitely generated fully residually free groups. The topological approach gives some new insight on the relation between fully residually free groups, the universal theory of free groups, ultraproducts and non-standard free groups.
We prove that an outer automorphism of the free group is exponentially growing if and only if it induces an outer automorphism of infinite order of free Burnside groups with sufficiently large odd exponent.
This note aims to introduce a left adjoint functor to the functor which assigns a heap to a group. The adjunction is monadic. It is explained how one can decompose a free group functor through the previously introduced adjoint and employ it to describe a slightly different construction of free groups.
In this note, we show that an uncountable locally free group, and therefore every locally free group, has a free subgroup whose cardinality is the same as that of $G$. This result directly improve the main result in [T. Nishinaka,"Group rings of countable non-abelian locally free groups are primitive", Int. J. algebra and computation, 21(3)(2011), 409-431] and establish the primitivity of group rings of locally free groups.
We prove an estimate for the rank of the intersection of free subgroups in virtually free groups, which is analogous to the Hanna Neumann inequality for subgroups in a free group and to the S.V. Ivanov estimate for subgroups in free products of groups. We also prove a more general estimate for the rank of the intersection of free subgroups in the fundamental group of a finite graph of groups with finite edge groups.
A conjecture of Dicks and the author on rank of the intersection of factor-free subgroups in free products of groups is proved for the case of left ordered groups.
We construct easy embeddings of relatively free groups (say the free Burnside group, the free solvable group) into finitely presented groups. We introduce a concept of verbal isoperimetric function of a group variety. We prove that if the verbal Dehn function of a relatively free group is bounded by a polynomial then the group can be embedded quasi-isometrically into a finitely presented group with polynomial isoperimetric function. We also construct an easy embedding of any Baumslag-Solitar solvable group into a finitely presented group with polynomial Dehn function.
A group $G$ is said to be a {\it CSA}-group if all maximal abelian subgroups of $G$ are malnormal. The class of CSA groups is of interest because it contains torsion-free hyperbolic groups, groups acting freely on $Λ$-trees and groups with the same existential theory as free groups. CSA groups are also very closely related to the study of residually free groups and tensor completions. In this paper we investigate which free constructions (amalgamated products and HNN extensions) over CSA groups are again CSA. The results are applied, in particular, to show that a torsion-free one-relator group…
We show that free-by-free groups satisfying a homological criterion, which we call excessive homology, are incoherent. This class is large in nature, including many examples of hyperbolic and non-hyperbolic free-by-free groups. We apply this criterion to finite index subgroups of $F_2\rtimes F_n$ to show incoherence of all such groups, and to other similar classes of groups. Furthermore, we show that a large class of groups, including free-by-free, surface-by-surface, and finitely generated-by-RAAG, algebraically fiber if they have excessive homology.
We give two examples of a finitely generated subgroup of a free group and a subset, closed in the profinite topology of a free group, such that their product is not closed in the profinite topology of a free group.
We give an algorithm for solving equations and inequations with rational constraints in virtually free groups. Our algorithm is based on Rips classification of measured band complexes. Using canonical representatives, we deduce an algorithm for solving equations and inequations in hyperbolic groups (maybe with torsion). Additionnally, we can deal with quasi-isometrically embeddable rational constraints.
There are limit groups having non-conjugate elements whose images are conjugate in every free quotient. Towers over free groups are freely conjugacy separable.
We will show that all inverse limits of finite rank free groups index by the natural numbers are isomorphic either to a finite rank free group or to a fixed universal group. In other words, any inverse system of finite rank free groups which is not equivalent to an eventually constant system has the universal group as its limit. This universal inverse limit is naturally isomorphic to the first shape group of the Hawaiian earring. We also give an example of a homomorphic image of a Hawaiian earring group which lies in the inverse limit of free groups but is neither a free group nor a Hawaiian e…
We show that the class of amalgamated free products of two free groups over a cyclic subgroup admits amenable, faithful and transitive actions on infinite countable sets. This work generalizes the results on such actions for doubles of free group on 2 generators.
We classify the finite groups $G$ such that the group of units of the integral group ring ${\mathbb Z} G$ has a subgroup of finite index which is a direct product of free-by-free groups.
