The congruence subgroup problem for branch groups. (Q1758984)

Suppose the group \(G\) acts on the set \(X\), and induces permutation groups \(G_n\) on the \(G\)-equivariant quotients \(X_n\) of \(X\). The action of \(G\) on \(X\) is said to be arbitrarily well approximated by that on the \(X_n\) if \(G\) embeds in the profinite group \(\overline G=\varprojlim G_n\). The congruence problem requires to describe the congruence kernel of the map \(\widehat G\to\overline G\), where \(\widehat G\) is the profinite completion of \(G\). In the paper under review the authors are interested in the case when \(G\) acts faithfully on a locally finite rooted tree \(T\), with \(T_n\) being the vertices at distance \(n\) from the root. In an extension of the classical congruence subgroup problem, the question addressed here is whether the profinite topology on \(G\) coincides with that defined by the level stabilisers. The important case of branch groups is considered. Several examples are worked out, including the particularly interesting Hanoi tower group. We refer to the very clearly written Introduction for further details.