Certain residual properties of generalized Baumslag-Solitar groups (Q2029232)

This paper considers generalized Baumslag-Solitar groups, written GBS-groups for short. The author gives conditions for a GBS-group to be a residually \(\mathcal{C}\)-group, for \(\mathcal{C}\) a class of groups containing at least one non-trivial group and closed under taking subgroups, extensions, and Cartesian products of the form \(\prod_{y\in Y} X_y\) for \(X,Y\in \mathcal{C}\) with \(X_y\) being an isomorphic copy of \(X\) for each \(y\in Y\). Such a class of groups is called a root class, and this notion was introduced in [\textit{K. W. Gruenberg}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. III Ser. 7, 29--62 (1957; Zbl 0077.02901)]. In particular, if \(\mathcal{C}\) contains only periodic groups, the author gives a criterion for a GBS-group to be a residually \(\mathcal{C}\)-group. The author also proves that if \(\mathcal{C}\) contains at least one non-periodic group and is closed under taking quotients, then a GBS-group is residually a torsion-free \(\mathcal{C}\)-group. All of these results generalize recent work on GBS-groups. Furthermore, the author gives criteria for a GBS-group to be residually nilpotent, which answers Question 4 in [\textit{V. G. Bardakov} and \textit{M. V. Neshchadim}, Algebra Logic 59, No. 4, 281--294 (2020; Zbl 1484.20058)]. The author also gives criteria for a GBS-group to be residually torsion-free nilpotent, which is shown to be equivalent to being residually free. In addition, the author provides algorithms for verifying some conditions.