Narain Gupta's three normal subgroup problem and group homology (Q1734226)

This article is about the application of various homological methods to classical problems in the theory of group rings. It is well-known that the second (co)homology of groups plays an important role in the theory of groups; in particular, in the theory of central extensions. The third cohomology of a group classifies \(k\)-invariants for crossed modules or homotopy 2-types. However, it is not easy to find an explicit application of the third (co)homology in group-theoretical questions which are formulated without the language of homological algebra. In this paper, the authors show that the third homology of groups plays a key role in the solution of a problem in free group rings. Let \(F\) be a free group, \(\mathbb{Z}[F]\) his integral group ring, \(R\), \(S\), \(T\) normal subgroups of \(F\) and \(\mathfrak{r}=(R-1)\mathbb{Z}[F]\), \(\mathfrak{s}=(S-1)\mathbb{Z}[F]\), \(\mathfrak{t}=(T-1)\mathbb{Z}[F]\) the corresponding ideals in \(\mathbb{Z}[F]\). In the paper under review, a complete description of the normal subgroup \(F\cap( \mathfrak{r}\mathfrak{s}\mathfrak{t})\) is given, provided \(R\subseteq T\) and the third, fourth and fifth homology groups of \(R/R \cap S\) are torsion groups.