On Finite Presentability of Direct Products of Semigroups

A finite semigroup S is said to preserve finite generation (resp., presentability) in direct products, provided that, for every infinite semigroup T, the direct product S × T is finitely generated (resp., finitely presented) if and only if T is finitely generated (resp., finitely presented). The main result of this paper is a constructive necessary and sufficient condition for S to preserve both finite generation and presentability in direct products. The condition is that certain graphs, (s), one for each s S, are all connected. The main result is illustrated in three examples, one of which exhibits a 4-element semigroup that preserves finite generation but not finite presentability in direct products.1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: 20M05, 05C25The first author is financially supported by the Sub-Programa Ciência e Tecnologia do 2° Quadro Comunitário de Apoio (grant number BD/ 15623/98). The author also acknowledges the support of the Centro de Álgebra da Universidade de Lisboa and of the Projecto Praxis 2/2.1/MAT/73/94. The second author acknowledges partial financial support from the Nuffield Foundation.     

Ultraproducts preserve finite subdirect reducibility

An algebraic structure A is said to be finitely subdirectly reducible if A is not finitely subdirectly irreducible. We show that for any signature providing only finitely many relation symbols, the class of finitely subdirectly reducible algebraic structures is closed with respect to the formation of ultraproducts. We provide some corollaries and examples for axiomatizable classes that are closed with respect to the formation of finite subdirect products, in particular, for varieties and quasivarieties.     

Completion of Linearly Ordered Metabelian Groups

We prove a theorem saying that in finitely generated linearly ordered metabelian groups there exists a finite system of normal convex subgroups satisfying orderability conditions for groups, and an embedding theorem for linearly ordered metabelian groups whose initial linear orders extend to -divisible linearly ordered metabelian ones. As a consequence, it is stated that orderable metabelian groups are embedded, with extension of all their linear orders, in -divisible orderable metabelian groups.     

On generators and relations for unions of semigroups

Finite generation and presentability of general unions of semigroups, as well as of bands of semigroups, bands of monoids, semilattices of semigroups and strong semilattices of semigroups, are investigated. For instance, it is proved that a band Y of monoids S _α (α∈ Y ) is finitely generated/presented if and only if Y is finite and all S _α are finitely generated/presented. By way of contrast, an example is exhibited of a finitely generated semigroup which is not finitely presented, but which is a disjoint union of two finitely presented subsemigroups. January 21, 2000     

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.     

What is a Finitely Related Object, Categorically?

The concept of a finitely related algebra, as opposed to the ones of finitely presentable and finitely generated ones, is not preserved under categorical equivalences. We propose a categorically well behaved approximation for it in the context of locally presentable categories, which turns out to be a natural counterpart to the (slightly reformulated) categorical definitions of finitely presentable and finitely generated objects. A stronger notion is also defined, which may be considered more natural in the restricted context of algebraic categories, as it corresponds to the classical one when the canonical theory is considered. Both concepts are equivalent to finite presentability when finite generation is added.     

Finite presentation of fibre products of metabelian groups

We show that if Γ is a finitely presented metabelian group, then the “untwisted” fibre product or pull-back P associated to any short exact sequence 1→N→Γ→Q→1 is again finitely presented. In contrast, if N and Q are abelian, then the analogous “twisted” fibre-product is not finitely presented unless Γ is polycyclic. Also a number of examples are constructed, including a non-finitely presented metabelian group P with finitely generated.     

Dominions in finitely generated nilpotent groups

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.     

Reduced sub-powers and the decision problem for finite algebras in arithmetical varieties

The aim of this paper is to prove that every finitely generated, arithmetical variety of finite type, in which every subdirectly irreducible algebra has linearly ordered congruences has a decidable first order theory of its finite members. The proof is based on a representation of finite algebras from such varieties by some quotients of special subdirect products in which sets of indices are partially ordered into dual trees. Then the result of M. O. Rabin about decidability of the monadic second order theory of two successors is applied.Presented by Stanley Burris.     

An introduction to presentations of monoid acts: quotients and subacts

The purpose of this article is to introduce the theory of presentations of monoids acts. We aim to construct “nice” general presentations for various act constructions pertaining to subacts and Rees quotients. More precisely, given an M-act A and a subact B of A, on the one hand, we construct presentations for B and the Rees quotient A/B using a presentation for A, and on the other hand, we derive a presentation for A from presentations for B and A/B. We also construct a general presentation for the union of two subacts. From our general presentations, we deduce a number of finite presentability results. Finally, we consider the case where a subact B has a finite complement in an M-act A. We show that if M is a finitely generated monoid and B is finitely presented, then A is finitely presented. We also show that if M belongs to a wide class of monoids, including all finitely presented monoids, then the converse also holds.     

