Profinite detection of free products and free factors
Group Theory
2026-03-18 v1
Abstract
Let be the fundamental group of a graph of finitely generated virtually free groups with virtually cyclic edge groups. We shaw that is cohomologically good if is residually finite. If is LERF, we prove that G splits non-trivially as a free product if and only if its profinite completion splits non-trivially as a free profinite product. Moreover, we are able to detect one-ended free factors of from . As an application, we deduce that any profinitely rigid word in a finitely generated free group is universally profinitely rigid.
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!