English

Stallings' Group is Simply Connected at Infinity

Group Theory 2025-06-25 v1

Abstract

Let F2F_2 be the free group on two generators and let BnB_n (n2n \geq 2) denote the kernel of the homomorphism F2×(n)×F2ZF_2 \times \cdots (n) \cdots \times F_2 \rightarrow {\mathbb Z} sending all generators to the generator 11 of Z\mathbb Z. The groups BkB_k are called the {\it Bieri-Stallings} groups and BkB_k is type Fk1\mathcal F_{k-1} but not Fk\mathcal F_k. For n3n\geq 3 there are short exact sequences of the form 1Bn1BnF21.1 \rightarrow B_{n-1} \rightarrow B_n \rightarrow F_2 \rightarrow 1. This exact sequence can be used to show that BnB_n is (n3)(n-3)-connected at infinity for n3n\geq 3. Stallings' proved that B2B_2 is finitely generated but not finitely presented. We conjecture that for n2n\geq 2, BnB_n is (n2)(n-2)-connected at infinity. For n=2n=2, this means that B2B_2 is 1-ended and for n=3n=3 that B3B_3 (typically called Stallings' group) is simply connected at infinity. We verify the conjecture for n=2n=2 and n=3n=3. Our main result is the case n=3n=3: Stalling's group is simply connected at \infty.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.19195,
  title  = {Stallings' Group is Simply Connected at Infinity},
  author = {Michael Mihalik},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.19195},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

18 pages 10 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:30:32.509Z