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]).     

Invariable generation of prosoluble groups

A group G is invariably generated by a subset S of G if G = 〈s^g(s) | s ∈ S〉 for each choice of g(s) ∈ G, s ∈ S. Answering two questions posed by Kantor, Lubotzky and Shalev in [8], we prove that the free prosoluble group of rank d ≥ 2 cannot be invariably generated by a finite set of elements, while the free solvable profinite group of rank d and derived length l is invariably generated by precisely l(d ? 1) + 1 elements.     

On the rank of compact <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-adic Lie groups

The rank of a profinite group G is the basic invariant \({{\rm rk}(G):={\rm sup}\{d(H) \mid H \leq G\}}\), where H ranges over all closed subgroups of G and d(H) denotes the minimal cardinality of a topological generating set for H. A compact topological group G admits the structure of a p-adic Lie group if and only if it contains an open pro-p subgroup of finite rank. For every compact p-adic Lie group G one has rk(G) ≥ dim(G), where dim(G) denotes the dimension of G as a p-adic manifold. In this paper we consider the converse problem, bounding rk(G) in terms of dim(G). Every profinite group G of finite rank admits a maximal finite normal subgroup, its periodic radical π(G). One of our main results is the following. Let G be a compact p-adic Lie group such that π(G) = 1, and suppose that p is odd. If \(\{g \in G \mid g^{p-1}=1 \}\) is equal to {1}, then rk(G) = dim(G).     

Continuity of topological entropy for perturbation of time-one maps of hyperbolic flows

In this paper we derive necessary and sufficient homological and cohomological conditions for profinite groups and modules to be of type FP_n over a profinite ring R, analogous to the Bieri–Eckmann criteria for abstract groups. We use these to prove that the class of groups of type FP_n is closed under extensions, quotients by subgroups of type FP_n, proper amalgamated free products and proper HNN-extensions, for each n. We show, as a consequence of this, that elementary amenable profinite groups of finite rank are of type FP_∞ over all profinite R. For any class C of finite groups closed under subgroups, quotients and extensions, we also construct pro-C groups of type FP_n but not of type FP_n+1 over Z_? for each n. Finally, we show that the natural analogue of the usual condition measuring when pro-p groups are of type FP_n fails for general profinite groups, answering in the negative the profinite analogue of a question of Kropholler.     

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.     

On periodic groups with narrow spectrum

We study groups with no elements of big orders. We prove that if the set of element orders of G is {1, 2, 3, 4, p, 9}, where p ∈ {7, 5}, then G is locally finite.     

Polycyclic groups with automorphisms of order four

n this paper, we study the structure of polycyclic groups admitting an automorphism of order four on the basis of Neumann’s result, and prove that if α is an automorphism of order four of a polycyclic group G and the map φ: G → G defined by g^φ = [g,α] is surjective, then G contains a characteristic subgroup H of finite index such that the second derived subgroup H″ is included in the centre of H and C_H(α²) is abelian, both C_G(α²) and G/[G, α²] are abelian-by-finite. These results extend recent and classical results in the literature.     

Real zeroes of random polynomials,I. Flip-invariance,Turán’s lemma,and the Newton-Hadamard polygon

We show that for every finitely presented pro-p nilpotent-by-abelian-by-finite group G there is an upper bound on \({\dim _{{\mathbb{Q}_p}}}\left( {{H_1}\left( {M,{\mathbb{Z}_p}} \right){ \otimes _{{\mathbb{Z}_p}}}{\mathbb{Q}_p}} \right)\), as M runs through all pro-p subgroups of finite index in G.     

Polycyclic groups admitting a regular automorphism of order four

Let G be a polycyclic group and α a regular automorphism of order four of G. If the map φ: G→ G defined by g~φ= [g, α] is surjective, then the second derived group of G is contained in the centre of G. Abandoning the condition on surjectivity, we prove that C_G(α~2) and G/[G, α~2] are both abelian-by-finite.     

The unique trace property of <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-periodic product of groups

In this paper we prove the unique trace property of C*-algebras of n-periodic products of arbitrary family of groups without involutions. We show that the free Burnside groups B(m, n) and their automorphism groups also possess the unique trace property. Also, we show that every countable group is embedded into some 3-generated group with the unique trace property, while every countable periodic group of bounded period and without involutions is embedded into some 3- generated periodic group G of bounded period with the unique trace property. Moreover, as a group G can be chosen both simple and not simple group.     

