Grothendieck rigidity of 3-manifold groups (Q2286345)

A group \(\pi\) is \textit{Grothendieck rigid} if for every finitely generated proper subgroup \(\Gamma \subset \pi\) the inclusion induced map \(\hat{\Gamma} \to \hat{\pi}\) of profinite completions is not an isomorphism. \textit{W. Cavendish} [``Finite-sheeted covering spaces and solenoids over 3-manifolds'', Ph.D. thesis, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. (2012)] and \textit{A. W. Reid} [Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 422, 73--104 (2015; Zbl 1354.20018)], showed that the fundamental groups of irreducible closed 3-manifolds \(M\) are Grothendieck rigid. The authors extend this result to 3-manifolds with boundary by proving the following Theorem: The fundamental group of an irreducible, orientable, compact, connected 3-manifold with empty or toroidal boundary is Grothendieck rigid. Their proof involves a diligent study of the profinite analogue of classical Bass-Serre theory of the graph of groups associated to the JSJ-decomposition of \(M\). The authors remark that the proof for the non-empty boundary case seems to be significantly harder than the proof for the closed case.