The non-Abelian Specker-group is free (Q1577619): Difference between revisions

The finitely generated free Abelian groups \(Z^n=\langle a_1,\dots,a_n\rangle\) naturally form an inverse system \(Z\leftarrow Z^2\leftarrow Z^3\leftarrow\cdots\), where the homomorphism \(Z^{n-1}\leftarrow Z^n\) simply collapses the last generator \(a_n\) to the identity element. The inverse limit \(Z^N=\text{invlim}(Z^n)\) is an uncountable Abelian group whose elements might be considered either as arbitrary sequences \((n_1,n_2,\dots)\) of integers or as corresponding infinite words \(a^{n_1}_1a^{n_2}_2\cdots\) in infinitely many commuting variables \(a_1,a_2,\dots\). The Specker subgroup \(B(Z^N)\) consists of those sequences which are bounded. That is, in any given element, there is a uniform bound on the exponents \(n_i\) of the generating letters \(a_i\). Specker proved that \(Z^N\) is not free Abelian but that \(B(Z^N)\) is free Abelian. The original proof used the continuum hypothesis. Later proofs used only the axiom of choice. Likewise, the finitely generated non-Abelian free groups \(F_n=\langle a_1,\dots,a_n\rangle\) naturally form an inverse system \(F_1\leftarrow F_2\leftarrow F_3\leftarrow\cdots\), where the homomorphism \(F_{n-1}\leftarrow F_n\) simply collapses the last generator \(a_n\) to the identity element. The inverse limit \(F_N=\text{invlim}(F_n)\) is an uncountable non-Abelian group. By definition, an element of \(F_N\) is determined by a compatible sequence \((g_1,g_2,\dots)\) of group elements, one from each \(F_n\). In turn the \(g_n\) are represented by words \(w_n\) in the free groups \(F_n\). Such a sequence \(W=(w_1, w_2,\dots)\) of words is said to be bounded if there is a positive integer \(b(W)\) such that, for each letter \(a_i\) and each word \(w_j\), there are at most \(b(W)\) occurrences of the letters \(a^{\pm}_i\) in \(w_j\). The elements of \(F_N\) which are represented by bounded word sequences form a subgroup \(B(F_N)\) of \(F_N\) which the author calls the non-Abelian Specker group. It is known that the group \(F_N\) is not free. The author proves that this non-Abelian Specker group is a non-Abelian free group. The proof is, as in the Abelian case, nonconstructive since there is no natural free basis to choose.