Right exact localizations of groups (Q2040219)

A localization in a category \(\mathcal{C}\) is an endofunctor \(L : \mathcal{C}\to \mathcal{C}\) together with a natural transformation \(\eta : \mbox{Id}\to L\) such that \(\eta L = L\eta : L\to L^2\) is an isomorphism. An object \(C\in\mathcal{C}\) is local with respect to a localization \(L\) if the morphism \(\eta_C : C \to LC\) is an isomorphism. \par The authors study localizations in the category of groups and the most interesting class for them is the class of localizations which coincide with their zero derived functors called right exact (in the sense of \textit{F. Keune} [J. Algebra 54, 159--177 (1978; Zbl 0403.18009)]). It is proved that a right exact localization \(L\) preserves the class of nilpotent groups and that for a finite \(p\)-group \(G\) the map \(\eta_G : G \to LG\) is an epimorphism. Furthermore, it is shown that \textit{G. Baumslag}'s \(P\)-localization with respect to a set of primes \(P\) [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 18, 25--30 (1965; Zbl 0136.01204)], \textit{A. K. Bousfield}'s \(HR\)-localization [Homological localization towers for groups and \(\Pi\)-modules. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (1977; Zbl 0364.20058)] and others are right exact. \par At the end, a conjecture of E. Dror Farjoun about Nikolov-Segal maps [\textit{N. Nikolov} and \textit{D. Segal}, Invent. Math. 190, No. 3, 513--602 (2012; Zbl 1268.20031)] is discussed and a very special case of this conjecture is proved.