A probabilistic Tits alternative and probabilistic identities (Q313952)

The authors introduce the notion of a probabilistic identity of a residually finite group \(\Gamma.\) By this they mean a nontrivial word \(w\) such that the probabilities that \(w = 1\) in the finite quotients of \(\Gamma\) are bounded away from zero. They prove that a finitely generated linear group satisfies a probabilistic identity if and only if it is virtually solvable. A main application of this result is a probabilistic variant of the Tits alternative: Let \(\Gamma\) be a finitely generated linear group over any field and let \(G\) be its profinite completion. Then, either \(\Gamma\) is virtually solvable, or, for any \(n\geq 1,\) \(n\) random elements \(g_1,\dots, g_n\) of \(G\) freely generate a free (abstract) subgroup of \(G\) with probability 1. Another immediate consequence is the following: A finitely generated linear group which satisfies a probabilistic identity satisfies an identity. The paper contains also other related results and discuss interesting open problems and applications. For example, it is proved that every probabilistic identity on a finitely generated linear group \(\Gamma\) is a coset identity, i.e. there exists a finite index subgroup \(\Delta \leq \Gamma\) and cosets \(\gamma_1\Delta,\dots,\gamma_n\Delta\) such that \(w(\gamma_1\Delta,\dots,\gamma_n\Delta)=\{1\}.\)