Equations in acylindrically hyperbolic groups and verbal closedness (Q2102162)

Summary: Let \(H\) be an acylindrically hyperbolic group without nontrivial finite normal subgroups. We show that any finite system \(S\) of equations with constants from \(H\) is equivalent to a single equation. We also show that the algebraic set associated with \(S\) is, up to conjugacy, a projection of the algebraic set associated with a single splitted equation (such an equation has the form \(w (x_1, \ldots, x_n) = h\), where \(w \in F (X), \, h \in H\). From this we deduce the following statement: \textit{Let \(G\) be an arbitrary overgroup of the above group \(H\). Then \(H\) is verbally closed in \(G\) if and only if it is algebraically closed in \(G\)}. These statements have interesting implications; here we give only two of them: If \(H\) is a non-cyclic torsion-free hyperbolic group, then every (possibly infinite) system of equations with finitely many variables and with constants from \(H\) is equivalent to a single equation. We give a positive solution to Problem 5.2 from the paper [J. Group Theory 17 (2014), 29-40] of Myasnikov and Roman'kov: \textit{Verbally closed subgroups of torsion-free hyperbolic groups are retracts}. Moreover, we describe solutions of the equation \(x^n y^m = a^n b^m\) in acylindrically hyperbolic groups (AH-groups), where \(a\), \( b\) are non-commensurable jointly special loxodromic elements and \(n , m\) are integers with sufficiently large common divisor. We also prove the existence of special test words in AH-groups and give an application to endomorphisms of AH-groups.