Some isomorphism results for Thompson-like groups \(V_n(G)\) (Q1686302)

In this paper, the authors consider groups \(V_{n}(G)\), where for each \(n \in \mathbb{N}\) and each permutation group \(G \leq S_{n}\) \(V_{n}(G)\) is a supergroup of the Higman-Thompson group \(V_{n}\) (\(V_{2}\) is the Thompson group). The elements of \(G\) label certain automorphisms of an infinite \(n\)-ary rooted tree. A subgroup of \(S_{n}\) is semiregular if its nontrivial elements have no fixpoints, i.e. \(\mathrm{Stab}_{G}(x)=\{1\}\) for all \(x \in \{1,2,\ldots,n\}\). The main result of the paper is Theorem 1: Let \(n \geq 2\) and \(G \leq S_{n}\). Then \(V_{n}(G) \simeq V_{n}\) if and only if \(G\) is semiregular. Another noteworthy result is Theorem 2: Let \(n \geq 2\) and let \(H \leq S_{n}\) be semiregular. Also, let \(R\) be a set of orbit representatives of \(H\)'s natural action on \(\{1,2,...,n\}\), and let \(G \leq N_{S_{n}}(H) \cap \mathrm{Stab}_{S_{n}}(R)\). Then \(V_{n}(HG) \simeq V_{n}(G)\) where \(HG\) is the semidirect product of \(H\) by \(G\). An easy and interesting application of Theorem 2 is as follows. For the permutation group \(S_{3}\) let \(S_{2}=\langle (1,2) \rangle\) and \(C_{3}=\langle (1,2,3) \rangle\). It is clear that \(C_{3}\) is semiregular, so \(V_{3} \simeq V_{3}(C_{3})\), but both \(S_{2}\) and \(S_{3}\) are not. However, \(C_{3}\) is normal in \(S_{3}\), and \(S_{2}\) stabilizes an orbit transversal of \(C_{3}\), namely the set \(\{3\}\), hence \(V_{3}(S_{3})=V_{3}(C_{3}S_{2}) \simeq V_{3}(S_{2})\). In contrast, there are integers \(n \geq 3\) and isomorphic subgroups \(H, K \leq S_{n}\) such that \(V_{n}(H)\) and \(V_{n}(K)\) are not isomorphic.