English

Small partial Latin squares that embed in an infinite group but not into any finite group

Group Theory 2018-01-10 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

Suppose that Y1,Y2,Y3Y_1,Y_2,Y_3 are finite sets and PY1×Y2×Y3P\subseteq Y_1\times Y_2\times Y_3. We say that PP embeds in a group GG if there exist injective maps ϕi ⁣:YiG\phi_i\colon Y_i\rightarrow G for i=1,2,3i=1,2,3 such that ϕ1(y1)ϕ2(y2)=ϕ3(y3)\phi_1(y_1)\phi_2(y_2)=\phi_3(y_3) for each (y1,y2,y3)P(y_1,y_2,y_3)\in P. Hirsch and Jackson asked for the cardinality of the smallest PP that embeds in some infinite group but not into any finite group. We prove that the answer to their question is 12. Moreover, we show that there are 50 examples of cardinality 12, up to equivalence, and each of them embeds in the (infinite) Baumslag group G=a,bb=[b,ba]G=\langle a,b \mid b=[b,b^a]\rangle. Our proof uses computations to answer questions about finitely presented groups which are known to be algorithmically undecidable in general.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1705.02540,
  title  = {Small partial Latin squares that embed in an infinite group but not into any finite group},
  author = {Heiko Dietrich and Ian M. Wanless},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.02540},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

J. Symbolic Computation, 2017