33 pages. See also http://math.berkeley.edu/~gbergman/papers and http://shelah.logic.at (pub. 823). To appear, Alg.Univ., issue honoring W.Taylor. Main results as before (greater length due to AU formatting), but some new results in §\S11-12. Errors in subscripts between displays (12) and (13) fixed. Error in title of orig. posting fixed. 1 ref. added
Let S=Sym(Ω) be the group of all permutations of a countably infinite set Ω, and for subgroups G_1, G_2\leq S let us write G_1\approx G_2 if there exists a finite set U\subseteq S such that < G_1\cup U > = < G_2\cup U >. It is shown that the subgroups closed in the function topology on S lie in precisely four equivalence classes under this relation. Which of these classes a closed subgroup G belongs to depends on which of the following statements about pointwise stabilizer subgroups G_{(Γ)} of finite subsets Γ\subseteqΩholds:
(i) For every finite set Γ, the subgroup G_{(Γ)} has at least one infinite orbit in Ω.
(ii) There exist finite sets Γsuch that all orbits of G_{(Γ)} are finite, but none such that the cardinalities of these orbits have a common finite bound.
(iii) There exist finite sets Γsuch that the cardinalities of the orbits of G_{(Γ)} have a common finite bound, but none such that G_{(Γ)}=\{1\}.
(iv) There exist finite sets Γsuch that G_{(Γ)}=\{1\}.
Some questions for further investigation are discussed.
We study soluble groups G in which each subnormal subgroup H with infinite rank is commensurable with a normal subgroup, i.e. there exists a normal subgroup N such that the intersection of H and N has finite index in both H and N. We show that if such a G is periodic, then all subnormal subgroups are commensurable with a normal subgroup, provided either the Hirsch-Plotkin radical of G has infinite rank or G is nilpotent-by-abelian (and has infinite rank).
We study verbally closed subgroups of free solvable groups. A number of results is proved that give sufficient conditions under whose a verbally closed subgroup is turned to be a retract and so algebraically closed of the full group.
Locally compact abelian groups are classified in which the sum of any two closed subgroups is itself closed. This amounts to reproving and extending results by Yu.~N.~Mukhin from 1970. Namely we contribute a complete classification of all totally disconnected \lca\ groups with $X+Y$ closed for any closed subgroups $X$ and $Y$.
We prove that Thompson's group $F$ has a subgroup $H$ such that the conjugacy problem in $H$ is undecidable and the membership problem in $H$ is easily decidable. The subgroup $H$ of $F$ is a closed subgroup of $F$. That is, every function in $F$ which is a piecewise-$H$ function belongs to $H$. Other interesting examples of closed subgroups of $F$ include Jones' subgroups $\overrightarrow{F}_n$ and Jones' $3$-colorable subgroup $\mathcal F$. By a recent result of the first author, all maximal subgroups of $F$ of infinite index are closed. In this paper we prove that if $K\leq F$ is finitely g…
We prove that each infinite 2-group with a unique 2-element subgroup is isomorphic either to the quasicyclic 2-group or to the infinite group of generalized quaternions.
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…
In this paper, we find some exotic fusion systems which have non-trivial strongly closed subgroups, and we prove these fusion systems are also not realizable by p-blocks of finite groups.
Some properties of abnormal subgroups in generalized soluble groups will be considered. In particular, the transitivity of abnormality in metahypercentral groups is proven. Also it will be proven that a subgroup H of a radical group G is abnormal in G if and only if every intermediate subgroup for H coincides with its normalizer in G. This result will extend on radical groups the well-known criterion of abnormality for finite soluble groups obtained by D. Taunt. For some infinite groups (not only periodic) the existence of Carter subgroups and their conjugations will be also proven.
We study infinite approximate subgroups of soluble Lie groups. Generalising a theorem of Fried and Goldman we show that approximate subgroups are close, in a sense to be defined, to genuine connected subgroups. Building up on this result we prove a structure theorem for approximate lattices in soluble Lie groups. This extends to soluble Lie groups a theorem about quasi-crystals due to Yves Meyer.
