Related papers: A characterisation of virtually free groups

We prove that a subset of a virtually free group is rational if and only if the language of geodesic words representing its elements (in any generating set) is rational and that the language of geodesics representing conjugates of elements…

We give a new characterisation of virtually free groups using graph minors. Namely, we prove that a finitely generated, infinite group is virtually free if and only if for any finite generating set, the corresponding Cayley graph is minor…

We prove that it is decidable whether or not a finitely generated submonoid of a virtually free group is graded, introduce a new geometric characterization as quasi-geodesic monoids, and show that their word problem is rational (as a…

A regular set of words is ($k$-)locally testable if membership of a word in the set is determined by the nature of its subwords of some bounded length $k$. In this article we study groups for which the set of all geodesic words with respect…

We prove that the generalised word problem of a finitely generated subgroup of a finitely generated virtually free group is context-free, that a hyperbolic group must be virtually free if it has a torsion-free quasiconvex subgroup of…

Free groups are known to be homogeneous, meaning that finite tuples of elements which satisfy the same first-order properties are in the same orbit under the action of the automorphism group. We show that virtually free groups have a…

Four geometric conditions on a geodesic metric space, which are stronger variants of classical conditions characterizing hyperbolicity, are proved to be equivalent. In the particular case of the Cayley graph of a finitely generated group,…

We give a complete classification of finitely generated virtually free groups up to $\forall\exists$-elementary equivalence. As a corollary, we give an algorithm that takes as input two finite presentations of virtually free groups, and…

We prove that a variety of algebras whose finitely generated members are free must be definitionally equivalent to the variety of sets, the variety of pointed sets, a variety of vector spaces over a division ring, or a variety of affine…

We call a graph $k$-geodetic, for some $k\geq 1$, if it is connected and between any two vertices there are at most $k$ geodesics. It is shown that any hyperbolic group with a $k$-geodetic Cayley graph is virtually-free. Furthermore, in…

In this article we show that every group with a finite presentation satisfying one or both of the small cancellation conditions $C'(1/6)$ and $C'(1/4)-T(4)$ has the property that the set of all geodesics (over the same generating set) is a…

Any virtually free group $H$ containing no non-trivial finite normal subgroup (e.g., the infinite dihedral group) is a retract of any finitely generated group containing $H$ as a verbally closed subgroup.

Can one detect free products of groups via their profinite completions? We answer positively among virtually free groups. More precisely, we prove that a subgroup of a finitely generated virtually free group $G$ is a free factor if and only…

The complexity of a geodesic language has connections to algebraic properties of the group. Gilman, Hermiller, Holt, and Rees show that a finitely generated group is virtually free if and only if its geodesic language is locally excluding…

This note records some observations concerning geodesic growth functions. If a nilpotent group is not virtually cyclic then it has exponential geodesic growth with respect to all finite generating sets. On the other hand, if a finitely…

A connected graph is called \emph{geodetic} if there is a unique geodesic between each pair of vertices. In this paper we prove that if a finitely generated group admits a Cayley graph which is geodetic, then the group must be virtually…

We prove that if $G$ is a finitely generated RFRS group of cohomological dimension $2$, then $G$ is virtually free-by-cyclic if and only if $b_2^{(2)}(G) = 0$. This answers a question of Wise and generalises and gives a new proof of a…

We establish combinatorial characterizations of virtually torsion-free and virtually free groups using the canonical graph decomposition theory in \cite{DJKK22}. Our main results show that a finitely presented, residually finite group…

We give a description of elementary subgroups (in the sense of first-order logic) of finitely generated virtually free groups. In particular, we recover the fact that elementary subgroups of finitely generated free groups are free factors.…

Let $G$ be the fundamental group of a graph of finitely generated virtually free groups with virtually cyclic edge groups. We shaw that $G$ is cohomologically good if $G$ is residually finite. If $G$ is LERF, we prove that G splits…