A simple construction of virtually free Abelian triangles of finite groups (Q5928502)

Complexes of groups generalize the 1-dimensional constructions of free products with amalgamation and HNN extensions. The simplest 2-dimensional complex of groups is the triangle of groups. Nonpositively-curved triangles of groups have been studied rather exhaustively; see, for example, [\textit{J. R. Stallings} in Group theory from a geometrical viewpoint, Trieste 1990, 491-503 (1991; Zbl 0843.20033)] for the original definition and [\textit{M. R. Bridson, A. Haefliger}, Metric spaces of non-positive curvature. Grundlehren der Mathematischen Wissenschaften, 319. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1999; Zbl 0988.53001)] for further theory and references. All nonpositively curved, virtually-torsion-free triangles of groups are of virtual cohomological dimension two. The author uses the tessellation by unit cubes of Euclidean \(n\)-space \(\mathbb{R}^n\), for each \(n\geq 3\), as the basis for constructing a relatively simple triangle of groups which has a free Abelian group \(\mathbb{Z}^n\) as a subgroup of finite index; that is, the author's triangle of groups has virtual cohomological dimension \(n\). (Of necessity, the author's triangle of groups is not nonpositively curved).