The goal of this note is to classify the weakly closed unipotent subgroups in the split Chevalley groups. In an application we show under some mild assumptions on the characteristic that the Lie algebra of a connected simple algebraic group fails to be a so called 2F-module.
A theorem of Myasnikov and Roman'kov says that any verbally closed subgroup of a finitely generated free group is a retract. We prove that all free (and many virtually free) verbally closed subgroups are retracts in any finitely generated group.
We prove that for arbitrary two finitely generated subgroups A and B having infinite index in a free group F, there is a subgroup H of finite index in B such that the subgroup generated by A and H has infinite index in F. The main corollary of this theorem says that a noncyclic free group of finite rank admits a faithful highly transitive action on an infinite set, whereas the restriction of this action to any finitely generated subgroup of infinite index in F has no infinite orbits.
Any virtually free group $H$ containing no non-trivial finite normal subgroup (e.g., the infinite dihedral group) is a retract of any finitely generated group containing $H$ as a verbally closed subgroup.
We generalise a technical tool, originally developed by Pervova for the study of maximal subgroups in Grigorchuk and GGS groups, to all weakly branch groups satisfying a natural condition, and in particular to all branch groups. We then use this tool to prove that every maximal subgroup of infinite index of a branch group is also a branch group. As a further application of this result, we show that every maximal subgroup of the Basilica group is of finite index.
We show that if $H$ is a quasiconvex subgroup of infinite index in a non-elementary hyperbolic group $G$ then the Schreier coset graph $X$ for $G$ relative to $H$ is non-amenable (that is, $X$ has positive Cheeger constant). We present some corollaries regading the Martin boundary and Martin compactification of $X$ and the co-growth of $H$ in $G$.
The classical result, due to Jordan, Burnside, Dickson, says that every normal subgroup of $GL(n, K)$ ($K$ - a field, $n \geq 3$) which is not contained in the center, contains $SL(n, K)$. A. Rosenberg gave description of normal subgroups of $GL(V)$, where $V$ is a vector space of any infinite cardinality dimension over a division ring. However, when he considers subgroups of the direct product of the center and the group of linear transformations $g$ such that $g-id_V$ has finite dimensional range the proof is not complete. We fill this gap for countably dimensional $V$ giving description of …
Let $H\leq K$ be subgroups of a group G. We say that H is strongly closed in K with respect to G if whenever $a^g \in K$ where $a \in H, g \in G,$ then $a^g \in H.$ In this paper, we investigate the structure of a group G under the assumption that every subgroup of order $2^m$ (and 4 if m = 1) of a 2- Sylow subgroup S of G is strongly closed in S with respect to G. Some results related to 2-nilpotence and supersolvability of a group G are obtained. This is a complement to Guo and Wei (J. Group Theory 13 (2010), no. 2, 267-276).
