No Arabic abstract
If $G$ is a group, a virtual retract of $G$ is a subgroup which is a retract of a finite index subgroup. Most of the paper focuses on two group properties: property (LR), that all finitely generated subgroups are virtual retracts, and property (VRC), that all cyclic subgroups are virtual retracts. We study the permanence of these properties under commensurability, amalgams over retracts, graph products and wreath products. In particular, we show that (VRC) is stable under passing to finite index overgroups, while (LR) is not. The question whether all finitely generated virtually free groups satisfy (LR) motivates the remaining part of the paper, studying virtual free factors of such groups. We give a simple criterion characterizing when a finitely generated subgroup of a virtually free group is a free factor of a finite index subgroup. We apply this criterion to settle a conjecture of Brunner and Burns.
We show that for every finitely generated closed subgroup $K$ of a non-solvable Demushkin group $G$, there exists an open subgroup $U$ of $G$ containing $K$, and a continuous homomorphism $tau colon U to K$ satisfying $tau(k) = k$ for every $k in K$. We prove that the intersection of a pair of finitely generated closed subgroups of a Demushkin group is finitely generated (giving an explicit bound on the number of generators). Furthermore, we show that these properties of Demushkin groups are preserved under free pro-$p$ products, and deduce that Howsons theorem holds for the Sylow subgroups of the absolute Galois group of a number field. Finally, we confirm two conjectures of Ribes, thus classifying the finitely generated pro-$p$ M. Hall groups.
Study of certain isotopy classes of a finite collection of immersed circles without triple or higher intersections on closed oriented surfaces is considered as a planar analogue of virtual knot theory with the genus zero case corresponding to classical knot theory. Alexander and Markov theorems are known in this setting with the role of groups being played by a class of right-angled Coxeter groups called twin groups, denoted $T_n$, in the genus zero case. For the higher genus case, the role of groups is played by a new class of groups called virtual twin groups, denoted $VT_n$. A virtual twin group $VT_n$ contains the twin group $T_n$ and the pure virtual twin group $PVT_n$, an analogue of the pure braid group. The paper investigates in detail important structural aspects of these groups. We prove that the pure virtual twin group $PVT_n$ is an irreducible right-angled Artin group with trivial center and give its precise presentation. We show that $PVT_n$ has a decomposition as an iterated semidirect product of infinite rank free groups. We also give a complete description of the automorphism group of $PVT_n$ and establish splitting of some natural exact sequences of automorphism groups. As applications, we show that $VT_n$ is residually finite and $PVT_n$ has the $R_infty$-property. Along the way, we also obtain a presentation of $gamma_2(VT_n)$ and a freeness result on $gamma_2(PVT_n)$.
We show that word hyperbolicity of automorphism groups of graph products $G_Gamma$ and of Coxeter groups $W_Gamma$ depends strongly on the shape of the defining graph $Gamma$. We also characterized those $Aut(G_Gamma)$ and $Aut(W_Gamma)$ in terms of $Gamma$ that are virtually free.
In this paper we study virtual rational Betti numbers of a nilpotent-by-abelian group $G$, where the abelianization $N/N$ of its nilpotent part $N$ satisfies certain tameness property. More precisely, we prove that if $N/N$ is $2(c(n-1)-1)$-tame as a $G/N$-module, $c$ the nilpotency class of $N$, then $mathrm{vb}_j(G):=sup_{Minmathcal{A}_G}dim_mathbb{Q} H_j(M,mathbb{Q})$ is finite for all $0leq jleq n$, where $mathcal{A}_G$ is the set of all finite index subgroups of $G$.
We show that Out(G) is residually finite if G is a one-ended group that is hyperbolic relative to virtually polycyclic subgroups. More generally, if G is one-ended and hyperbolic relative to proper residually finite subgroups, the group of outer automorphisms preserving the peripheral structure is residually finite. We also show that Out(G) is virtually p-residually finite for every prime p if G is one-ended and toral relatively hyperbolic, or infinitely-ended and virtually p-residually finite.