A nilpotent quotient algorithm for finitely presented Lie rings over Z (LieNQ) is described. The paper studies graded and non-graded cases separately. The algorithm computes the so-called nilpotent presentation for a finitely presented, nilpotent Lie ring. The nilpotent presentation consists of generators for the abelian group and the products---expressed as linear combinations---for pairs formed by generators. Using that presentation the word problem is decidable in $L$. Provided that the Lie ring $L$ is graded, it is possible to determine the canonical presentation for a lower central factor of $L$. LieNQ's complexity is studied and it is shown that optimizing the presentation is NP-hard. Computational details are provided with examples, timing and some structure theorems obtained from computations. Implementation in C and GAP 3.5 interface is available.
We show that every finitely generated nilpotent group of class 2 occurs as the quotient of a finitely presented abelian-by-nilpotent group by its largest nilpotent normal subgroup.
We describe an algorithm for deciding whether or not a given finitely generated torsion-free nilpotent group is decomposable as the direct product of nontrivial subgroups.
In this paper we study the residual solvability of the generalized free product of finitely generated nilpotent groups. We show that these kinds of structures are often residually solvable.
In the first part, we prove that the dominion (in the sense of Isbell) of a subgroup of a finitely generated nilpotent group is trivial in the category of all nilpotent groups. In the second part, we show that the dominion of a subgroup of a finitely generated nilpotent group of class two is trivial in the category of all metabelian nilpotent groups.
The main part of this paper contains a description of a nilpotent quotient algorithm for L-presented groups and a report on applications of its implementation in the computer algebra system GAP. The appendix introduces two new infinite series of L-presented groups. Apart from being of interest in their own right, these new L-presented groups serve as examples for applications of the nilpotent quotient algorithm.
A famous result of Hall asserts that the multiplication and exponentiation in finitely generated torsion free nilpotent groups can be described by rational polynomials. We describe an algorithm to determine such polynomials for all torsion free nilpotent groups of given Hirsch length. We apply this to determine the Hall polynomials for all such groups of Hirsch length at most 7.
If $G$ and $H$ are finitely generated residually nilpotent groups, then $G$ and $H$ are in the same nilpotent genus if they have the same lower central quotients (up to isomorphism). A stronger condition is that $H$ is para-$G$ if there exists a monomorphism of $G$ into $H$ which induces isomorphisms between the corresponding quotients of their lower central series. We first consider residually nilpotent groups and find sufficient conditions on the monomorphism so that $H$ is para-$G.$ We then prove that for certain polycyclic groups, if $H$ is para-$G$, then $G$ and $H$ have the same Hirsch l…
We offer in this note a self-contained proof of the fact that a finitely generated group is not virtually nilpotent if and only if it has a quotient with the infinite conjugacy class (ICC) propoerty. This proof is a modern presentation of the original proof, by McLain (1956) and Duguid and McLain (1956).
In this paper we study distortion of various well-known embeddings of finitely generated torsion-free nilpotent groups $G$ into unitriangular groups $UT_n(\mathbb{Z})$. We also provide a polynomial time algorithm for finding distortion of a given subgroup of $G$
It is shown that if $G$ is a primitive permutation group on a set of size $n$, then any nilpotent quotient of $G$ has order at most $n^β$ and any solvable quotient of $G$ has order at most $n^{α+1}$ where $β=\log 32/ \log 9$ and $α=(3 \log (48)+\log (24))/ (3 \cdot \log (9))$. This was motivated by a result of Aschbacher and Guralnick
It is proved that for any prime $p$ a finitely generated nilpotent group is conjugacy separable in the class of finite $p$-groups if and only if the torsion subgroup of it is a finite $p$-group and the quotient group by the torsion subgroup is abelian.
Two groups are said to have the same nilpotent genus if they have the same nilpotent quotients. We answer four questions of Baumslag concerning nilpotent completions. (i) There exists a pair of finitely generated, residually torsion-free-nilpotent groups of the same nilpotent genus such that one is finitely presented and the other is not. (ii) There exists a pair of finitely presented, residually torsion-free-nilpotent groups of the same nilpotent genus such that one has a solvable conjugacy problem and the other does not. (iii) There exists a pair of finitely generated, residually torsion-fre…
This paper studies effective separability for subgroups of finitely generated nilpotent groups and more broadly effective subgroup separability of finitely generated nilpotent groups. We provide upper and lower bounds that are polynomial with respect to the logarithm of the word length for infinite index subgroups of nilpotent groups. In the case of normal subgroups, we provide an exact computation generalizing work of the second author. We introduce a function that quantifies subgroup separability, and we provide polynomial upper and lower bounds. We finish by demonstrating that our results e…
We describe an algorithm for computing successive quotients of the Schur multiplier $M(G)$ for a group $G$ given by an invariant finite $L$-presentation. As application, we investigate the Schur multipliers of various self-similar groups such as the Grigorchuk super-group, the generalized Fabrykowski-Gupta groups, the Basilica group and the Brunner-Sidki-Vieira group.
