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 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.
Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the endomorphism monoid of a profinite semigroup to be profinite. A similar result is established for the automorphism group.
We give a short proof, using profinite techniques, that idempotent pointlikes, stable pairs and triples are decidable for the pseudovariety of aperiodic monoids. Stable pairs are also described for the pseudovariety of all finite monoids.
We prove every regular element of a free profinite monoid generates a prime ideal; in particular the minimal ideal is prime. The latter result was first proved by Almeida and Volkov using techniques from symbolic dynamics; our proof is elementary.
We generalize the notion of a projective profinite group to a projective pair of a profinite group and a closed subgroup. We establish the connection with Pseudo Algebraically Closed (PAC) extensions of PAC fields: Let M be an algebraic extension of a PAC field K. Then M/K is PAC if and only if the corresponding pair of absolute Galois groups (Gal(M),Gal(K)) is projective. Moreover any projective pair can be realized as absolute Galois groups of a PAC extension of a PAC field. Using this characterization we construct new examples of PAC extensions of relatively small fields, e.g., unbounded ab…
The homology groups introduced by A. Brumer can be used to establish a criterion ensuring that a profinite $\mathbb{F}_p[[G]]$-module of a pro-$p$ group $G$ has projective dimension $d<\infty$ (cf. Thm. A). This criterion yields a new characterization of free pro-$p$ groups (cf. Cor. B). Applied to a semi-direct factor $G\to\mathbb{Z}_p\to G$ isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}_p$ which defines a non-trivial end in the sense of A.A. Korenev one concludes that the closure of the normal closure of the image of $σ$ is a free pro-$p$ subgroup (cf. Thm. C). From this result we will deduce a structure theorem…
We construct a correspondence between the cohomology groups of a group $G$ relative to a family of subgroups $\famS$ and the classes of `relative extensions' of $G$ by abelian groups, modulo a certain equivalence relation. We establish this correspondence for both discrete and profinite group pairs. We go on to discuss the relationships of profinite group pairs of cohomological dimension one with free products and projective group pairs.
We show that the category of discrete modules over an infinite profinite group has no non-zero projective objects and does not satisfy Ab4*. We also prove the same types of results in a generalized setting using a ring with linear topology.
Profinite congruences on profinite algebras determining profinite quotients are difficult to describe. In particular, no constructive description is known of the least profinite congruence containing a given binary relation on the algebra. On the other hand, closed congruences and fully invariant congruences can be described constructively. In a previous paper, we conjectured that fully invariant closed congruences on a relatively free profinite algebra are always profinite. Here, we show that our conjecture fails for unary algebras and that closed congruences on relatively free profinite semi…
We introduce various probablistic finiteness conditions for profinite groups related to positive finite generation (PFG). We investigate completed group rings which are PFG as modules, and use this to answer a question of Kionke and the second author on positively finitely related groups. Using the theory of projective covers, we define and characterise a probabilistic version of the $\mathrm{FP}_n$ property for profinite groups, called $\mathrm{PFP}_n$. Finally, we prove how these conditions are related to previously defined finiteness conditions and each other.
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.
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…
For a formation $\mathfrak{F}$ of finite groups, tight connections are established between the pro-$\mathfrak{F}$-topology of a finitely generated free group $F$ and the geometry of the Cayley graph $Γ(\hat{F_{\mathfrak{F}}})$ of the pro-$\mathfrak{F}$-completion $\hat{F_{\mathfrak {F}}}$ of $F$. For example, the Ribes--Zalesskii-Theorem is proved for the pro-$\mathfrak{F}$-topology of $F$ in case $Γ(\hat{F_{\mathfrak F}})$ is a tree-like graph. All these results are established by purely geometric proofs, without the use of inverse monoids which were indispensable in earlier papers, thereby g…
We introduce the condition of a profinite group being semi-free, which is more general than being free and more restrictive than being quasi-free. In particular, every projective semi-free profinite group is free. We prove that the usual permanence properties of free groups carry over to semi-free groups. Using this, we conclude that if k is a separably closed field, then many field extensions of k((x,y)) have free absolute Galois groups.
