Pseudo-mitotic groups (Q1061229)

The concept of a mitotic group was used by \textit{G. Baumslag}, \textit{E. Dyer} and \textit{A. Heller} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 16, 1-47 (1980; Zbl 0419.20026)] to prove results on embeddings of groups into acyclic groups. In the paper under review this concept is generalized to that of what is called a pseudo-mitotic group, and it is poved that pseudo-mitotic groups are acyclic. Since the group \(G_ n\) of homeomorphisms of \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\) with compact support is pseudo-mitotic but not known to be mitotic in this way a uniform proof for the acyclicity of all \(G_ n\)- which is actually due already to Mather - and of all mitotic groups is obtained. It is also shown that it is not possible to get functorial embeddings of groups into algebraically closed groups.