We prove that groups for which every countable subgroup is free ($\aleph_1$-free groups) are n-slender, cm-slender, and lcH-slender. In particular every homomorphism from a completely metrizable group to an $\aleph_1$-free group has an open kernel. We also show that $\aleph_1$-free abelian groups are lcH-slender, which is especially interesting in light of the fact that some $\aleph_1$-free abelian groups are neither n- nor cm-slender. The strongly $\aleph_1$-free abelian groups are shown to be n-, cm-, and lcH-slender. We also give a characterization of cm- and lcH-slender abelian groups.
We prove that the automorphism group of an arbitrary non-abelian free group is complete. It generalizes the result by J.Dyer and E.Formanek (1975) stating the completeness of automorphism group of finitely generated free groups. Using the description of involutions in automorphism groups of free groups (J. Dyer, P. Scott, 1975) we obtain a group-theoretic characterization of inner automorphisms determined by primitive elements in the automorphism group of any non-abelian free group F. It follows that the subgroup Inn(F) is characteristic in Aut(F), and hence the latter one is complete.
A subgroup of a group is contranormal if its normal closure coincides with the group. We call such groups without proper contranormal subgroups contranormal-free. In this paper we prove various results concerning contranormal-free groups proving, for example that locally generalized radical contranormal-free groups which have finite section rank are hypercentral.
For certain uncountable cardinals $κ$ we produce a group of cardinality $κ$ which is freely indecomposable, strongly $κ$-free, and whose abelianization is free abelian of rank $κ$. The construction takes place in Gödel's constructible universe $L$. This strengthens an earlier result of Eklof and Mekler.
A finitely generated virtually free pro-p group with finite centralizers of its torsion elements is the free pro-p product of finite p-groups and a free pro-p factor.
Groups acting freely on Z^n-trees (Z^n-free groups) play a key role in the study of non-archimedean group actions. Following Stallings' ideas, we develop graph-theoretic techniques to investigate subgroup structure of Z^n-free groups. As an immediate application of the presented method, we give an effective solution to the Uniform Membership Problem and the Power Problem in Z^n-free groups.
It is shown that the big free group (the set of countably-long words over a countable alphabet) is almost free, in the sense that any function from the alphabet to a compact topological group factors through a homomorphism. This statement is in fact a simple corollary of the more general result proven below on the extendability of homomorphisms from subgroups (of a certain kind) of the big free group to a compact topological group.
We present an effective algorithm for detecting automorphic orbits in free groups, as well as a number of algorithmic improvements of train tracks for free group automorphisms.
We study sets of solutions to equations over a free group, projections of such sets, and the structure of elementary sets defined over a free group. The structre theory we obtain enable us to answer some questions of A. Tarski's, and classify those finitely generated groups that are elementary equivalent to a free group. Connections with low dimensional topology, and a generalization to (Gromov) hyperbolic groups will also be discussed.
We study some properties of the varieties of deformations of free groups in compact Lie groups. In particular we prove a conjecture of Margulis and Soifer about the density of non-virtually free points in such variety, and a conjecture of Goldman on the ergodicity of the action of Aut(Fn) on such variety when n>2.
Let F be an infinitely generated free group and R a fully invariant subgroup of F such that (a) R is contained in the commutator subgroup F' of F and (b) the quotient group F/R is residually torsion-free nilpotent. Then the automorphism group Aut(F/R') of the group F/R' is complete. In particular, the automorphism group of any infinitely generated free solvalbe group of derived length at least two is complete. This extends a result by Dyer and Formanek (1977) on finitely generated groups F_n/R' where F_n is a free group of finite rank n at least two and R a characteristic subgroup of F_n.
In this paper, we study some properties of the outer automorphism group of free Burnside groups of large odd exponent. In particular, we prove that it contains free and free abelian subgroups.
In this note we introduce pro-Hall $R$-groups as inverse limits of Hall $R$-groups and show that for the binomial closure $S^{bin}$ of any ring $S$ discriminated by $\mathbb{Z}_p$, the free pro-Hall $S^{bin}$-group $\mathbb{F}(A,S^{bin})$ is fully residually free pro-$p$. Furthermore, we prove that any finite set of elements in $\mathbb{F}(A,S^{bin})$ defines a pro-$p$ subgroup and so an irreducible coordinate group over the free pro-$p$ group.
