Poly-freeness of even Artin groups of FC type (Q1733171)

To each Coxeter group, there is an associated braid group (defined by `forgetting' the relations saying that each generator in the Coxeter group squares to the identity). Braid groups of finite type (\textit{i.e.}, such that the associated Coxeter group is finite) are best understood. An important problem is the \(K(\pi,1)\) conjecture, which states that some geometric space constructed via the geometric realization of a Coxeter group as a reflection group is an Eilenberg-MacLane space. This conjecture holds for braid groups of finite type [\textit{P. Deligne}, Invent. Math. 17, 273--302 (1972; Zbl 0238.20034)]. Denote by \(S\) the set of generators of a Coxeter group \(W\). Following [\textit{R. Charney} and \textit{M. W. Davis}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 8, No. 3, 597--627 (1995; Zbl 0833.51006)], \(W\) and its associated braid group \(B\) have type FC (standing for 'flag complexes') if the following holds: \begin{itemize} \item If \(T \subset S\) and every pair of elements in \(T\) generates a finite subgroup of \(W\), then \(T\) generates a finite subgroup of \(W\). \end{itemize} In particular, this family of braid groups contains all \textit{right-angled braid groups} (those where all defining relations are commutations \(s_is_j=s_js_i\) for some pairs \((s_i,s_j)\) of elements of \(S\)). Charney and Davis [loc. cit.] showed that the \(K(\pi,1)\) conjecture holds for braid groups of FC type. A braid group is said to be \textit{even} if the underlying Coxeter graph has no edge labelled by an odd integer. The authors show here that even braid groups of FC type are \textit{polyfree}, which means there exists a normal tower of subgroups where the successive quotients are free groups. A key tool is the following fact, that holds for even Artin groups: for \(T \subset S\) a subset of generators, the corresponding subgroup inclusion \(B_T \hookrightarrow B\) has a retraction \(B \to B_T\). As a consequence, the authors also show that every even Artin group of FC type is residually finite.