Central quotients of biautomatic groups

The quotient of a biautomatic group by a subgroup of the center is shown to be biautomatic. The main tool used is the Neumann-Shapiro triangulation of S ^n-1, associated to a biautomatic structure on . Among other applications, a question of Gersten and Short is settled by showing that direct factors of biautomatic groups are biautomatic. Received: October 4, 1994     

Seperating the intrinsic complexity and the derivational complexity of the word problem for finitely presented groups

A pseudo-natural algorithm for the word problem of a finitely presented group is an algorithm which not only tells us whether or not a word w equals 1 in the group but also gives a derivation of 1 from w when w equals 1. In [13], [14] Madlener and Otto show that, if we measure complexity of a primitive recursive algorithm by its level in the Grzegorczyk hierarchy, there are groups in which a pseudo-natural algorithm is arbitrarily more complicated than an algorithm which simply solves the word problem. In a given group the lowest degree of complexity that can be realised by a pseudo-natural algorithm is essentially the derivational complexity of that group. Thus the result separates the derivational complexity of the word problem of a finitely presented group from its intrinsic complexity. The proof given in [13] involves the construction of a finitely presented group G from a Turing machine T such that the intrinsic complexity of the word problem for G reflects the complexity of the halting problem of T, while the derivational complexity of the word problem for G reflects the runtime complexity of T. The proof of one of the crucial lemmas in [13] is only sketched, and part of the purpose of this paper is to give the full details of this proof. We will also obtain a variant of their proof, using modular machines rather than Turing machines. As for several other results, this simplifies the proofs considerably. MSC: 03D40, 20F10.     

Unsolvable Problems About Small Cancellation and Word Hyperbolic Groups

We apply a construction of Rips to show that a number of algorithmicproblems concerning certain small cancellation groups and, inparticular, word hyperbolic groups, are recursively unsolvable.Given any integer k > 2, there is no algorithm to determinewhether or not any small cancellation group can be generatedby either two elements or more than k elements. There is a smallcancellation group E such that there is no algorithm to determinewhether or not any finitely generated subgroup of E is all ofE, or is finitely presented, or has a finitely generated secondintegral homology group.     

Average-case complexity and decision problems in group theory

We investigate the average-case complexity of decision problems for finitely generated groups, in particular, the word and membership problems. Using our recent results on “generic-case complexity”, we show that if a finitely generated group G has word problem solvable in subexponential time and has a subgroup of finite index which possesses a non-elementary word-hyperbolic quotient group, then the average-case complexity of the word problem of G is linear time, uniformly with respect to the collection of all length-invariant measures on G. This results applies to many of the groups usually studied in geometric group theory: for example, all braid groups B_n, all groups of hyperbolic knots, many Coxeter groups and all Artin groups of extra-large type.     

Embeddings in finitely presented groups which preserve the center

V.N. Remeslennikov proposed in 1976 the following problem: is any countable abelian group a subgroup of the center of some finitely presented group? We prove that every finitely generated recursively presented group G is embeddable in a finitely presented group K such that the center of G coincide with that of K. We prove also that there exists a finitely presented group H with soluble word problem such that every countable abelian group is embeddable in the center of H. This gives a strong positive answer to the question raised by V.N. Remeslennikov.     

Presentations for a class of generalized Thompson’s groups

For a given group G and a monomorphism φ:G→G×G there is a group ?_φ(G), introduced by the author, which blends Thompson’s group F with G. Given a presentation of G we determine a presentation of ?_φ(G). In particular, we prove that ?_φ(G) is finitely generated (resp. finitely presented) if G is finitely generated (resp. finitely presented).     