The functions $F_{G}(n)$ measures the asymptotic behavior of residual finiteness for a finitely generated group $G$. In previous work \cite{Pengitore_1}, the author claimed a characterization for $F_{N}(n)$ when $N$ is a finitely generated nilpotent group. However, a counterexample to the above claim was communicated to the author, and subsequently, the statement of the asymptotic characterization of $F_{N}(n)$ is incorrect. In this article, we introduce new tools to provide lower asymptotic bounds for $F_{N}(n)$ when $N$ is a finitely generated nilpotent group. Moreover, we introduce a class …
A group $G$ has the $R_{\infty}$--property if the number $R(φ)$ of twisted conjugacy classes is infinite for any automorphism $φ$ of $G$. For such a group $G$, the $R_{\infty}$--nilpotency index is the least integer $c$ such that $G/γ_{c+1}(G)$ still has the $R_\infty$--property. In this paper, we determine the $R_{\infty}$--nilpotency degree of all Baumslag--Solitar groups.
Let $\mathbf{G}$ be a unipotent group scheme defined in terms of a nilpotent Lie lattice over the ring $\mathcal{O}$ of integers of a number field. We consider bivariate zeta functions of groups of the form $\mathbf{G}(\mathcal{O})$ encoding, respectively, the numbers of isomorphism classes of irreducible complex representations of finite dimensions and the numbers of conjugacy classes of congruence quotients of the associated groups. We show that the domains of convergence and meromorphic continuation of these zeta functions of groups $\mathbf{G}(\mathcal{O})$ are independent of the number fi…
The authors extend to the $q-$tensor square $G \otimes^q G$ of a group $G$, $q$ a non-negative integer, some structural results due to R. D. Blyth, F. Fumagalli and M. Morigi concerning the non-abelian tensor square $G \otimes G$ ($q = 0$). The results are applied to the computation of $G \otimes^q G$ for finitely generated nilpotent groups $G$, specially for free nilpotent groups of finite rank. They also generalize to all $q \geq 0$ results of M. Bacon regarding an upper bound to the minimal number of generators of the non-abelian tensor square $G \otimes G$ when $G$ is a $n-$generator nilpo…
We say a group $G$ has property $R_\infty$ if the number $R(φ)$ of twisted conjugacy classes is infinite for every automorphism $φ$ of $G$. For such groups, the $R_\infty$-nilpotency degree is the least integer $c$ such that $G/γ_{c+1}(G)$ has property $R_\infty$. In this work, we compute the $R_\infty$-nilpotency degree of all Generalized Solvable Baumslag-Solitar groups $Γ_n$. Moreover, we compute the lower central series of $Γ_n$, write the nilpotent quotients $Γ_{n,c}=Γ_n/γ_{c+1}(Γ_n)$ as semidirect products of finitely generated abelian groups and classify which integer invertible matrice…
In the paper we show that any irreducible representation of a finitely generated nilpotent group $G$ over a finitely generated field $F$ of characteristic zero is induced from a primitive representation of some subgroup of $G$.
In this paper, we work on the pro-nilpotent group topology of a free group. First we investigate the closure of the product of finitely many subgroups of a free group in the pro-nilpotent group topology. We present an algorithm for the calculation of the closure in the pro-nilpotent group topology of the product of finitely many finitely generated subgroups of a free group. Then we deduce that the nil-closure of a rational subset is computable. We also prove that the pseudovarieties V malcev G_nil, for every decidable pseudovariety of monoids V, and J * G_nil are decidable.
