On uniqueness of JSJ decompositions of finitely generated groups. (Q1422173)

Let \(G\) be a finitely presented group. The notion of JSJ (Jaco-Shalen-Johannson) decomposition of \(G\) has been introduced by Rips and Sela. Such a decomposition consists in a graph of groups decomposition of \(G\) in the sense of Serre, satisfying a (long) list of properties, stated in the paper of \textit{E. Rips} and \textit{Z. Sela} [Ann. Math. (2) 146, No. 1, 55--109 (1997; Zbl 0910.57002)]. Rips and Sela proved that if \(G\) is a Gromov-hyperbolic group, then any two JSJ decompositions of \(G\) are related by conjugation, conjugation of edge-inclusions, and slide moves, and they noted that such a uniqueness result holds in many other instances. They asked the question of uniqueness in the general case. In this paper, the author answers the question in the negative, by giving an example of two JSJ decompositions of a group which are not related by conjugation, conjugation of edge-inclusions and slide moves. On the other hand, the author proves that any two arbitrary JSJ decompositions of a group are related by an elementary deformation and that many JSJ decompositions are genuinely unique. He also notes that the same reasoning applies to other decompositions as well: the JSJ decompositions of Dunwoody and Sageev, of Fujiwara and Papasoglu, and the accessible (or one-ended) decompositions.