Limits of dihedral groups. (Q5961892)

The article investigates the limits, in the sense of the Chabauty topology, of dihedral groups. Characterizations are given in group-theoretic, and also in logical terms. The Chabauty topology yields a notion of convergence for sequences of finitely generated groups. A `marked group' on \(m\) generators consists of a group \(G\) and a generating \(m\)-tuple of elements. Such an object may be viewed as a normal subgroup of \(\mathbb F_m\), the free group on \(m\) generators. The `Chabauty topology' on normal subgroups of \(\mathbb F_m\) is induced by the Tychonoff (product) topology on \(\{0,1\}^{\mathbb F_m}\). An inductive limit now defines the Chabauty topology on the space of all finitely generated groups, thus yielding a notion of convergence. The main result is Theorem 4.1, which characterizes limits of dihedral groups among finitely generated groups; \(G\) is such a limit iff any of the following holds: 1. \(G\) is fully residually dihedral; 2. \(G\simeq A\rtimes\mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z\), where \(A\) is a limit of cyclic groups and the action is by inversion; 3. the universal theory of \(G\) contains the intersection of the universal theories of all non-Abelian, finite dihedral groups; 4. \(G\) embeds into an ultraproduct of the non-Abelian, finite dihedral groups. There is also a description of the topological space of limits of dihedral marked groups on \(m\) generators (Theorem 5.2) as \(\omega^{m-1}(2^m-1)+1\) with the order topology.