Quasi-isometries between groups with infinitely many ends

Let G, F be finitely generated groups with infinitely many ends and let? be graph of groups decompositions of F, G such that all edge groups are finite and all vertex groups have at most one end. We show that G, F are quasi-isometric if and only if every one-ended vertex group of is quasi-isometric to some one-ended vertex group of and every one-ended vertex group of is quasi-isometric to some one-ended vertex group of?. From our proof it also follows that if G is any finitely generated group, of order at least three, the groups: and are all quasi-isometric. Received: April 7, 2000; revised version: October 6, 2000     

Automorphisms of Hyperbolic Groups and Graphs of Groups

Using the canonical JSJ splitting, we describe the outer automorphism group Out(G) of a one-ended word hyperbolic group G. In particular, we discuss to what extent Out(G) is virtually a direct product of mapping class groups and a free abelian group, and we determine for which groups Out(G) is infinite. We also show that there are only finitely many conjugacy classes of torsion elements in Out(G), for G any torsion-free hyperbolic group. More generally, let Γ be a finite graph of groups decomposition of an arbitrary group G such that edge groups G_e are rigid (i.e. Out(G_e) is finite). We describe the group of automorphisms of G preserving Γ, by comparing it to direct products of suitably defined mapping class groups of vertex groups.     

On Semi-Cover-Avoiding Maximal Subgroups and Solvability of Finite Groups

A subgroup H of a finite group G is said to be “semi-cover-avoiding in G” if there is a chief series of G such that H covers or avoids every chief factor of the chief series. In this article, some new characterizations for finite solvable groups are obtained based on the assumption that some subgroups have semi-cover-avoiding properties in the groups.     

ℳ-Supplemented Subgroups and Their Properties

A subgroup H is called ?-supplemented in a finite group G, if there exists a subgroup B of G such that G = HB and H ₁ B is a proper subgroup of G for any maximal subgroup H ₁ of H. In this article, we investigate the influence of ?-supplementation of some primary subgroups in finite groups. Some new results about supersolvable groups and formation are obtained.     

Tilings of Decomposable Groups

We study a problem formulated by A. M. Vershik and related to several questions in orbit theory of tilings of finitely generated groups. Let G be decomposed into a free product of two nontrivial groups. Then for any finite subset S of the group G there exists a finite subset P of the group G, PS, such that G is covered by disjoint left translations of the set P. Bibliography: 2 titles.     

Finitely Presented, Coherent, and Ultrasimplicial Ordered Abelian Groups

We study notions such as finite presentability and coherence, for partially ordered abelian groups and vector spaces. Typical results are the following: (i) A partially ordered abelian group G is finitely presented if and only if G is finitely generated as a group, G⁺ is well-founded as a partially ordered set, and the set of minimal elements of G⁺\ {0} is finite. (ii) Torison-free, finitely presented partially ordered abelian groups can be represented as subgroups of some Zⁿ, with a finitely generated submonoid of (Z⁺)ⁿ as positive cone. (iii) Every unperforated, finitely presented partially ordered abelian group is Archimedean. Further, we establish connections with interpolation. In particular, we prove that a divisible dimension group G is a directed union of simplicial subgroups if and only if every finite subset of G is contained into a finitely presented ordered subgroup.     

Twisted Conjugacy Classes for Polyfree Groups

Let G be a finitely generated polyfree group. If G has nonzero Euler characteristic then we show that Aut(G) has a finite index subgroup in which every automorphism has infinite Reidemeister number. For certain G of length 2, we show that the number of Reidemeister classes of every automorphism is infinite.     

Palindromic Width of Finitely Generated Solvable Groups

We investigate the palindromic width of finitely generated solvable groups. We prove that every finitely generated 3-step solvable group has finite palindromic width. More generally, we show the finiteness of the palindromic width for finitely generated abelian-by-nilpotent-by-nilpotent groups. For arbitrary solvable groups of step ≥3, we prove that if G is a finitely generated solvable group that is an extension of an abelian group by a group satisfying the maximal condition for normal subgroups, then the palindromic width of G is finite. We also prove that the palindromic width of ??? with respect to the set of standard generators is 3.     

On SS-Quasinormal Subgroups of Finite Groups

A subgroup of a group G is said to be Sylow-quasinormal (S-quasinormal) in G if it permutes with every Sylow subgroup of G. A subgroup H of a group G is said to be Supplement-Sylow-quasinormal (SS-quasinormal) in G if there is a supplement B of H to G such that H is permutable with every Sylow subgroup of B. In this article, we investigate the influence of SS-quasinormal of maximal or minimal subgroups of Sylow subgroups of the generalized Fitting subgroup of a finite group.     

