Decision problems for soluble groups of finite rank (Q1063113)

This article is concerned with the word problem, the generalized word problem and the conjugacy problem for soluble groups of finite rank. Recall that a soluble group has finite total rank if it has a series of finite length with abelian factors such that \(\sum_{p}r_ p(F)\) is finite for all factors F, the sum being taken over all \(p=0\) or a prime. Also a minimax group is a group with a series of finite length whose factors satisfy either the maximal or the minimal condition for subgroups. A soluble minimax group has finite total rank. There are three main results. Theorem \(2.3^*\). Let G be a finite extension of a soluble group with finite total rank. Then the word problem is soluble for a presentation of G if and only if it is recursive. - Theorem 3.1. Let G be a finite extension of a soluble minimax group. Assume that G has a recursive presentation and let H be a subgroup of G which is recursively enumerable (in terms of the presentation). Then there is an algorithm to decide membership in H. - Theorem 4.1. Let G be a finite extension of a soluble minimax group. Assume that G has a recursive presentation and g is a fixed element of G. Then there is an algorithm to decide conjugacy to g. - It follows that for finitely presented soluble minimax groups the solubility of the word problem, the generalized word problem and the conjugacy problem (for a given element) is assured. It is shown that the second and third theorems are not true for soluble groups of finite total rank.