Abstract commensurability and the Gupta-Sidki group (Q2630761)

In [Math. Z. 182, 385--388 (1983; Zbl 0513.20024)], \textit{N. Gupta} and \textit{S. Sidki} built, for each odd prime \(p\), an infinite \(p\)-group \(G_{p}\) generated by two elements both of order \(p\). The group \(G_{p}\), now known as Gupta-Sidki \(p\)-group, has infinite exponent and is residually finite but is not finitely presentable. This paper is devoted to the study the subgroup structure of the Gupta-Sidki groups. In particular, following results of \textit{R. I. Grigorchuk} and \textit{J. S. Wilson} for the first Grigorchuk group [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 68, No. 3, 671--682 (2003: Zbl 1063.20033)], in Theorem 1 it is proved that all infinite finitely generated subgroups of the Gupta-Sidki 3-group \(G_{3}\) are abstractly commensurable with \(G_{3}\) or \(G_{3} \times G_{3}\) (two groups are abstractly commensurable if they have isomorphic subgroups of finite index). As a consequence, it is proved that \(G_{3}\) is subgroup separable and hence that its membership problem is solvable (Theorem 2). The author conjectures that the restriction to \(p=3\) is unnecessary, however, the proofs rely heavily on a delicate length reduction argument (Theorem 6) that is only available for \(p=3\). A by-product of the results proved in this paper is the characterization of finite subgroups of \(G_{3}\) (Theorem 3).