Free groups and ends of graphs

Let X be a connected graph. An automorphism of X is said to be parabolic if it leaves no finite subset of vertices in X invariant and fixes precisely one end of X and hyperbolic if it leaves no finite subset of vertices in X invariant and fixes precisely two ends of X. Various questions concerning dynamics of parabolic and hyperbolic automorphisms are discussed.The set of ends which are fixed by some hyperbolic element of a group G acting on X is denoted by ?(G). If G contains a hyperbolic automorphism of X and G fixes no end of X, then G contains a free subgroup F such that ?(F) is dense in ?(G) with respect to the natural topology on the ends of X.As an application we obtain the following: A group which acts transitively on a connected graph and fixes no end has a free subgroup whose directions are dense in the end boundary.     

Modular representations of profinite groups

Our aim is to transfer several foundational results from the modular representation theory of finite groups to the wider context of profinite groups. We are thus interested in profinite modules over the completed group algebra of a profinite group G, where k is a finite field of characteristic p.We define the concept of relative projectivity for a profinite -module. We prove a characterization of finitely generated relatively projective modules analogous to the finite case with additions of interest to the profinite theory. We introduce vertices and sources for indecomposable finitely generated -modules and show that the expected conjugacy properties hold—for sources this requires additional assumptions. Finally we prove a direct analogue of Green’s Indecomposability Theorem for finitely generated modules over a virtually pro-p group.     

Permutation modules of profinite groups

Given an arbitrary profinite group G and a commutative domain R, we define the notion of permutation RG-module which generalizes the known notion from the representation theory of profinite groups. We establish an independence theorem of such a module as an R-module over a ring of scalars.     

Residual <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-finiteness of generalized free products of groups

Let p be a prime number. Recall that a group G is said to be a residually finite p-group if for every non-identity element a of G there exists a homomorphism of the group G onto a finite p-group such that the image of a does not coincide with the identity. We obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the free product of two residually finite p-groups with finite amalgamated subgroup to be a residually finite p-group. This result is a generalization of Higman’s theorem on the free product of two finite p-groups with amalgamated subgroup.     

Nil-automorphisms of groups with residual properties

Let G be any group and x an automorphism of G. The automorphism x is said to be nil if, for every g ∈ G, there exists n = n(g) such that [g, _n x] = 1. If n can be chosen independently of g, we say that x is n-unipotent. A nil (resp. unipotent) automorphism x could also be seen as a left Engel element (resp. left n-Engel element) in the group G〈x〉. When G is a finite dimensional vector space, groups of unipotent linear automorphisms turn out to be nilpotent, so that one might ask to what extent this result can be extended to a more general setting. In this paper we study finitely generated groups of nil or unipotent automorphisms of groups with residual properties (e.g. locally graded groups, residually finite groups, profinite groups), proving that such groups are nilpotent.     

On <Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>-covering subgroup systems of finite groups

Let \(\mathcal{F}\) be a class of groups and G a finite group. We call a set Σ of subgroups of G a G-covering subgroup system for  \(\mathcal{F}\) if \(G\in \mathcal{F}\) whenever \(\Sigma \subseteq \mathcal{F}\). Let p be any prime dividing |G| and P a Sylow p-subgroup of G. Then we write Σ _p to denote the set of subgroups of G which contains at least one supplement to G of each maximal subgroup of P. We prove that the sets Σ _p and Σ _p ∪Σ _q , where q≠p, are G-covering subgroup systems for many classes of finite groups.     

2-Recognizability by prime graph of <Emphasis Type="Italic">PSL</Emphasis>(2, <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis><Superscript>2</Superscript>)

Let G be a finite group and let Γ(G) be the prime graph of G. Assume p prime. We determine the finite groups G such that Γ(G) = Γ(PSL(2, p ²)) and prove that if p ≠ 2, 3, 7 is a prime then k(Γ(PSL(2, p ²))) = 2. We infer that if G is a finite group satisfying |G| = |PSL(2, p ²)| and Γ(G) = Γ(PSL(2, p ²)) then G ? PSL(2, p ²). This enables us to give new proofs for some theorems; e.g., a conjecture of W. Shi and J. Bi. Some applications are also considered of this result to the problem of recognition of finite groups by element orders.     

Isomorphisms of Cayley graphs of a free Abelian group

A group G is called a CI-group provided that the existence of some automorphism σ ∈ Aut(G) such that σ(A) = B follows from an isomorphism Cay(G, A) ? = Cay (G, B) between Cayley graphs, where A and B are two systems of generators for G. We prove that every finitely generated abelian group is a CI-group.     

A note on commuting automorphisms of some finite <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-groups

An automorphism α of a group G is called a commuting automorphism if each element x in G commutes with its image α(x) under α. Let A(G) denote the set of all commuting automorphisms of G. Rai [Proc. Japan Acad., Ser. A 91 (5), 57–60 (2015)] has given some sufficient conditions on a finite p-group G such that A(G) is a subgroup of Aut(G) and, as a consequence, has proved that, in a finite p-group G of co-class 2, where p is an odd prime, A(G) is a subgroup of Aut(G). We give here very elementary and short proofs of main results of Rai.