Dimension quotients, Fox subgroups and limits of functors (Q2418033)

This paper is about a different approach concerning two challenging problems in the theory of integral group rings. Let \(G\) be a group, let \(\mathbb{Z}G\) be its integral group ring and \(\mathfrak{g}\) be the augmentation ideal of \(\mathbb{Z}G\). One problem tackled in this paper is the evaluation of dimension quotients \[D_n(G)/\gamma_n(G),n\geq 1,\] where \( D_n(G):=G\cap (1+\mathfrak{g}^n)\) is the \(n\)-th dimension subgroup of \(G\) and \(\gamma_n(G)\) is the \(n\)-th term in the lower central series. In the first main result, Theorem 1.1, the authors manage to present a surprising description of the fourth dimension quotient \(D_4(G)/\gamma_4(G)\) in functorial terms, involving the limit functor \(\underleftarrow{\operatorname{lim}}\) applied on a natural short exact sequence obtained from a free presentation of \(G\). The other problem is about the so-called Fox subgroups, which asks the identification of the normal subgroup \[F(n,R):=F\cap (1+\mathfrak{r}\mathfrak{f}^n)\] of a free group \(F\) and its normal subgroup \(R\) (here \(\mathfrak{r},\mathfrak{f}\) are the augmentation ideals of \(\mathbb{Z}R, \mathbb{Z}F,\) respectively; \(n\geq 1\)). Set \[G(3,R):=\gamma_2(R\cap \gamma_3(F))[[R\cap \gamma_2(F), R], R \cap \gamma_2(F)]\gamma_4(R).\] Another main result, Theorem 1.2 (i), gives a description of the quotient \(F(3,R)/G(3,R)\) as the first derived functor of the symmetric square \[L_1\mathrm{SP}^2\left(\frac{R\cap\gamma_2(F)}{\gamma_2(R)(R\cap \gamma_3(F))}\right).\] Other similar results, like Theorem 1.2 (ii) and Theorem 1.3, are proved in Sections 5, 6.