Determining Fuchsian groups by their finite quotients (Q312242)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a finitely-generated group. Let \(\mathcal{C}(\Gamma)\) denote the set of isomorphism classes of finite groups that are quotients (homomorphic images) of \(\Gamma\). In the paper under review, the authors study the extent to which \(\mathcal{C}(\Gamma)\) determines \(\Gamma\) for several kinds of groups of geometric interest. In a long introduction, several theorems are stated, two of which are the most important. Theorem 1.1: Let \(\Gamma_1\) be a finitely-generated group and let \(\Gamma_2\) be a lattice in a connected Lie group. If \(\mathcal{C}(\Gamma_1)=\mathcal{C}(\Gamma_2)\), then \(\Gamma_1\cong\Gamma_2\). Theorem 1.3: Let \(\Gamma_1\) be a non-uniform lattice of PSL\((2, \mathbb{C})\), and let \(\Gamma_2\) be a non-uniform irreducible arithmetic lattice in a semisimple Lie group \(G\) that has trivial centre and no compact factors. If \(\mathcal{C}(\Gamma_1)=\mathcal{C}(\Gamma_2)\) then \(G\cong\mathrm{PSL}(2, \mathbb{C})\). Moreover, if \(\Gamma_1\) is arithmetic then the family of all \(\Gamma_2\) with \(\mathcal{C}(\Gamma_1)=\mathcal{C}(\Gamma_2)\) divides into finitely many commensurability classes. The proofs of the theorems above appear in Sections 6 and 7 of the paper, respectively. In previous sections, a lot of technical results are proved. These results are related with profinite completions, \(L^2\)-Betti numbers, obstructions to profinite freeness and torsion in the profinite completions of Fuchsian groups. In the last section of the paper, the authors give a more direct proof of the fact that triangle groups are distinguished among themselves by their finite quotients. Some explicit quotients that distinguish non-triangle groups of triangle groups are also given. The main result in this section is Theorem 8.1: If \(\Gamma\) and \(\Sigma\) are triangle groups for which \(\mathcal{C}(\Gamma)=\mathcal{C}(\Sigma)\), then \(\Gamma\cong\Sigma\). In order to prove this theorem, many results about numerical conditions on the triples \((r,s,t)\) are obtained, where \(r\), \(s\) and \(t\) are the orders of generators of the triangle group \(\Delta(r,s,t)\).