English

Engel elements in some fractal groups

Group Theory 2018-04-03 v2

Abstract

Let pp be a prime and let GG be a subgroup of a Sylow pro-pp subgroup of the group of automorphisms of the pp-adic tree. We prove that if GG is fractal and G:stG(1)=|G':\mathrm{st}_G(1)'|=\infty, then the set L(G)L(G) of left Engel elements of GG is trivial. This result applies to fractal nonabelian groups with torsion-free abelianization, for example the Basilica group, the Brunner-Sidki-Vieira group, and also to the GGS-group with constant defining vector. We further provide two examples showing that neither of the requirements G:stG(1)=|G':\mathrm{st}_G(1)'|=\infty and being fractal can be dropped.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1801.04595,
  title  = {Engel elements in some fractal groups},
  author = {Gustavo A. Fernández-Alcober and Albert Garreta and Marialaura Noce},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.04595},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

9 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T23:44:47.281Z