Bias of group generators in the solvable case. (Q498999)

Let \(G\) be a group and let \(\Omega=\{x\in G\mid\langle x,y\rangle=G,\text{ for some }y\in G\}\). Let \(\mu_G\) be the usual normalized Haar measure on the \(t\)-generated profinite group \(G\). Then \(G\) is a measure space relative to \(\mu_G\), but it is possible to consider \(G\) as a measure space obtained as an inverse system of finite probability spaces in a different way, the resulting measure being denoted by \(\kappa_{G,t}\), which is described in the paper. An estimate for the bias of the measure \(\kappa_{G,t}\) is \(\|\kappa_{G,t}-\mu_G\|_{\mathrm{tv}}=\sup_{B\in\mathcal B(G)}|\kappa_{G,t}(B)-\mu_G(B)|\), where \(\mathcal B(G)\) is the set of measurable subsets of \(G\). \textit{L. Babai} and \textit{I. Pak} [in: Proceedings of the 11th annual ACM-SIAM symposium on discrete algorithms, SODA 2000, San Francisco, USA, 2000. Philadelphia: SIAM. 627-635 (2000; Zbl 1005.20055)] proved that if \(\widehat F_2\) is the free profinite completion of the free group of rank \(2\) and \(t\geq 4\), then \(\|\kappa_{\widehat F_2,t}-\mu_{\widehat F_2}\|_{\mathrm{tv}}=1\). In the current paper the authors prove that there is a \(2\)-generator metabelian profinite group \(G\) with the property that \(\mu_G(\Omega)=0\), where \(\Omega\) is as above and that, in particular \(\|\kappa_{G,2}-\mu_G\|_{\mathrm{tv}}=1\). They also give examples of prosoluble \(t\)-generator groups \(G\), with \(\|\kappa_{G,t}-\mu_G\|_{\mathrm{tv}}=1\), where \(t-d(G)\to \infty\) as \(d(G)\to\infty\). Here \(d(G)\) is the minimal number of generators of \(G\).