This work examines the commutator structure of some closed subgroups of the wild group of automorphisms of a local field with perfect residue field, a group we call $\Cal J.$ In particular, we establish a new approach to evaluating commutators in $\Cal J$ and using this method investigate the normal subgroup structure of some classes of index subgroups of $\Cal J$ as introduced by Klopsch. We provide new proofs of Fesenko\rq s results that lead to a proof that the torsion free group $T =\{t+\sum_{k\geq 1} a_kt^{qk+1}: a_k \in \Bbb F_p\}$ is hereditarily just infinite, and by extending his work…
Let (G, *) be a semigroup, D subset of G, and n >= 2 be an integer. We say that (D, *) is an n-closed subset of G if a_1* ... *a_n in D for every a_1, ..., a_n in D. Hence every closed set is a 2-closed set. The concept of n-closed sets arise in so many natural examples. For example, let D be the set of all odd integers, then (D, +) is a 3-closed subset of (Z, +) that is not a 2-closed subset of (Z, +). If K = {1, 4, 7, 10, ...}, then (K, +) is a 4-closed subset of (Z, +) that is not an n-closed subset of (Z, +) for n = 2, 3. In this paper, we show that if (H, *) is a subgroup of a group (G, *…
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 obtain a characterization of totally disconnected, locally compact groups $G$ with the following property: given a locally normal subgroup $K$ of $G$, then there is an open subgroup of $K$ that is a direct factor of an open subgroup of $G$. This property is motivated by J. Wilson's structure theory of just infinite groups, and indeed, when $G$ has trivial quasi-centre, the condition turns out to be equivalent to the condition that $G$ is locally isomorphic to a finite direct product of just infinite profinite groups. In the latter situation we obtain some global structural features of $G$, …
Let $G$ be a non-elementary hyperbolic group. Let $w$ be a group word such that the set $w[G]$ of all its values in $G$ does not coincide with $G$ or 1. We show that the width of verbal subgroup $w(G)=<w[G]>$ is infinite. That is, there is no such $l\in\mathbb Z$ that any $g\in w(G)$ can be represented as a product of $\le l$ values of $w$ and their inverses.
We consider the coset poset associated with the families of proper subgroups, proper subgroups of finite index, and proper normal subgroups of finite index. We investigate under which conditions those coset posets have contractible geometric realizations.
Among compact Hausdorff groups G whose maximal profinite quotient is finitely generated, we characterize those that possess a proper dense normal subgroup. We also prove that the abstract commutator subgroup [H,G] is closed for every closed normal subgroup H of G.
We prove that the property of being cyclic subgroup separable, that is having all cyclic subgroups closed in the profinite topology, is preserved under forming graph products. Furthermore, we develop the tools to study the analogous question in the pro-$p$ case. For a wide class of groups we show that the relevant cyclic subgroups - which are called $p$-isolated - are closed in the pro-$p$ topology of the graph product. In particular, we show that every $p$-isolated cyclic subgroup of a right-angled Artin group is closed in the pro-$p$ topology, and we fully characterise such subgroups.
We construct the first examples of finitely presented groups with cubic Dehn function containing a finitely generated infinite torsion subgroup. Moreover, we show that any infinite free Burnside group with sufficiently large odd exponent can be embedded as a subgroup of a finitely presented group with cubic Dehn function.
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.
The following results are proved: The center of any finite index subgroup of an irreducible, infinite, non-affine Coxeter group is trivial; Any finite index subgroup of an irreducible, infinite, non-affine Coxeter group cannot be expressed as a product of two nontrivial subgroups. These two theorems imply a unique decomposition theorem for a class of Coxeter groups. We also obtain that the orbit of each element other than the identity under the conjugation action in an irreducible, infinite, non-affine Coxeter group is an infinite set. This implies that an irreducible, infinite Coxeter group i…
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.
