On a certain class of cyclically presented groups. (Q2428077)

The paper considers groups \(G\) defined by the cyclic presentations \(G_n(x_0[x_i^\alpha,x_j^\beta])\) (where \([a,b]=a^{-1}b^{-1}ab\)). This cyclic presentation is said to be irreducible if \(\mathrm{hcf}(i,j,n)=1\) and the family includes the groups \(G_n(x_0[x_0^{-1},x_1])\) studied by Higman and Neumann; it includes the groups \(G_{2k}(x_0[x_i^\alpha,x_{i+k}^\alpha])\) (\(k\geq 2\), \(\mathrm{hcf}(i,k)=1\)) studied by Havas and Robertson, who showed that the cyclic presentation is an irreducible presentation of the trivial group; and it includes the groups \(G_n([x_0[x_1^\alpha,x_2^\beta])\) studied by Edjvet and Hammond. The purpose of this paper is to obtain conditions on the parameters \(n,i,j,\alpha,\beta\) under which \(G\) is infinite. The theorems obtained, together with the results of calculations in KBMAG, support the authors' stated conjecture that for \(n\geq 5\) the presentation is an irreducible presentation of the trivial group if and only if it is of Havas-Robertson type, and that it defines an infinite group otherwise. The proofs involve detailed curvature analysis and redistribution of curvature in van Kampen diagrams over the presentation of the split extension of \(G\) by the cyclic group of order~\(n\). (Also submitted to MR.)