English

Three articles on one-relator groups by Wilhelm Magnus

Group Theory 2025-01-31 v1 History and Overview

Abstract

This is an English translation of three articles, originally written in German, by Wilhelm Magnus (1907--1990). The articles are from 1930, 1931, and 1932, respectively, and were the first articles published on one-relator group theory. The first article gives a proof of the famous Freiheitssatz, and many applications of the same. The second investigates various topics in combinatorial group theory, including determining the automorphism group of the figure-eight knot group, listing the subgroups of the modular group, and a proof of the decidability of the word problem in a restricted class of one-relator groups. The third gives a proof of the decidability of the word problem in all one-relator groups. A short preface is provided, summarizing the articles.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.18248,
  title  = {Three articles on one-relator groups by Wilhelm Magnus},
  author = {Carl-Fredrik Nyberg-Brodda},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.18248},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

58 pages. Three articles and a translator's preface. Comments welcome!

R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:25:19.615Z