An abstract group $G$ is called totally $2$-closed if $H=H^{(2),Ω}$ for any set $Ω$ with $G\cong H\leq{\rm Sym}(Ω)$, where $H^{(2),Ω}$ is the largest subgroup of ${\rm Sym}(Ω)$ whose orbits on $Ω\timesΩ$ are the same orbits of $H$. In this paper, we classify the finite soluble totally $2$-closed groups. We also prove that the Fitting subgroup of a totally $2$-closed group is a totally $2$-closed group. Finally, we prove that a finite insoluble totally $2$-closed group $G$ of minimal order with non-trivial Fitting subgroup has shape $Z\cdot X$, with $Z=Z(G)$ cyclic, and $X$ is a finite group wi…
The group A_{m} of automophisms of a one-rooted m-ary tree admits a diagonal monomorphism which we denote by x. Let A be an abelian state-closed (or self-similar) subgroup of A_{m}. We prove that the combined diagonal and tree-topological closure A* of A is additively a finitely presented Z_m [[x]]-module where Z_m is the ring of m-adic integers. Moreover, if A* is torsion-free then it is a finitely generated pro-m group. The group A splits over its torsion subgroup. We study in detail the case where A* corresponds to a cyclic Z_m[[x]]-module and when m is a prime number, we show A* to be conj…
We describe an algorithm that computes the index of a finitely generated subgroup in a finitely $L$-presented group provided that this index is finite. This algorithm shows that the subgroup membership problem for finite index subgroups in a finitely $L$-presented group is decidable. As an application, we consider the low-index subgroups of some self-similar groups including the Grigorchuk group, the twisted twin of the Grigorchuk group, the Grigorchuk super-group and the Hanoi 3-group
We say that a subgroup $H$ of an infinite compact Abelian group $X$ is {\it $T$-characterized} if there is a $T$-sequence $\mathbf{u} =\{u_n \}$ in the dual group of $X$ such that $H=\{x\in X: \; (u_n, x)\to 1 \}$. We show that a closed subgroup $H$ of $X$ is $T$-characterized if and only if $H$ is a $G_δ$-subgroup of $X$ and the annihilator of $H$ admits a Hausdorff minimally almost periodic group topology. All closed subgroups of an infinite compact Abelian group $X$ are $T$-characterized if and only if $X$ is metrizable and connected. We prove that every compact Abelian group $X$ of infinit…
We construct three groups $Λ_1$, $Λ_2$, $Λ_3$, which can all be decomposed as amalgamated products $F_9 \ast_{F_{81}} F_{9}$ and have very few normal subgroups of finite or infinite index. Concretely, $Λ_1$ is a simple group, $Λ_2$ is not simple but has no non-trivial normal subgroup of infinite index, and $Λ_3$ is not simple but has no proper subgroup of finite index.
A subgroup Q is commensurated in a group G if each G conjugate of Q intersects Q in a group that has finite index in both Q and the conjugate. So commensurated subgroups are similar to normal subgroups. Semistability and simple connectivity at infinity are geometric asymptotic properties of finitely presented groups. In this paper we generalize several of the classic semistability and simple connectivity at infinity results for finitely presented groups. In particular, we show that if a finitely generated group G contains an infinite finitely generated commensurated subgroup Q of infinite inde…
We construct a hyperbolic group with a finitely presented subgroup, which has infinitely many conjugacy classes of finite-order elements. We also use a version of Morse theory with high dimensional horizontal cells and use handle cancellation arguments to produce other examples of subgroups of CAT(0) groups with infinitely many conjugacy classes of finite-order elements.
Let $G$ be a reductive algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $p>0$, and assume $p$ is good for $G$. Let $P$ be a parabolic subgroup with unipotent radical $U$. For $r \ge 1$, denote by $\mathbb{G}_{a(r)}$ the $r$-th Frobenius kernel of $\mathbb{G}_a$. We prove that if the nilpotence class of $U$ is less than $p$, then any embedding of $\mathbb{G}_{a(r)}$ in $U$ lies inside a one-parameter subgroup of $U$, and there is a canonical way in which to choose such a subgroup. Applying this result, we prove that if $p$ is at least as big as the Coxeter number of $G$,…
A closed subgroup of a semisimple algebraic group is called irreducible if it lies in no proper parabolic subgroup. In this paper we classify all irreducible subgroups of exceptional algebraic groups $G$ which are connected, closed and simple of rank at least $2$. Consequences are given concerning the representations of such subgroups on various $G$-modules: for example, with one exception, the conjugacy classes of irreducible simple connected subgroups of rank at least $2$ are determined by their composition factors on the adjoint module for $G$.
We reduce the classification of finite subgroups in compact Lie groups to that of quasi-simple ones, prove the number of conjugacy classes is finite and each cojugacy class is Zariski closed in mapping space, and classify "strongly controlling fusions" symmetric pairs.
