Related papers: On the profinite rigidity of surface groups and su…
Examples are given of profinite groups that are not strongly complete, and have other `bad' properties, yet have only finitely many open subgroups of each finite index. It is shown that a profinite group with the latter property must be…
We find surface subgroups in certain one-relator groups with torsion and use this to deduce a profinite criterion for a word in the free group to be primitive.
Let $G$ be a hyperbolic group that splits as a graph of free groups with cyclic edge groups. We prove that, unless $G$ is isomorphic to a free product of free and surface groups, every finite abelian group $M$ appears as a direct summand in…
A survey of recent results about profinite groups, and results about infinite and finite groups where the theory of profinite groups plays a leading role.
We solve an open problem of Herfort and Ribes: Profinite Frobenius groups of certain type do occur as closed subgroups of free profinite products of two profinite groups. This also solves a question of Pop about prosolvable subgroups of…
We identify the simple algebraic groups over number fields that are, in a suitable sense, determined by their finite adele points. Assuming CSP and Grothendieck rigidity, our results essentially characterize higher rank arithmetic groups…
A profinite group equipped with an expansive endomorphism is equivalent to a one-sided group shift. We show that these groups have a very restricted structure. More precisely, we show that any such group can be decomposed into a finite…
We give new and improved results on the freeness of subgroups of free profinite groups: A subgroup containing the normal closure of a finite word in the elements of a basis is free; Every infinite index subgroup of a finitely generated…
We give a definition of weakly sofic groups (w-sofic groups). Our definition is rather natural extension of the definition of sofic groups where instead of Hamming metric on symmetric groups we use general bi-invariant metrics on finite…
A group is $\textit{finitely axiomatizable}$ (FA) in a class $\mathcal{C}$ if it can be determined up to isomorphism within $\mathcal{C}$ by a sentence in the first-order language of group theory. We show that profinite groups of various…
A free-by-cyclic group $F_N\rtimes_\phi\mathbb{Z}$ has non-trivial centre if and only if $[\phi]$ has finite order in ${\rm{Out}}(F_N)$. We establish a profinite ridigity result for such groups: if $\Gamma_1$ is a free-by-cyclic group with…
We show that the virtual second Betti number of a finitely generated, residually free group $G$ is finite if and only if $G$ is either free, free abelian or the fundamental group of a closed surface. We also prove a similar statement in…
The Profinite Isomorphism Problem for a class of groups \mathcal{C} asks for an algorithm that decides for any two groups in \mathcal{C} whether they have isomorphic profinite completions. We present the positive solution to this problem…
An interesting question is whether two 3-manifolds can be distinguished by computing and comparing their collections of finite covers; more precisely, by the profinite completions of their fundamental groups. In this paper, we solve this…
We investigate the profinite completions of a certain family of groups acting on trees. It turns out that for some of the groups considered, the completions coincide with the closures of the groups in the full group of tree automorphisms.…
The purpose of this paper is to extend some useful results, such as the multiplication being open, previously known for suitable finitely generated relatively free profinite semigroups, to relatively free profinite semigroupoids over…
There has been much recent interest into those properties of a 3-manifold determined by the profinite completion of its fundamental group. In this paper we give readily computable criteria specifying precisely when two orientable graph…
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…
We give a topological framework for the study of Sela's limit groups: limit groups are limits of free groups in a compact space of marked groups. Many results get a natural interpretation in this setting. The class of limit groups is known…
Profinite semigroups are a generalization of finite semigroups that come about naturally when one is interested in considering free structures with respect to classes of finite semigroups. They also appear naturally through dualization of…