Related papers: Test elements in pro-$p$ groups with applications …
An element $g$ of a group $G$ is a test element if every endomorphism of $G$ that fixes $g$ is an automorphism. Let $G$ be a free group of finite rank, an orientable surface group of genus $n \geq 2$, or a non-orientable surface group of…
We study endomorphisms of a free group of finite rank by means of their action on specific sets of elements. In particular, we prove that every endomorphism of the free group of rank 2 which preserves an automorphic orbit (i.e., acts ``like…
A right Engel sink of an element $g$ of a group $G$ is a set ${\mathscr R}(g)$ such that for every $x\in G$ all sufficiently long commutators $[...[[g,x],x],\dots ,x]$ belong to ${\mathscr R}(g)$. (Thus, $g$ is a right Engel element…
Let $A_2$ be a free associative or polynomial algebra of rank two over a field $K$ of characteristic zero. Based on the degree estimate of Makar-Limanov and J.-T.Yu, we prove: 1) An element $p \in A_2$ is a test element if $p$ does not…
A word in a group is called a test element if any endomorphism fixing it is necessarily an automorphism. In this note, we give a sufficient condition in geometry to construct test elements for monomorphisms of a free group, by using the…
For a positive integer r we prove that if G is a profinite group in which the centralizer of every nontrivial element has rank at most r, then G is either a pro-p group or a group of finite rank. Further, if G is not virtually a pro-p…
An Engel sink of an element $g$ of a group $G$ is a set ${\mathscr E}(g)$ such that for every $x\in G$ all sufficiently long commutators $[...[[x,g],g],\dots ,g]$ belong to ${\mathscr E}(g)$. (Thus, $g$ is an Engel element precisely when we…
An element $g$ of a group $G$ is said to be right Engel if for every $x\in G$ there is a number $n=n(g,x)$ such that $[g,{}_{n}x]=1$. We prove that if a profinite group $G$ admits a coprime automorphism $\varphi$ of prime order such that…
We investigate some properties of the $p$-elements of a profinite group $G$. We prove that if $p$ is odd and the probability that a randomly chosen element of $G$ is a $p$-element is positive, then $G$ contains an open prosolvable subgroup.…
The article deals with profinite groups in which centralizers are virtually procyclic. Suppose that G is a profinite group such that the centralizer of every nontrivial element is virtually torsion-free while the centralizer of every…
The structure of finite and locally finite groups in which every element has prime power order (CP-groups) is well known. In this paper we note that the combination of our earlier results with the available information on the structure of…
We obtain some general restrictions on the continuous endomorphisms of a profinite group G under the assumption that G has only finitely many open subgroups of each index (an assumption which automatically holds, for instance, if G is…
A left Engel sink of an element $g$ of a group $G$ is a set ${\mathscr E}(g)$ such that for every $x\in G$ all sufficiently long commutators $[...[[x,g],g],\dots ,g]$ belong to ${\mathscr E}(g)$. (Thus, $g$ is a left Engel element precisely…
Assume $G$ is a solvable group whose elementary abelian sections are all finite. Suppose, further, that $p$ is a prime such that $G$ fails to contain any subgroups isomorphic to $C_{p^\infty}$. We show that if $G$ is nilpotent, then the…
Let $G=\ast_{i=1}^{n}G_{i}$ and let $\phi$ be a symmetric endomorphism of $G$. If $\phi$ is a monomorphism or if $G$ is a finitely generated residually finite group, then the fixed subgroup $Fix(\phi)=\{g\in G:\phi(g)=g\}$ of $\phi$ has…
We will show that every element of a finitely generated abelian group is automorphically equivalent what we will define to be a {\em representative element} in a {\em repeat-free subgroup}, and for finite abelian groups we can count the…
Let $G$ be a group. An automorphism of $G$ is called intense if it sends each subgroup of $G$ to a conjugate; the collection of such automorphisms is denoted by $\mathrm{Int}(G)$. In the special case in which $p$ is a prime number and $G$…
We complete the study of finite and profinite groups admitting an action by an elementary abelian group under which the centralizers of automorphisms consist of Engel elements. In particular, we prove the following theorems. Let $q$ be a…
A longstanding conjecture asserts that every non-abelian finite $p$-group $G$ admits a non-inner automorphism of order $p$. The conjecture is valid for finite $p$-groups of class 2. Here, we prove every finite non-abelian $p$-group $G$ of…
If $\G$ is a finitely generated group with generators $\{g_1,...,g_j\}$ then an infinite order element $f \in \G$ is a {\em distortion element} of $\G$ provided $\displaystyle{\liminf_{n \to \infty} |f^n|/n = 0,}$ where $|f^n|$ is the word…