Almost congruence extension property for subgroups of free groups (Q1693073)

A subgroup \(H\) of a group \(G\) is said to have the congruence extension property (in short, CEP) if \(H\cap\langle\langle N\rangle\rangle_G = N\) for any subgroup \(N\) of \(H\), where \(\langle\langle N\rangle\rangle_G\) is the normal closure of \(N\) in \(G\). For example, any cyclic subgroup of a free group has the CEP. This property has also been extensively studied for semigroups and universal algebras. It plays an important role in some constructions of groups with `exotic' properties. A subgroup \(H\) of a group \(G\) almost has CEP (ACEP) if there is a finite set of non-trivial elements \(\mathcal{F}\subset H\) such that \(H\cap\langle\langle N\rangle\rangle_G = N\) whenever \(N\cap\mathcal{F} = \emptyset\). A subgroup \(H\) of a group \(G\) is said to be malnormal, If \(H^g\cap H=\{1\}\) for all \(g\notin H\). The main result of the paper under review is the following: Theorem 3. Let \(H\) be a finitely generated subgroup of a free group \(F\). There exists a number \(C_H\) such that \(N=\langle\langle N\rangle\rangle_F \cap H\) for any normal subgroup \(N\) of \(H\) with \(\gamma_H(N) > C_H\), where \(\gamma_H(N)\) is \(\min\{|w|_H\mid w\in N\setminus\{1\}\}\) for a special length function \(w\rightarrow|w|_H.\) The authors deduce from this theorem the following fact: any finitely generated malnormal subgroup of a free group has ACEP (Theorem 1). Note that this is contained in the article by \textit{D. Osin} [Invent. Math. 167, No. 2, 295--326 (2007; Zbl 1116.20031), Corollary 1.5] The authors give two proofs of Theorem 3. The first one is based on small cancellation theory with the use of Stallings' folded graphs. The second proof is based on some result from the paper by \textit{F. Dahmani} et al., [``Hyperbolically embedded subgroups and rotating families in groups acting on hyperbolic spaces'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1111.7048}, Theorem 7.15].