For a torsion free finitely generated nilpotent group G we naturally associate four finite dimensional nilpotent Lie algebras over a field of characteristic zero. We show that if G is a relatively free group of some variery of nilpotent groups then all the above Lie algebras are isomorphic. As a result, any two quasi-isometric relatively free nilpotent groups are isomorphic. Moreover let L be a relatively free nilpotent Lie algebra over Q generated by X. We give L the structure of a group by means of the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula and we show that the subgroup H generated by X is relativ…
We use a recent result of Alexander and Nishinaka to show that if $G$ is a non-elementary torsion-free hyperbolic group and $R$ is a countable domain, then the group ring $RG$ is primitive. This implies that the group ring $KG$ of any non-elementary torsion-free hyperbolic group $G$ over a field $K$ is primitive.
First, we study a descending filtration of the ring of Fricke characters of a free group consisting of ideals on which the automorphism group of a free group acts. Then using it, we define a descending filtration of the IA-automorphism group of a free group, and investigate a relation between it and the Andreadakis-Johnson filtration.
We define two complexes on which the group Aut$(F_n)$ acts freely. The homotopy groups of these are studied. They map to the K-groups of Z and are themselves a sort of pre-K-theory.
A second countable virtually free pro-p group all of whose torsion elements have finite centralizer is the free pro-p product of finite p-groups and a free pro-p factor.
A residually nilpotent group is \emph{$k$-parafree} if all of its lower central series quotients match those of a free group of rank $k$. Magnus proved that $k$-parafree groups of rank $k$ are themselves free. In this note we mimic this theory with finite extensions of free groups, with an emphasis on free products of the cyclic group $C_p$, for $p$ an odd prime. We show that for $n \leq p$ Magnus' characterization holds for the $n$-fold free product $C_p^{*n}$ within the class of finite-extensions of free groups. Specifically, if $n \leq p$ and $G$ is a finitely generated, virtually free, res…
In this paper we consider the palindromic width of free nilpotent groups. In particular, we prove that the palindromic width of a finitely generated free nilpotent group is finite. We also prove that the palindromic width of a free abelian-by-nilpotent group is finite.
The paper is intended to be a survey on some topics within the framework of automorphisms of a relatively free groups of infinite rank. We discuss such properties as tameness, primitivity, small index, Bergman property, and so on.
In a number of recent works, it has been established that many virtually free groups, almost all fundamental groups of surfaces and all groups which are nontrivial free products of groups satisfying a non-trivial law are algebraically closed in any group in which they are verbally closed. In this work we establish that any group which is a non-trivial free product is algebraically closed in any group in which it is verbally closed.
We investigate the ability of a free pro-$\CC$ group of infinite rank to abstractly solve abstract embedding problems, and conclude that for some varieties $\CC$, the profinite completion of any order, of a free pro-$\CC$ group of infinite rank, is a free pro-$\CC$ group as well, of the corresponding rank.
The main result in this paper is the failure of the finitely generated intersection property (FGIP) of ascending HNN extensions of non-cyclic finite rank free groups. This class of group consists of free-by-cyclic groups and properly ascending HNN extensions of free groups. We also give a sufficient condition for the failure of the FGIP in the context of relative hyperbolicity, we apply this to free-by-cyclic groups of exponential growth.
Dyer and Formanek (1976) proved that if N is a free nilpotent group of class two and of finite rank which is not equal to 1, or to 3, then the automorphism group Aut(N) of N is complete. The main result of the present paper states that the automorphism group of any infinitely generated free nilpotent group of class two is also complete.
We prove that a permutation group in which different finite sets have different stabilizers cannot satisfy any group law. For locally compact topological groups with this property we show that almost all finite subsets of the group generate free subgroups. We derive consequences of these theorems on Thompson's group $F$, weakly branch groups, automorphism groups of regular trees and profinite groups with alternating composition factors of unbounded degree.
In this paper we prove the theorem on freedom for relatively free groups with a single relation (analogous with the well-known result of Magnus) and the theorem on freedom for relatively free Lie algebras with a single relation (analogous with the well-known result of Shirshov).
It is proved that generalized free product of two finite p-groups is a conjugacy p-separable group if and only if it is residually finite p-groups. This result is then applied to establish some sufficient conditions for conjugacy p-separability of generalized free product of infinite groups.
We improve and shorten the argument given in(Journal of Algebra, vol.~210 (1998) pp~291--297). Inparticular, the fact that Artin braid groups are torsion free now follows from Garsideś results almost immediately.
We give two slight generalizations of results of Poizat about elementary theories of groups obtained by free constructions. The first-one concerns the non-superstability of such groups in most cases, and the second-one concerns the connectedness of most free products of groups.
