Distinguishing geometries using finite quotients (Q511614)

\textit{D. Calegari} et al. asked whether the fundamental group of a 3-manifold is determined by its finite quotients or, equivalently, by its profinite completion [J. Am. Math. Soc. 23, No. 1, 107--188 (2010; Zbl 1201.57024)]. Subsequently, \textit{L. Funar} showed that this is not true, in general, for Sol manifolds [Geom. Topol. 17, No. 4, 2289--2344 (2013; Zbl 1278.57020)], and \textit{J. Hempel} has given counter-examples which are Seifert fiber spaces [``Some 3-manifold groups with the same finite quotients'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1409.3509}] (however, by a recent paper of \textit{M. R. Bridson} et al. [Isr. J. Math. 214, No. 1, 1--41 (2016; Zbl 1361.20037)], the corresponding question has a positive answer for Fuchsian groups). The present paper centers then around the question of how much information about a given 3-manifold is contained in the profinite completion of its fundamental group. The first two main results of the paper show that hyperbolicity and Seifert fibration of a 3-manifold are detected by the profinite completion: A closed, orientable, aspherical 3-manifold is hyperbolic if and only if the profinite completion of its fundamental group does not contain a subgroup isomorphic to the profinite completion of \(\mathbb Z^2\), and \(M\) is Seifert fibered if and only if the profinite completion has a nontrivial procyclic normal subgroup. So these are profinite analogues of the now classical geometrization theorems for hyperbolic 3-manifolds and Seifert fiber spaces which, however, are essential ingredients of the proofs in the present paper, as well as ``the dramatic recent developments of Agol, Kahn-Markovic and Wise whose work implies that the fundamental groups of closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds are also fundamental groups of compact, virtually special cube complexes'' (leading in particular to a solution of the virtual Haken conjecture for 3-manifolds by Agol). More generally, it is shown in the present paper that the profinite completion of the fundamental group detects the geometry of a closed, orientable, irreducible 3-manifold. These results are consequences of several more general and more technical results for hyperbolic, virtually special groups and also for one-relator groups. In particular, ``we prove that the profinite completion of the fundamental group of a compact 3-manifold satisfies a Tits alternative: if a closed subgroup \(H\) does not contain a free pro-\(p\) subgroup for any \(p\), then \(H\) is virtually solvable of a very particular form.''