A note on the growth of Betti numbers and ranks of 3-manifold groups (Q2637620)

A normal cofinite filtration of a group \(\pi\) is a sequence \(\{\pi_i \}\) of finite index normal subgroups such that \(\pi_{i+1}\subset \pi_i\) for every \(i\) and \(\bigcap_{i\in \mathbb{N}}\pi_i =1\). The author considers filtrations of \(\pi = \pi_1 (N)\), where \(N\) is a compact, orientable, irreducible \(3\)-manifold with empty or toroidal boundary; in particular he is interested in how fast (resp. slow) the Betti numbers (resp. ranks) can grow in a cofinite filtraten of \(\pi_1 (N)\). He shows: (1) If \(N\) is non-spherical, not covered by a torus bundle, different from a solid torus and \(T^2{\times}I\), then there is a normal cofinite filtration of \(\pi_1 (N)\) and some \(\epsilon \in (0,1)\) such that the Betti number \(b_1 (\pi_i )\geq [\pi : \pi_i ]^{\epsilon}\) for every \(i\in \mathbb{N}\); (2) If \(N\) is not a closed graph manifold then there is a normal cofinite filtration of \(\pi_1 (N)\) and some \(\epsilon \in (0,1)\) such that the rank \(d (\pi_i )\leq [\pi : \pi_i ]^{\epsilon}\) for every \(i\in \mathbb{N}\). The proofs use the results of Agol, Kahn-Markovic, and Przytycki-Wise that \(\pi_1 (N)\) is large (in case 1) and that \(N\) is virtually fibered over \(S^1\) (in case 2).