We define cofinite graphs and cofinite groupoids in a unified way that extends the notion of cofinite groups introduced by Hartley. The common underlying structure of all these objects is that they are directed graphs endowed with a certain type of uniform structure, that we call a cofinite uniformity. We begin by exploring the fundamental theory of cofinite directed graphs in full generality. The general theory turns out to be almost completely analogous to that of cofinite groups. For instance, every cofinite directed graph has a unique completion which is a com- pact cofinite direct graph. …
We give a construction of the projective indecomposable modules and a description of the quiver for a large class of monoid algebras including the algebra of any finite monoid whose principal right ideals have at most one idempotent generator. Our results include essentially all families of finite monoids for which this has been done previously, for example, left regular bands, $\mathscr J$-trivial and $\mathscr R$-trivial monoids and left regular bands of groups.
We describe the pronilpotent quotients of a class of projective profinite groups, that we call $ω$-presented groups, defined using a special type of presentations. The pronilpotent quotients of an $ω$-presented group are completely determined by a single polynomial, closely related with the characteristic polynomial of a matrix. We deduce that $ω$-presented groups are either perfect or admit the $p$-adic integers as quotients for cofinitely many primes. We also find necessary conditions for absolute and relative freeness of $ω$-presented groups. Our main motivation comes from semigroup theory:…
Groups that can be approximated by finite groups have been the center of much research. This has led to the investigations of the subgroups of metric ultraproducts of finite groups. This paper attempts to study the dual problem: what are the quotients of ultraproducts of finite groups? Since an ultraproduct is an abstract quotient of the direct product, this also led to a more general question: what are the abstract quotients of profinite groups? Certain cases were already well-studied. For example, if we have a pro-solvable group, then it is well-known that any finite abstract quotients are s…
In this paper, we shall introduce two monoids. One is called a PM-monoid which contains the symmetric group, the other is called a braid PM-monoid which contains the braid group. We shall develop the theory of PM-monoids and that of braid PM-monoids. The PM-monoids is obtained in the context of the compactification of projective linear group defined by Mutsumi Saito. The structure of PM-monoids is described in terms of matched pairs. We can define braid PM-monoid using a presentation for the PM-monoid. As main results, we show that braid PM-monoids are described by geometric braids and we find…
For every one-relator monoid $M = \langle A \mid u=v \rangle$ with $u, v \in A^*$ we construct a contractible $M$-CW complex and use it to build a projective resolution of the trivial module which is finitely generated in all dimensions. This proves that all one-relator monoids are of type ${\rm FP}_\infty$, answering positively a problem posed by Kobayashi in 2000. We also apply our results to classify the one-relator monoids of cohomological dimension at most $2$, and to describe the relation module, in the sense of Ivanov, of a torsion-free one-relator monoid presentation as an explicitly g…
We study Artin-Tits braid groups $\mathbb{B}_W$ of type ADE via the action of $\mathbb{B}_W$ on the homotopy category $\mathcal{K}$ of graded projective zigzag modules (which categorifies the action of the Weyl group $W$ on the root lattice). Following Brav-Thomas, we define a metric on $\mathbb{B}_W$ induced by the canonical $t$-structure on $\mathcal{K}$, and prove that this metric on $\mathbb{B}_W$ agrees with the word-length metric in the canonical generators of the standard positive monoid $\mathbb{B}_W^+$ of the braid group. We also define, for each choice of a Coxeter element $c$ in $W$…
The representation theory of the symmetric group has been intensively studied for over 100 years and is one of the gems of modern mathematics. The full transformation monoid $\mathfrak T_n$ (the monoid of all self-maps of an $n$-element set) is the monoid analogue of the symmetric group. The investigation of its representation theory was begun by Hewitt and Zuckerman in 1957. Its character table was computed by Putcha in 1996 and its representation type was determined in a series of papers by Ponizovski{\uı}, Putcha and Ringel between 1987 and 2000. From their work, one can deduce that the glo…
We construct an action of the free group $F_n$ on the homotopy category of projective modules over a finite dimensional zigzag algebra. The main theorem in the paper is that this action is faithful. We describe the relationship between homotopy classes of paths in the punctured disc and complexes of projective zigzag modules and explore the connection between gradings on the zigzag algebra and monoids in $F_n$. We use this connection to give homological constructions of the standard and Bessis dual word length metrics on the free group.
