Filtrations of free groups arising from the lower central series (Q285587)

For a group \(G\), let \(G^{(1,0)}=G\), \(G^{(n+1, 0)}=[G^{(n, 0)},G]\), \(n=1,2,\dots\) be the terms of its lower central series. Except this (classical) lower central filtration, two other filtrations are defined. For a prime \(p\), the lower \(p\)-central filtration for a group \(G\) is defined by \(G^{(n, p)}=\prod _{i=1}^n(G^{(i, 0)})^{p^{n-i}}\), for \(n=1,2,\dots\). Alternatively, it has the following inductive definition (see [\textit{J. Neukirch} et al., Cohomology of number fields. 2nd ed. Berlin: Springer (2008; Zbl 1136.11001)], Proposition 3.8.6): \[ G^{(1, p)}=G,\quad G^{(n+1,p)}=(G^{(n,p)})^p[G^{(n, p)},G]\text{ for }n\geq 1. \] For a prime \(p\), the \(p\)-Zassenhaus filtration is defined by \(G_{(n,p)}=\prod _{i=1}^n(G^{(i,0)})^{p^{[\log_p(n/i]}}=\prod _{ip^j\geq n}(G^{(i,0)})^{p^j}\), for \(n=1,2,\dots \). By a result of \textit{M. Lazard} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 26, 389--603 (1965; Zbl 0139.02302), (3.14.5)], it has the following alternative inductive definition: \[ G_{(1,p)}=G,\quad G_{(n,p)}=(G_{([n/p],p)})^p\prod _{i+j=n}[G_{(i, p)},\quad G_{(j,p)}]\text{ for }n\geq 2. \] If \(F=F(X)\) is the free group on the finite basis \(X\), then there are alternative descriptions for the terms \(F^{(n, 0)}\) of the lower central filtration. {\parindent=0.8cm \begin{itemize}\item[(I)] Let \(\mathbb Z\langle\langle X\rangle\rangle\) be the ring of all formal power series over the set \(X\) of non-commuting variables and with coefficients in \(\mathbb Z\). Let \(\Delta _{\mathbb Z}\) be the ideal in \(\mathbb Z\langle\langle X\rangle\rangle\) generated by \(X\), and define the Magnus homomorphism \(\mu _{\mathbb Z}:F\longrightarrow\mathbb Z\langle\langle X\rangle\rangle^\times\) by \(\mu _{\mathbb Z}(x)=1+x\) for \(x\in X\). Then \(F^{(n,0)}=\mu_{\mathbb Z}^{-1}(1+\Delta _{\mathbb Z}^n)\). \item[(II)] \(F^{(n,0)}=F\cap (1+C _{\mathbb Z}^n)\), where \(C _{\mathbb Z}\) is the augmentation ideal in the group algebra \(\mathbb Z[F]\).\item[(III)] \(F^{(n,0)}\) is the intersection of all kernels of homomorphisms \(F\longrightarrow\mathbb U_n(\mathbb Z)\), where \(\mathbb U_n(\mathbb Z)\) is the group of all upper-triangular unipotent \(n\times n\) matrices over \(\mathbb Z\). \end{itemize}} Analogous alternative descriptions for the other two filtrations for the free group \(F=F(X)\) have been developed (see the paper and the references therein). Here, the authors develop a general frame work for studying such filtrations and prove structure theorems which contain most of the above-mentioned facts as special cases. For a given map \(e:\{(n,j)\in\mathbb Z^2\mid 1\leq i\leq n\}\longrightarrow\mathbb Z_{\geq 0}\), the authors consider the subgroups \(\prod _{i=1}^n(F^{(i,0)})^{e(n,i)}\) of \(F\) and the ideals \(\Delta _{\mathbb Z}^{(e,n)}=\sum _{i=1}^n\Delta^i_{\mathbb Z}\) of \(\mathbb{Z}\langle\langle X\rangle\rangle\) and \(C _{\mathbb Z}^{(e,n)}=\sum _{i=1}^nC ^i_{\mathbb Z}\) of \(\mathbb Z[F]\). Under certain assumptions on \(e\) (Theorem 4.3 in the paper), they prove \(\prod _{i=1}^n(F^{(i,0)})^{e(n,i)}=\mu^{-1}_{\mathbb Z}(1+\Delta_{\mathbb Z}^{(e,n)})=F\cap (1+C _{\mathbb Z}^{(e,n)})\). Also, it is proved (Theorem 5.3 in the paper) that the group \(\mu^{-1}_{\mathbb Z}(1+\Delta_{\mathbb Z}^{(e,n)})\) is the intersection of all the kernels of homomorphisms \(F\longrightarrow U_{d+1}(\mathbb Z/e(n,d)\mathbb Z)\) with \(1\leq d\leq n-1\). These results generalize the above filtrations for the free group \(F\). In the following, the authors develop a general technique to construct a filtration which generalize the inductive definition of the lower central series \(G^{(n,0)}\) and the \(p\)-central series \(G^{(n,p)}\). Let \(A=(a_i)_{i=1}^\infty\) be a sequence of non-negative integers, the \(A\)-filtration \(G^{(n,A)}\) of the group \(G\) is defined by \(G^{(1,A)}=G\), \(G^{(n+1,A)}=(G^{(n,A)})^{a_n}[G^{(n,A)},G]\) for \(n\geq 1\). It is proved (Theorem 7.4) that \(G^{(n,A)}=\prod _{i=1}^n(G^{(i,0)})^{e(n,i)}\), where \(e(n,i)\) is the gcd of all products of \(n-i\) elements from \(a_1,\dots,a_{n-1}\) (and \(e(n,n)=1\)). Using this last result, the authors extend the above mentioned Lazard's description of \(p\)-Zassenhaus filtration in the case of a \(p\)-power (Theorem 8.3). The paper concludes with a consideration of these filtrations from a cohomological viewpoint and relate them to Massey products in \(H^2\) and compute the subgroup of \(H^2(F/F^{(n,0)},\mathbb Z)\) generated by the \(n\)-fold Massey products corresponding to words in the alphabet \(X\).