Almost free groups and the M. Hall property (Q1346926)

An M. Hall group is one in which every finitely generated subgroup is a free factor of a subgroup of finite index. It is shown that a finitely generated, accessible M. Hall group is isomorphic to the fundamental group of a finite graph of finite groups. Write \(\mathcal J\) for the class of all groups isomorphic to such a fundamental group. In the earlier paper [Algebra Logika 31, 141-169 (1992; see the preceding review Zbl 0836.20026)] the author gave an algorithmically decidable criterion for a group in \(\mathcal J\) to be M. Hall. In the present paper the following related question is considered: Given any group \(G \in {\mathcal J}\) and a subgroup \(H\) given via an arbitrary finite set of generators, how may it be determined whether or not \(H\) is a free factor of a finite-index subgroup of \(G\)? As the main result an algorithm is described answering this question. Another related algorithm is given for deciding whether or not \(H\) is itself in \(\mathcal J\). The proofs use covering-space arguments.