Virtually free pro-p groups

We prove that in the category of pro-p groups any finitely generated group G with a free open subgroup splits either as an amalgamated free product or as an HNN-extension over a finite p-group. From this result we deduce that such a pro-p group is the pro-p completion of a fundamental group of a finite graph of finite p-groups.     

Splitting theorems for pro-<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> groups acting on pro-<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> trees

Let G be an infinite finitely generated pro-p group acting on a pro-p tree such that the restriction of the action to some open subgroup is free. We prove that G splits over an edge stabilizer either as an amalgamated free pro-p product or as a pro-p \({\text {HNN}}\)-extension. Using this result, we prove under a certain condition that free pro-p products with procyclic amalgamation inherit from its amalgamated free factors the property of each 2-generated pro-p subgroup being free pro-p. This generalizes known pro-p results, as well as some pro-p analogues of classical results in abstract combinatorial group theory.     

Virtually free pro-<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> products

It is shown that a finitely generated pro-p group G which is a virtually free pro-p product splits either as a free pro-p product with amalgamation or as a pro-p HNN-extension over a finite p-group. More precisely, G is the pro-p fundamental group of a finite graph of finitely generated pro-p groups with finite edge groups. This generalizes previous results of W. Herfort and the second author (cf. [2]).     

Dimensions of Zassenhaus filtration subquotients of some pro-p-groups

We compute the F_p-dimension of an n-th graded piece G_(n)/G_(n+1) of the Zassenhaus filtration for various finitely generated pro-p-groups G. These groups include finitely generated free pro-p-groups, Demushkin pro-p-groups and their free pro-p products. We provide a unifying principle for deriving these dimensions.     

Normal Subgroups of Profinite Groups of Finite Cohomological Dimension

A profinite group G of finite cohomological dimension with (topologically)finitely generated closed normal subgroup N is studied. If Gis pro-p and N is either free as a pro-p group or a Poincarégroup of dimension 2 or analytic pro-p, it is shown that G/Nhas virtually finite cohomological dimension cd(G)–cd(N).Some other cases when G/N has virtually finite cohomologicaldimension are also considered. If G is profinite, the case of N projective or the profinitecompletion of the fundamental group of a compact surface isconsidered.     

Locally Finite Groups with All Subgroups Normal-by-(Finite Rank)

A group is said to have finite (special) rank ≤ sif all of its finitely generated subgroups can be generated byselements. LetGbe a locally finite group and suppose thatH/H_Ghas finite rank for all subgroupsHofG, whereH_Gdenotes the normal core ofHinG. We prove that thenGhas an abelian normal subgroup whose quotient is of finite rank (Theorem 5). If, in addition, there is a finite numberrbounding all of the ranks ofH/H_G, thenGhas an abelian subgroup whose quotient is of finite rank bounded in terms ofronly (Theorem 4). These results are based on analogous theorems on locally finitep-groups, in which case the groupGis also abelian-by-finite (Theorems 2 and 3).     

Homological Invariants for pro- p Grou ps and Some Finitely Presented pro-${\cal C}$ Grou ps

Let G be a finitely presented pro- group with discrete relations. We prove that the kernel of an epimorphism of G to is topologically finitely generated if G does not contain a free pro- group of rank 2. In the case of pro-p groups the result is due to J. Wilson and E. Zelmanov and does not require that the relations are discrete ([15], [17]).For a pro-p group G of type FP_m we define a homological invariant ^m(G) and prove that this invariant determines when a subgroup H of G that contains the commutator subgroup G is itself of type FP_m. This generalises work of J. King for ¹(G) in the case when G is metabelian [9].Both parts of the paper are linked via two conjectures for finitely presented pro-p groups G without free non-cyclic pro-p subgroups. The conjectures suggest that the above conditions on G impose some restrictions on ¹(G) and on the automorphism group of G.Both authors are partially supported by CNPq, Brazil.     

Compactly Generated Relative Stable Categories

Let G be a finite group. The stable module category of G has been applied extensively in group representation theory. In particular, it has been used to great effect that it is a triangulated category which is compactly generated by the class of finitely generated modules. Let H be a subgroup of G. It is possible to define a stable module category of G relative to H. This is also a triangulated category, but no non-trivial examples have been known where it was compactly generated. While the finitely generated modules are compact objects, they do not necessarily generate the category. We show that the relative stable category is compactly generated if the group algebra of H has finite representation type. In characteristic p, this is equivalent to the Sylow p-subgroups of H being cyclic.     

Homological Invariants for pro-p Groups and Some Finitely Presented pro- C{\cal C} Groups

Let G be a finitely presented pro- C{\cal C} group with discrete relations. We prove that the kernel of an epimorphism of G to [^(\Bbb Z)]_C\hat{\Bbb Z}_{\cal C} is topologically finitely generated if G does not contain a free pro- C{\cal C} group of rank 2. In the case of pro-p groups the result is due to J. Wilson and E. Zelmanov and does not require that the relations are discrete ([15], [17]).For a pro-p group G of type FP_m we define a homological invariant C{\cal C} groups, pro-p groups, homological type FP_m, finite presentabilityBoth authors are partially supported by CNPq, Brazil.     

Some Finiteness Results in the Representation Theory of Isometry Groups of Regular Trees

Let G denote the isometry group of a regular tree of degree ≥3. The notion of congruence subgroup is introduced and finite generation of the congruence Hecke algebras is proven. Let U be congruence subgroup and (G; U) be the category of smooth representations of G generated by their U-fixed vectors. We also show that this subcategory is closed under taking subquotients. All these results are analogues of well-known results in the case of p-adic groups. It is also shown that the category of admissible representation of G is Noetherian in the sense that every subrepresentation of a finitely generated admissible representation is again finitely generated. Since we want to emphesize the similarities between these groups and p-adic groups, we give the same proofs which also work in the p-adic case whenever possible.     

