Discriminating groups (Q2769828)

A group \(G\) is called discriminating if every group \(H\) separated by \(G\) is discriminated by \(G\). Recall that a group \(H\) is separated by \(G\) if for each nontrivial element \(h\in H\) there is a homomorphism \(\varphi_h\colon H\to G\) such that \(\varphi_h(h)\not=1\). A group \(H\) is discriminated by \(G\) if for every finite set \(\overline h=\{h_1,\dots,h_m\}\) of nontrivial elements of \(H\) there is a homomorphism \(\varphi_{\overline h}\colon H\to G\) such that \(\varphi_{\overline h}(h_i)\not=1\) for every \(i=1,\dots,m\). Note that there is a difference with the classical definition of dicriminating in \textit{H. Neumann}'s famous monograph ``Varieties of groups'' (1967; Zbl 0251.20001).NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEIt is proved that a finitely generated equationally Noetherian group \(G\) is discriminating iff the quasivariety \(qG\) generated by \(G\) coincides with the minimal universal class \(UG\) generated by \(G\). Recall that a group \(G\) is called equationally Noetherian iff every set of equations over \(G\) over a finite set of variables is equivalent to some finite subset.