The congruence subgroup problem for a finitely generated group $Γ$ and $G\leq Aut(Γ)$ asks whether the map $\hat{G}\to Aut(\hatΓ)$ is injective, or more generally, what is its kernel $C\left(G,Γ\right)$? Here $\hat{X}$ denotes the profinite completion of $X$. In the case $G=Aut(Γ)$ we denote $C\left(Γ\right)=C\left(Aut(Γ),Γ\right)$. Let $Γ$ be a finitely generated group, $\barΓ=Γ/[Γ,Γ]$, and $Γ^{*}=\barΓ/tor(\barΓ)\cong\mathbb{Z}^{(d)}$. Denote $Aut^{*}(Γ)=\textrm{Im}(Aut(Γ)\to Aut(Γ^{*}))\leq GL_{d}(\mathbb{Z})$. In this paper we show that when $Γ$ is nilpotent, there is a canonical isomorphi…
In arXiv:1303.1129, the authors provided a bound for the palindromic width of free abelian-by-nilpotent group $AN_n$ of rank $n$ and free nilpotent group ${\rm N}_{n,r}$ of rank $n$ and step $r$. In the present paper we study palindromic widths of groups $\widetilde{AN}_n$ and $\widetilde{\rm N}_{n,r}$. We denote by $\widetilde{G}_n = G_n / \langle \langle x_1^2, \ldots, x_n^2 \rangle \rangle$ the quotient of group $G_n = \langle x_1, \ldots, x_n \rangle$, which is free in some variety by the normal subgroup generated by $x_1^2, \ldots, x_n^2$. We prove that the palindromic width of the quotie…
A combing is a set of normal forms for a finitely generated group. This article investigates the language-theoretic and geometric properties of combings for nilpotent and polycyclic groups. It is shown that a finitely generated class 2 nilpotent group with cyclic commutator subgroup is real-time combable, as are also all 2 or 3-generated class 2 nilpotent groups, and groups in certain families of nilpotent groups, e.g. the finitely generated Heisenberg groups, groups of unipotent matrices over the integers and the free class 2 nilpotent groups. Further it is shown that any polycyclic-by-finite…
We prove that the subgroup zeta function and the normal zeta function of a finitely generated virtually nilpotent group are finite sums of Euler products of cone integrals over $\mathbb{Q}$ and we deduce from this that they have rational abscissa of convergence and some meromorphic continuation. We also define Mal'cev completions of a finitely generated virtually nilpotent group and we prove that the subgroup growth and the normal subgroup growth of the latter are invariants of its $\mathbb{Q}$-Mal'cev completion.
There currently exists no algebraic algorithm for computing twisted conjugacy classes in free groups. We propose a new technique for deciding twisted conjugacy relations using nilpotent quotients. Our technique is generalization of the common abelianization method, but admits significantly greater rates of success. We present experimental results demonstrating the efficacy of the technique, and detail how it can be applied the related settings of surface groups and doubly twisted conjugacy.
The results known for Green-Lazarsfeld sets and solvable or nilpotent quotients of Kaehler groups are extended to the class of (compact Kaehler) geometric orbifolds with finite and integral multiplicities. The proofs are by reduction to the known case of compact Kaehler manifolds.
In this paper we describe a family of isomorphism invariants of a finitely generated Coxeter group W. Each of these invariants is the isomorphism type of a quotient group W/N of W by a characteristic subgroup N. The virtue of these invariants is that W/N is also a Coxeter group. For some of these invariants, the isomorphism problem of W/N is solved and so we obtain isomorphism invariants that can be effectively used to distinguish isomorphism types of finitely generated Coxeter groups.
A recipe for obtaining finitely presented abelian-by-nilpotent groups is given. It relies on a geometric procedure that generalizes the construction of finitely presented metabelian groups introduced by R. Bieri and R. Strebel in 1980.
We prove that the growth rate of an endomorphism of a finitely generated nilpotent group equals to the growth rate of induced endomorphism on its abelinization, generalizing the corresponding result for an automorphism in [14]. We also study growth rates of endomorphisms for specific solvable groups, lattices of Sol, providing a counterexample to a known result in [5] and proving that the growth rate is an algebraic number.
We study random nilpotent groups in the well-established style of random groups, by choosing relators uniformly among freely reduced words of (nearly) equal length and letting the length tend to infinity. Whereas random groups are quotients of a free group by such a random set of relators, random nilpotent groups are formed as corresponding quotients of a free nilpotent group. This model reveals new phenomena because nilpotent groups are not "visible" in the standard model of random groups (due to the sharp phase transition from infinite hyperbolic to trivial groups).
We prove that a subgroup of a finitely generated free nilpotent group F is undistorted if and only if it is a retract of a subgroup of finite index in F.
We generalize the Plesken-Fabiańska $\mathrm{L}_2$-quotient algorithm for finitely presented groups on two or three generators to allow an arbitrary number of generators. The main difficulty lies in a constructive description of the invariant ring of $\mathrm{GL}(2, K)$ on $m$ copies of $\mathrm{SL}(2, K)$ by simultaneous conjugation. By giving this description, we generalize and simplify some of the known results in invariant theory. An implementation of the algorithm is available in the computer algebra system Magma.
