Finite generation of iterated wreath products in product action. (Q501150)

Let \(A\leq\mathrm{Sym}(m)\) and \(B\leq\mathrm{Sym}(n)\) be two permutation groups and write \(A(\wr)B\) to denote the exponentiation of \(A\) by \(B\) (the wreath product of \(A\) by \(B\) as a permutation group of degree \(m^n\) via the product action). Let \(\mathcal S=\{S_k\}_{k\geq 1}\) be a sequence of transitive permutation groups where \(S_k\) has degree \(m_k\). Then the iterated exponentiation \(\widetilde S_n\) of degree \(\widetilde m_n\) is defined inductively by \(\widetilde m_1:=m_1\) and \(\widetilde S_1:=S_1\), and for \(n\geq 2\) we have \(\widetilde m_n:=m_n^{\widetilde m_{n-1}}\) and \(\widetilde S_n:=S_n(\wr)\widetilde S_{n-1}\leq\mathrm{Sym}(\widetilde m_n)\). This gives an inverse system \(\{\widetilde S_n\to\widetilde S_{n-1}\}_{n\geq 2}\) of finite groups and its profinite limit is called the infinitely iterated exponentiation of the groups in \(\mathcal S\). The main theorem of the paper is the following. Suppose each \(S_k\) is perfect and that for each \(k\) there are points \(i,j\) such that the stabilizers \(St_i(S_k)\neq St_j(S_k)\). If there is an integer \(d\) such that each \(S_k\) is at most \(d\)-generated, then the infinitely iterated exponentiation of the groups in \(\mathcal S\) is topologically finitely generated. More precisely it can be shown that the latter group can be topologically generated by at most \(d+d(S_1)\) elements. -- The author also considers special cases where the bound \(d+d(S_1)\) can be reduced, and generalizes the main theorem to cover certain kinds of mixed iterated wreath products (at each step in the construction of \(\{\widetilde S_n\}\) the next group is defined as a wreath product using either the product action or as a permutational wreath product of degree \(m_n\widetilde m_{n-1}\)).