On <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-nilpotency and minimal subgroups of finite groups

We call a subgroup H of a finite group G c-supplemented in G if there exists a subgroup K of G such that G = HK and H ∩ K ⩽ core(H). In this paper it is proved that a finite group G is p-nilpotent if G is S ₄-free and every minimal subgroup of P ∩ G ^N is c-supplemented in N _G (P), and when p = 2 P is quaternion-free, where p is the smallest prime number dividing the order of G, P a Sylow p-subgroup of G. As some applications of this result, some known results are generalized.     

On the group property recognition problem

The unsolvability of the problem of deciding whether a class of finitely presented groups in a (p+3)-letter alphabet has Markov group properties is proved (p is the number of generators of the finitely presented group having a particular property of the kind in question). The problem of deciding whether a class of finitely presented groups in the minimal (p+l)-letter alphabet has Markov properties such that a group having those properties contains an infinite cyclic subgroup is proved to be unsolvable.Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 169–180, August, 1971.I wish to thank S. I. Adyan for directing the present study.     

Unique Node Extremal Subgroups in Chevalley Groups

Abstract

Taking G to be a Chevalley group of rank at least 3 and U to be the unipotent radical of a Borel subgroup B,an extremal subgroup A is an abelian normal subgroup of U which is not contained in the intersection of all the unipotent radicals of the rank 1 parabolic subgroups of G containing B. If there is an unique rank 1 parabolic subgroup P of G containing B with the property that A is not contained in the unipotent radical of P,then A is called a unique node extremal subgroup. In this paper we investigate the embedding of unique node extremal subgroups in U and prove that,apart from some specified cases,such a subgroup is contained in the unipotent radical of a certain maximal parabolic subgroup.     

On Solvable R* Groups of Finite Rank

Abstract

For an element a of a group G,let S(a) denote the semigroup generated by all conjugates of a in G. We prove that if G is solvable of finite rank and 1 ? S(a) for all 1 ≠ a ∈ G,then ?a ^G ?/?b ^G ? is a periodic group for every b ∈ S(a). Conversely if every two generator subgroup of a finitely generated torsion-free solvable group G has this property then G has finite rank,and if every finitely generated subgroup has this property then every partial order on G can be extended to a total order.     

Gaussian Groups and Garside Groups, Two Generalisations of Artin Groups

It is known that a number of algebraic properties of the braidgroups extend to arbitrary finite Coxeter-type Artin groups.Here we show how to extend the results to more general groupsthat we call Garside groups. Define a Gaussian monoid to be a finitely generated cancellativemonoid where the expressions of a given element have boundedlengths, and where left and right lowest common multiples exist.A Garside monoid is a Gaussian monoid in which the left andright lowest common multiples satisfy an additional symmetrycondition. A Gaussian group is the group of fractions of a Gaussianmonoid, and a Garside group is the group of fractions of a Garsidemonoid. Braid groups and, more generally, finite Coxeter-typeArtin groups are Garside groups. We determine algorithmic criteriain terms of presentations for recognizing Gaussian and Garsidemonoids and groups, and exhibit infinite families of such groups.We describe simple algorithms that solve the word problem ina Gaussian group, show that these algorithms have a quadraticcomplexity if the group is a Garside group, and prove that Garsidegroups have quadratic isoperimetric inequalities. We constructnormal forms for Gaussian groups, and prove that, in the caseof a Garside group, the language of normal forms is regular,symmetric, and geodesic, has the 5-fellow traveller property,and has the uniqueness property. This shows in particular thatGarside groups are geodesically fully biautomatic. Finally,we consider an automorphism of a finite Coxeter-type Artin groupderived from an automorphism of its defining Coxeter graph,and prove that the subgroup of elements fixed by this automorphismis also a finite Coxeter-type Artin group that can be explicitlydetermined. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: primary20F05, 20F36; secondary 20B40, 20M05.