A famous result of Hall asserts that the multiplication and exponentiation in finitely generated torsion free nilpotent groups can be described by rational polynomials. We describe an algorithm to determine such polynomials for all torsion free nilpotent groups of given Hirsch length. We apply this to determine the Hall polynomials for all such groups of Hirsch length at most 7.
The congruence subgroup problem for a finitely generated group $Gamma$ and $Gleq Aut(Gamma)$ asks whether the map $hat{G}to Aut(hat{Gamma})$ is injective, or more generally, what is its kernel $Cleft(G,Gammaright)$? Here $hat{X}$ denotes the profinit
e completion of $X$. In the case $G=Aut(Gamma)$ we denote $Cleft(Gammaright)=Cleft(Aut(Gamma),Gammaright)$. Let $Gamma$ be a finitely generated group, $bar{Gamma}=Gamma/[Gamma,Gamma]$, and $Gamma^{*}=bar{Gamma}/tor(bar{Gamma})congmathbb{Z}^{(d)}$. Denote $Aut^{*}(Gamma)=textrm{Im}(Aut(Gamma)to Aut(Gamma^{*}))leq GL_{d}(mathbb{Z})$. In this paper we show that when $Gamma$ is nilpotent, there is a canonical isomorphism $Cleft(Gammaright)simeq C(Aut^{*}(Gamma),Gamma^{*})$. In other words, $Cleft(Gammaright)$ is completely determined by the solution to the classical congruence subgroup problem for the arithmetic group $Aut^{*}(Gamma)$. In particular, in the case where $Gamma=Psi_{n,c}$ is a finitely generated free nilpotent group of class $c$ on $n$ elements, we get that $C(Psi_{n,c})=C(mathbb{Z}^{(n)})={e}$ whenever $ngeq3$, and $C(Psi_{2,c})=C(mathbb{Z}^{(2)})=hat{F}_{omega}$ = the free profinite group on countable number of generators.
It is proved that for any prime $p$ a finitely generated nilpotent group is conjugacy separable in the class of finite $p$-groups if and only if the torsion subgroup of it is a finite $p$-group and the quotient group by the torsion subgroup is abelian.
We study completions of the group algebra of a finitely generated group and relate nuclearity of such a completion to growth properties of the group. This extends previous work of Jolissaint on nuclearity of rapidly decreasing functions on a finitely
generated group to more general weights than polynomial decrease. The new group algebras and their duals are studied in detail and compared to other approaches. As application we discuss the convergence of the complete growth function introduced by Grigorchuk and Nagnibeda.
A theorem by Hall asserts that the multiplication in torsion free nilpotent groups of finite Hirsch length can be facilitated by polynomials. In this note we exhibit explicit Hall polynomials for the torsion free nilpotent groups of Hirsch length at most 5.
The class of acylindrically hyperbolic groups, which are groups that admit a certain type of non-elementary action on a hyperbolic space, contains many interesting groups such as non-exceptional mapping class groups and $operatorname{Out}(mathbb F_n)
$ for $ngeq 2$. In such a group, a generalized loxodromic element is one that is loxodromic for some acylindrical action of the group on a hyperbolic space. Osin asks whether every finitely generated group has an acylindrical action on a hyperbolic space for which all generalized loxodromic elements are loxodromic. We answer this question in the negative, using Dunwoodys example of an inaccessible group as a counterexample.