Bounding conjugacy depth functions for wreath products of finitely generated abelian groups (Q6601466)

A group \(G\) is conjugacy separable if, for every \(g,h\in G\) such that \(g^{G} \not =h^{G}\), there is a normal subgroup \(N\) of finite index in \(G\) such that \((gN)^{G} \not = (hN)^{G}\). If \(G\) is a conjugacy separable group with finite generating set \(S\), the conjugacy separability depth functions \(\mathrm{Conj}_{G,S}(n)\) measures how deep within the lattice of normal subgroups of finite index one needs to go in order to be able to distinguish distinct conjugacy classes of elements of word length at most \(n\) with respect to \(S\). The asymptotic behavior of \(\mathrm{Conj}_{G,S}(n)\) is independent from \(S\) and hence can be omitted.\N\NIn [\textit{S. Lawton} et al., Groups Geom. Dyn. 11, No. 1, 165--188 (2017; Zbl 1423.20023)] it is proven that if \(G\) is a nonabelian free group or the fundamental group of a closed oriented surface of genus \(g \geq 2\), then \(\mathrm{Conj}_{G}(n) \preceq n^{n^{2}}\). The second author and \textit{J. Deré} in [Math. Z. 292, No. 3--4, 763--790 (2019; Zbl 1453.20046)] showed that if \(G\) is a finite extension of a finitely generated nilpotent group that is not virtually abelian, then there exist natural numbers \(d_{1}\) and \(d_{2}\) such that \(n^{d_{1}} \preceq \mathrm{Conj}_{G}(n) \preceq n^{d_{2}}\).\N\NThe main results of the paper under review are the following theorems:\N\NTheorem 1.1: Let \(A\) be a finite abelian group, and suppose that \(B\) is an infinite finitely generated abelian group. If the torsion free rank of \(B\) is 1, then \(\mathrm{Conj}_{A \wr B}(n) \approx 2^{n}\). If the torsion free rank of \(B\) is \(k \geq 2\), then \( 2^{n} \preceq \mathrm{Conj}_{A \wr B}(n) \preceq 2^{n^{2k}}\).\N\NTheorem 1.3: Let \(A\) be an infinite, finitely generated abelian group, and suppose that \(B\) is an infinite finitely generated abelian group. If \(B\) has torsion free rank 1, then \((\log(n))^{n} \preceq \mathrm{Conj}_{A \wr B}(n) \preceq (\log(n))^{n^{2}}\). If \(B\) has torsion free rank \(k \geq 2\), then \((\log(n))^{n} \preceq \mathrm{Conj}_{A \wr B}(n) \preceq (\log(n))^{n^{2k+2}}\).\N\NThe previous results provide a sufficiently detailed description of the behaviour do \(\mathrm{Conj}_{G}(n)\) in the case where \(G=A \wr B\) is the wreath product of finitely generated abelian groups. It is unclear whether the bounds found are optimal. The authors, partly based on the many examples they constructed in this article, proposed the following interesting Conjecture 5.5: Let \(A\) be a finitely generated abelian group and let \(G\) be a conjugacy separable group with separable cyclic subgroups. If \(A\) is finite, then \(2^{n} \preceq \mathrm{Conj}_{A\wr G}(n)\), otherwise, \((\log(n))^{n} \preceq \mathrm{Conj}_{A \wr G}(n)\).