Groups isomorphic to all their non-trivial normal subgroups (Q1601460)

In the early 1970's, the following question was asked by Philip Hall [see \textit{J. C. Lennox, J. Wiegold} and \textit{H. Smith}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 88, No. 1-3, 169-171 (1993; Zbl 0797.20027)] and appeared later in The Kourovka notebook. Unsolved problems in group theory [14th augm. ed. (1999; Zbl 0943.20003)] in the form: Must a non-trivial group, which is isomorphic to each of its non-trivial normal subgroups, be either free of infinite rank, simple or infinite cyclic? This was answered in the negative by \textit{V. N. Obraztsov} [in Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 75, No. 1, 79-98 (1997; Zbl 0918.20023)], where he used the technique of graded diagrams developed by \textit{A. Yu. Ol'shanskij} [Geometry of defining relations in groups, Mathematics and Its Applications. Soviet Series, 70. Dordrecht etc.: Kluwer Academic Publishers (1991; Zbl 0732.20019)]. In the paper under review the authors provide a different construction of a non-trivial group which is isomorphic to each of its non-trivial normal subgroups. The main result of this paper is: Let \(\kappa\) be an uncountable cardinal such that \(\kappa=\kappa^{<\kappa}\). Then there exists a group \(G\) of cardinality \(\kappa\) with a descending principal series \[ G\supset G_1\supset\cdots\supset G_n\supset\cdots \] such that \(\bigcap_{n<\omega}G_n=1\), \(G_n\cong G\) for each \(n<\omega\), and any normal subgroup of \(G\) is equal to some \(G_n\). This construction makes special use of the notion of homogeneous and universal structures in model theory and well-known facts about HNN extensions and free products with amalgamation.