It is well known that any polycyclic group, and hence any finitely generated nilpotent group, can be embedded into $GL_{n}(\mathbb{Z})$ for an appropriate $n\in \mathbb{N}$; that is, each element in the group has a unique matrix representation. An algorithm to determine this embedding was presented in Nickel. In this paper, we determine the complexity of the crux of the algorithm and the dimension of the matrices produced as well as provide a modification of the algorithm presented by Nickel.
This paper initiates the study of effective twisted conjugacy separability for finitely generated groups, which measures the complexity of separating distinct twisted conjugacy classes via finite quotients. The focus is on nilpotent groups, and our main result shows that there is a polynomial upper bound for twisted conjugacy separability. That allows us to study regular conjugacy separability in the case of virtually nilpotent groups, where we compute a polynomial upper bound as well. As another application, we improve the work of the second author by giving a precise calculation of conjugacy…
We study systematically groups whose marked finite quotients form a recursive set. We give several definitions, and prove basic properties of this class of groups, and in particular emphasize the link between the growth of the depth function and solvability of the word problem. We give examples of infinitely presented groups whose finite quotients can be effectively enumerated. Finally, our main result is that a residually finite group can be even not recursively presented and still have computable finite quotients, and that, on the other hand, it can have solvable word problem while still not…
This paper has two main parts. In the first part we develop an elementary coordinatization for any nilpotent group $G$ taking exponents in a binomial principal ideal domain (PID) $A$. In case that the additive group $A^+$ of $A$ is finitely generated we prove using a classical result of Julia Robinson that one can obtain a central series for $G$ where the action of the ring of integers $\Z$ on the quotients of each of the consecutive terms of the series except for one very specific gap, called the special gap, is interpretable in $G$. Then we use a refinement of this central series to give a c…
We consider the fundamental group $π$ of a surface of finite type equipped with the infinite generating set consisting of all simple closed curves. We show that every nilpotent quotient of $π$ has finite diameter with respect to the word metric given by this set. This is in contrast with a result of Danny Calegari that shows that $π$ has infinite diameter with respect to this set. Furthermore, we give a general criterion for a finitely generated group equipped with a generating set to have this property.
The pro-isomorphic zeta function of a torsion-free finitely generated nilpotent group G enumerates finite index subgroups H such that H and G have isomorphic profinite completions. It admits an Euler product decomposition, indexed by the rational primes. We manufacture the first example of a torsion-free finitely generated nilpotent group G such that the local Euler factors of its pro-isomorphic zeta function do not satisfy functional equations. The group G has nilpotency class 4 and Hirsch length 25. It is obtained, via the Malcev correspondence, from a Z-Lie lattice L with a suitable algebra…
The solvable Farb growth of a group quantifies how well-approximated the group is by its finite solvable quotients. In this note we present a new characterization of polycyclic groups which are virtually nilpotent. That is, we show that a group has solvable Farb growth which is at most polynomial in $\log(n)$ if and only if the group is polycyclic and virtually nilpotent. We also give new results concerning approximating oriented surface groups by nilpotent quotients. As a consequence of this, we prove that a natural number $C$ exists so that any nontrivial element of the $Ck$th term of the lo…
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…
If G is a semidirect product N by H with N normal and finitely generated then G has the property that every finite group is a quotient of some finite index subgroup of G if and only if one of N and H has this property. This has applications to 3-manifolds and to cyclically presented groups, for instance for any fibred hyperbolic 3-manifold M and any finite simple group S, there is a cyclic cover of M whose fundamental group surjects to S. We also give a short proof of the residual finiteness of ascending HNN extensions of finite rank free groups when the induced map on homology is injective.
We give effective proofs of residual finiteness and conjugacy separability for finitely generated nilpotent groups. In particular, we give precise asymptotic bounds for a function introduced by Bou-Rabee that measures how large the quotients that are need to separate non-identity elements of bounded length from the identity which improves the work of Bou-Rabee. Similarly, we give polynomial upper and lower bounds for an analogous function introduced by Lawton, Louder, and McReynolds that measures how large the quotients that are need to separate pairs of distinct conjugacy classes of bounded w…
In recent years, the RFRS condition has been used to analyze virtual fibering in 3-manifold topology. Agol's work shows that any 3-manifold with zero Euler characteristic satisfying the RFRS condition on its fundamental group virtually fibers over the circle. In this note we will show that a finitely generated nilpotent group is either virtually abelian or is not virtually RFRS, a result which may be of independent interest though not directly applicable to 3-manifold topology. As a corollary, we deduce that any RFRS group cannot contain a nonabelian torsion-free nilpotent group. This result a…
