English

Profinite detection of free products and free factors

Group Theory 2026-03-18 v1

Abstract

Let GG be the fundamental group of a graph of finitely generated virtually free groups with virtually cyclic edge groups. We shaw that GG is cohomologically good if GG is residually finite. If GG is LERF, we prove that G splits non-trivially as a free product if and only if its profinite completion G^\widehat{G} splits non-trivially as a free profinite product. Moreover, we are able to detect one-ended free factors of GG from G^\widehat{G}. As an application, we deduce that any profinitely rigid word in a finitely generated free group is universally profinitely rigid.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.16674,
  title  = {Profinite detection of free products and free factors},
  author = {Andrei Jaikin-Zapirain and Henrique Souza and Pavel Zalesski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.16674},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

26 pages. Comments are welcome!