Full rank presentations and nilpotent groups: structure, Diophantine problem, and genericity (Q2178495)

Let \(G=\langle x_1,\dots, x_n \mid r_1,\dots, r_m; N_c\rangle\) be a relative finite presentation of group \(G\) in a variety \(N_c\) of all nilpotent groups of class at most \(c\). Following to Magnus, the authors introduce the relation matrix M of this presentation that is an \(m\times n\) matrix whose (\(i,j\))-th entry is the sum of the exponents of the \(x_j\)'s that occur in \(r_i\). The number \(n-m\), if non-negative, is called the deficiency of the presentation. The matrix M has full rank if its rank is equal to \(\min\{n, m\}\), i.e., it is the maximum possible. The authors prove that groups given by full rank presentations with positive deficiency have a rather restricted structure. In particular, there exists a subset \(S\) of the set \(\{x_1,\dots,x_n\}\) consisting of \(n-m\) elements such that the following holds: 1. If \(m = n-1\), then the subgroup \(H\) generated by \(S\) is infinite cyclic and has finite index in \(G\). 2. If \(m\leq n- 2\), then \(H\) is a free \(c\)-step nilpotent subgroup of rank \(n-m\) which has finite index in \(G\). The central theorem of the paper states that the Diophantine problem in nilpotent groups given by full rank presentations is undecidable if \(n - m\geq 2\) and decidable otherwise. A finitely generated group \(G\) is said to be first-order rigid if for any finitely generated group \(H\) elementary equivalence \(G\equiv H\) implies isomorphism \(G\simeq H\). Furthermore, a finitely generated group G is called quasi finitely axiomatizable or QFA, if there is a sentence \(\phi \) of group theory that holds in \(G\) and such that for any finitely generated group \(H\) if \(\phi \) holds in \(H\) then \(G\simeq H\). The authors prove that every nilpotent group \(G\) given in a class \(N_c\), \(c \geq 2\), by a finite full rank presentation of deficiency at least \(2\) is QFA, hence first-order rigid.