Finite Presentability and the Homological Type FP m for a Class of Hopf Algebras

We define and study the property finite presentability in the category  of Hopf algebras that are smash product of universal enveloping algebra of a Lie algebra by a group algebra. We show that for such Hopf algebras finite presentability is equivalent with finite presentability as an associative k-algebra.     

Finitely presentable, non-Hopfian groups with Kazhdan's Property (T) and infinite outer automorphism group

We give simple examples of Kazhdan groups with infinite outer automorphism groups. This answers a question of Paulin, independently answered by Ollivier and Wise by completely different methods. As arithmetic lattices in (non-semisimple) Lie groups, our examples are in addition finitely presented.

We also use results of Abels about compact presentability of -adic groups to exhibit a finitely presented non-Hopfian Kazhdan group. This answers a question of Ollivier and Wise.

     

For Rewriting Systems the Topological Finiteness Conditions FDT and FHT are Not Equivalent

A finite rewriting system is presented that does not satisfythe homotopical finiteness condition FDT, although it satisfiesthe homological finiteness condition FHT. This system is obtainedfrom a group G and a finitely generated subgroup H of G througha monoid extension that is almost an HNN extension. The FHTproperty of the extension is closely related to the FP₂ propertyfor the subgroup H, while the FDT property of the extensionis related to the finite presentability of H. The example systemseparating the FDT property from the FHT property is then obtainedby applying this construction to an example group.     

Cover-preserving embedding of modular lattices

In this note we prove: If a subdirect product of finitely many finite projective geometries has the cover-preserving embedding property, then so does each factor.     

The Word Problem for Pride Groups

Pride groups are defined by means of finite (simplicial) graphs, and examples include Artin groups, Coxeter groups, and generalized tetrahedron groups. Under suitable conditions, we calculate an upper bound of the first order Dehn function for a finitely presented Pride group. We thus obtain sufficient conditions for when finitely presented Pride groups have solvable word problems. As a corollary to our main result, we show that the first order Dehn function of a generalized tetrahedron group, containing finite generalized triangle groups, is at most cubic.     

Positively finitely related profinite groups

We define and study the class of positively finitely related (PFR) profinite groups. Positive finite relatedness is a probabilistic property of profinite groups which provides a first step to defining higher finiteness properties of profinite groups which generalize the positively finitely generated groups introduced by Avinoam Mann. We prove many asymptotic characterisations of PFR groups, for instance we show the following: a finitely presented profinite group is PFR if and only if it has at most exponential representation growth, uniformly over finite fields (in other words: the completed group algebra has polynomial maximal ideal growth). From these characterisations we deduce several structural results on PFR profinite groups.     

The structure of algebraic jordan algebras without nonzero nilpotent elements

An algebraic, linear Jordan algebra without nonzero nil-potent elements is proved to be a subdirect sum of prime Jordan algebras each of which has finite capacity or contains simple subalgebras of arbitrary capacity. If in addition the base field has nonzero character-istic or the algebra satisfies a polynomial identity, then each of the summands is determined to be simple of finite capacity. Further, it is proved that algebraic, PI Jordan algebras without nonzero nilpotent elements are locally finite in the sense that any finitely generated subalgebra has finite capacity.     

Fibre products, non-positive curvature, and decision problems

We give a criterion for fibre products to be finitely presented and use it as the basis of a construction that encodes the pathologies of finite group presentations into pairs of groups where G is a product of hyperbolic groups and P is a finitely presented subgroup. This enables us to prove that there is a finitely presented subgroup P in a biautomatic group G such that the generalized word problem for is unsolvable and P has an unsolvable conjugacy problem. An additional construction shows that there exists a compact non-positively curved polyhedron X such that is biautomatic and there is no algorithm to decide isomorphism among the finitely presented subgroups of . Received: October 7, 1999.     

On the Group of Reduced Identities of Relatively Free Solvable Groups

We prove that the groups of reduced identities of a free solvable group and a free metabelian group of a given nilpotency class are trivial whenever these groups are finitely generated.     

Group factorisations,uniform automorphisms,and permutation groups of simple diagonal type

We present a new proof, which is independent of the finite simple group classification and applies also to infinite groups, that quasiprimitive permutation groups of simple diagonal type cannot be embedded into wreath products in product action. The proof uses several deep results that concern factorisations of direct products involving subdirect subgroups. We find that such factorisations are controlled by the existence of uniform automorphisms.