Cohopficity of 3-manifold groups (Q1317042)

A group is cohopfian if it is not isomorphic to any of its proper subgroups. This paper continues the investigation of those 3-manifolds which have a cohopfian fundamental group begun by the authors in [Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 99, No. 474 (1992; Zbl 0756.57002)]. Since free products are not cohopfian (nor is the infinite cyclic group) and finite groups are, the problem for closed 3-manifolds reduces to considering irreducible manifolds with infinite fundamental group. Here two results are obtained: First, if the closed 3-manifold \(M\) is assumed to be \(P^2\)-irreducible and virtually geometric (finitely covered by a geometric 3-manifold) then \(\pi_1 (M)\) is shown to be cohopfian if and only if the associated geometry is not one of \(S^2 \times R\), \(E^3\), \(H^2 \times R\), Nil or Sol. Second, if \(M\) does contain a 2-sided projective plane, but is not homotopy equivalent to \(P^2 \times S^1\), then it is shown that \(\pi_1 x(M)\) is not isomorphic to any of its proper subgroups of finite index. Finally, an example is given to show that ``finite index'' cannot be removed from the last result.