On the Tits alternative for cyclically presented groups with length-four positive relators (Q2170268)

The cyclically presented group \(G_{n}(w)\) is the group defined by the cyclic presentation \(P_{n}(w)=\langle x_{0},x_{1}, \ldots, x_{n-1} \mid w, \theta(w), \ldots, \theta^{n-1}(w) \rangle\) where \(w=w(x_{0},x_{1},\ldots,x_{n-1})\) is a cyclically reduced word in the free group \(F_{n}\) of rank \(n\) with generators \(x_{0},x_{1}, \ldots, x_{n-1}\) and \(\theta: F_{n} \rightarrow F_{n}\) is the shift automorphism given by \(\theta(x_{i})=x_{i+1}\) for \(i=1, \ldots, n-2\) and \(\theta(x_{n-1})=x_{0}\). This paper is devoted to the study the groups \(G_{n}(j,k,\ell)=\langle P_{n}(w(j,k,\ell)) \rangle\) where \(w(j,k,\ell)=x_{0}x_{j}x_{k}x_{\ell}\). The authors investigate if \(G=G_{n}(j,k,\ell)\) satisfies the Tits alternative. In many cases where they show \(G\) contains a non-abelian free subgroup, they show that \(G\) satisfies the stronger properties of being large (that is, it has a finite index subgroup that maps onto the free group of rank 2) or of being SQ-universal (that is, every countable group embeds in a quotient of \(G\)).