On the outer automorphism groups of finitely generated, residually finite groups. (Q479785)

It is well-known that every group can be realized as the outer automorphism group of a suitable group. Moreover, it has been proved by \textit{I. Bumagin} and \textit{D. T. Wise} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 200, No. 1-2, 137-147 (2005; Zbl 1082.20021)] that every countable group \(G\) is isomorphic to the outer automorphism group of a finitely generated group \(H\), and \(H\) can be chosen to be also residually finite when \(G\) is finitely presented. In the paper under review, the author proves that if \(G\) is a finitely generated recursively presented group (i.e. if \(G\) is isomorphic to a finitely generated subgroup of a finitely presented group), then there exists a finitely generated residually finite group \(H\) such that the outer automorphism group \(\text{Out}(H)\) is isomorphic either to \(G\) or to \(G\times Z_2\) (where \(Z_2\) is the group of order \(2\)).