Obtaining presentations from group actions without making choices. (Q541307)

Quoting from the introduction: ``Let \(G\) be a group and \(X\) be a simply connected simplicial complex upon which \(G\) acts. We will assume that \(G\) acts without rotations, that is, for all simplices \(s\) of \(G\) the stabilizer \(G_s\) stabilizes \(s\) pointwise. \dots. If \(X/G\) is simply connected, then \(G\) is generated by elements which stabilize vertices. In other words, we have a surjective map \(*_{v\in X^{(0)}}G _v\to G\). As notation, if \(g\in G\) stabilizes \(v\in X^{(0)}\), then we denote \(g\) considered as an element of \(*_{v\in X^{(0)}}G _v\) by \(g_v\). There are then some obvious elements in the kernel of this map, which we write as relations \(f=g\) rather than as elements \(fg^{-1}\). First, we have \(g_v=g_{v'}\) if \(v\) and \(v'\) are joined by an edge \(e\) and \(g\in G_e\). We call these the `edge relations'. Second, we have \(g_vh_wg_v^{-1}=(ghg^{-1})_{g(w)}\) for \(g\in G_v\) and \(h\in G_w\). We call these relations the `conjugation relations'. The main theorem says that if \(X/G\) is 2-connected, then these two families of relations suffice to give a presentation.'' Some examples are given to illustrate the application of this theorem. The first two, concerning amalgamated free products, and the symmetric group, are toy examples. The third and fourth sketch results concerning the Torelli group and congruence subgroups of \(\text{SL}_n(\mathbb Z)\), the details of these appear elsewhere.