Some Isoperimetric Inequalities for Kernels of Free Extensions

If G is a hyperbolic group (resp. synchronously or asynchronously automatic group) which can be expressed as an extension of a finitely presented group H by a finitely generated free group, then the normal subgroup H satisfies a polynomial isoperimetric inequality (resp. exponential isoperimetric inequality).     

Test elements in pro-<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> groups with applications in discrete groups

Let G be a group. An element g ∈ G is called a test element of G if for every endomorphism ? : G → G, ?(g) = g implies ? is an automorphism. We prove that for a finitely generated profinite group G, g ∈ G is a test element of G if and only if it is not contained in a proper retract of G. Using this result we prove that an endomorphism of a free pro-p group of finite rank which preserves an automorphic orbit of a nontrivial element must be an automorphism. We give numerous explicit examples of test elements in free pro-p groups and Demushkin groups. By relating test elements in finitely generated residually finite-p Turner groups to test elements in their pro-p completions, we provide new examples of test elements in free discrete groups and surface groups. Moreover, we prove that the set of test elements of a free discrete group of finite rank is dense in the profinite topology.     

Subgroups of prescribed finite index in linear groups

LetR be a commutative ring,M a finitely generatedR-module andG a subgroup of Aut _R M. Under either of the following conditions, for every positive integerd there is a normal subgroupH ofG of finite index such thatG/H contains an element of orderd. (a)G is infinite and finitely generated. (b)R is finitely generated as a ring andG is not unipotent-by-finite. This extends recent work of A. Lubotzky.     

Finite extensions of free pro-P groups of rank at most two

For a pro-p groupG, containing a free pro-p open normal subgroup of rank at most 2, a characterization as the fundamental group of a connected graph of cyclic groups of order at mostp, and an explicit list of all such groups with trivial center are given. It is shown that any automorphism of a free pro-p group of rank 2 of coprime finite order is induced by an automorphism of the Frattini factor groupF/F ^* . Finally, a complete list of automorphisms of finite order, up to conjugacy in Aut(F), is given. Supported by an NSERC grant. Supported by the Austrian Science Foundation.     

Free-by-Demushkin pro-<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> groups

We give an example of a short exact sequence 1NGD1 of pro-p groups such that the cohomological dimension cd(G)=2, G is (topologically) finitely generated, N is a free pro-p group of infinite rank, D is a Demushkin group, for every closed subgroup S of G containing N and any natural number n the inflation map is an isomorphism but G is not a free pro-p product of a free pro-p group by a Demushkin group. This is a group theoretic version of a question raised by T. Würfel for some special Galois groups.Both authors are partially supported by bolsa de produtividade de pesquisa from CNPq, Brazil and CNPq grant 470272/2003-1.     

On pro-p analogues of limit groups via extensions of centralizers

We begin a study of a pro-p analogue of limit groups via extensions of centralizers and call ${\mathcal{L}}$ this new class of pro-p groups. We show that the pro-p groups of ${\mathcal{L}}$ have finite cohomological dimension, type FP _?? and non-positive Euler characteristic. Among the group theoretic properties it is proved that they are free-by-(torsion free nilpotent) and if non-abelian do not have a finitely generated non-trivial normal subgroup of infinite index. Furthermore it is shown that every 2 generated pro-p group in the class ${\mathcal{L}}$ is either free pro-p or abelian.     

On pro-p-groups with a single defining relator

We find necessary and sufficient conditions for the factor groups of the derived series of a pro-p-group with a single defining relation to be torsion free. For such groupsG we prove that the group algebra ℤ _pG is a domain and the cohomological dimension ofG is at most 2.     

Extensions of group-valued set functions

The problem of common extension ofcharges (finitely additive measures) is generalised to include group-valued functions defined on a system of sets (u-systems). To eachu-systemU an Abelian groupH(U) is attached. Every Abelian group is isomorphic to one of the formH(U). The groupH(U) is an indicator for extendability of charges fromU to the Boolean algebra generated byU. AllG-valued measures extend if and only if Ext(H(U),G)=0, for instance. Supported as van Vleck visiting professor at Wesleyan University, Connecticut in 1993. Partially supported by the Graduierten KollogTheoretische und experimentelle Methoden der reinen Mathematik of Essen University, a project No. G-0294-081.06/93 of the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research & Development and by the German Academic Exchange, DAAD 1994.     

Pro-P galois groups of function fields over local fields

For non-archimedean local field K and a prime number p we compute the finitely generated pro-p (closed) subgroups of the absolute Galois group of K(t). In addition, we characterize the finitely generated pro-p groups which occur as the maximal pro-p Galois group of algebraic extensions of K(t) containing a primitive pth root of unity.     

Linear core conditions in residually finite groups

LetG be a residually finite or pro-finite group. We say thatG satisfies the linear core condition with constantc if all finite index (open) subgroups ofG contain a subgroup of index at mostc which is normal inG. Answering a question of L. Pyber we give a complete characterisation of finitely generated residually finite and pro-finite groups satisfying a linear core generated residually finite and pro-finite groups satisfying a linear core condition. In the case of infinitely generated groups we prove that such groups are abelian-by-finite. Research supported by the Hungarian National Research Foundation (OTKA), grant no. 16432 and F023436.