Compactifications and algebraic completions of limit groups (Q628369)

There exist several equivalent definitions for limit groups. \textit{Z. Sela} introduced them in [``Diophantine geometry over groups. I:~Makanin-Razborov diagrams'', Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 93, 31--105 (2001; Zbl 1018.20034)] saying that limit groups are exactly those groups which have the same universal theory as finitely generated free groups. The authors give a survey on the different definitions of limit groups including the equivalent definition of finitely generated residually free groups. Their main topic is to consider nondiscrete embeddings of abstract limit groups into topological groups. More precisely, for example, it is shown that a locally compact group admitting a nondiscrete nonabelian free subgroup admits a nondiscrete copy of every nonabelian limit group. Furthermore, consider a nonabelian limit group \(L\) and a compact group \(G\) containing a nonabelian free group \(F\) of a special rank depending on \(L\). Then it is proved that \(G\) contains a subgroup isomorphic to \(L\) whose closure contains \(F\). There are presented several more interesting similar results dealing also with surface groups instead of free groups and embeddings into algebraic groups over local fields.