Hierarchical accessibility of finitely presented groups (Q5939203)

A hierarchy in the group theoretic setting is defined in analogy with hierarchy theory in the setting of 3-manifolds. Let \(G\) be a finitely presented group, and \({\mathcal C}\) a family of subgroups of \(G\) which is invariant under conjugation. Then, one can construct a sequence of families of groups in the following way. At the first level, we set \(G=G_0\). If \(G\) cannot be decomposed as an amalgam or above a group in the family \(\mathcal C\), then we stop the process. Otherwise, we consider a decomposition \(G=G_1*_CG_2\), or \(G=G_1*_C\) and we apply the same decomposition process to the groups \(G_1\) and \(G_2\). An elegant definition is given in terms of graphs of groups. The problem of hierarchical accessibility is then to find a strategy with which this sequence of operations eventually stops. For instance, in the case where the family \(\mathcal C\) consists of the trivial group and where the group \(G\) is finitely presented, then Grushko's theorem shows that decomposing a group reduces its rank and therefore the process ends. Work of M. Dunwoody shows that without further conditions, a hierarchy may not exist for a general finitely presented group. In the paper under review, the authors prove the existence of a finite hierarchy for a family \(\mathcal C\) of subgroups satisfying a property which they call elementariness. This property is satisfied for instance by the family of elementary subgroups of a Kleinian group, or by the family of virtually cyclic subgroups of a hyperbolic group, if the group does not have order two elements. Their result gives a positive answer to a question which was asked by Swarup and Bowditch. Furthermore, the authors provide an upper bound for the length of the hierarchy that they obtain, in terms of the complexity of the presentation of the group.