English

Direct factors of profinite completions and decidability

Group Theory 2008-10-03 v1

Abstract

We consider finitely presented,residually finite groups GG and finitely generated normal subgroups AA such that the inclusion AGA\hookrightarrow G induces an isomorphism from the profinite completion of AA to a direct factor of the profinite completion of GG. We explain why AA need not be a direct factor of a subgroup of finite index in GG; indeed GG need not have a subgroup of finite index that splits as a non-trivial direct product. We prove that there is no algorithm that can determine whether AA is a direct factor of a subgroup of finite index in GG.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.0399,
  title  = {Direct factors of profinite completions and decidability},
  author = {Martin R. Bridson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.0399},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

To appear in the Journal of Group Theory