Profinite completions of free-by-free groups contain everything (Q6630630)

The finite quotients of a group \(\Gamma\) form a directed system and the profinite completion of \(\Gamma\) is the inverse limit of this system \(\widehat{\Gamma}=\varprojlim \Gamma /N\). The natural map \(\Gamma \rightarrow \widehat{\Gamma}\) is injective if \(\Gamma\) is residually finite and two finitely generated groups \(\Gamma_{1}\) and \(\Gamma_{2}\) have the same set of finite images if and only if \(\widehat{\Gamma}_{1}\simeq \widehat{\Gamma}_{2}\).\N\NThe main result of the paper under review is Theorem A: Given an arbitrary, finitely generated, recursively presented group \(\Gamma\) that is residually finite, one can construct a finitely generated, residually finite free-by-free group \(M_{\Gamma}= F_{\infty} \rtimes F_{4}\) and an embedding \(M_{\Gamma} \hookrightarrow (F_{4} \ast \Gamma) \times F_{4}\) that induces an isomorphism of profinite completions.\N\NFrom Theorem A it follows that the cohomological dimension of the profinite completion of a finitely generated, residually finite group of cohomological dimension \(2\) can be any positive integer or infinite. Despite being torsion-free itself, a free-by-free group can have all manner of torsion in its profinite completion. From this theorem it also follows that, with the possible exception of certain free-by-free groups \(H\), for all pairs of finitely generated, residually finite groups \(\Gamma_{1}\) and \(\Gamma_{2}\), if \(\widehat{\Gamma}_{1} \simeq \widehat{\Gamma}_{2}\) and \(\Gamma_{1}\) has a subgroup isomorphic to \(H\), then it's not necessarily the case that \(\Gamma_{2}\) has a subgroup isomorphic to \(H\). Furthermore, it follows from this theorem that if a property \(\mathcal{P}\) is common to the subgroups of free-by-free groups but not to the subgroups of all finitely presented, residually finite groups, then \(\mathcal{P}\) is not a profinite invariant (\(\mathcal{P}\) can be: torsion-free, locally indicable, left-orderable, all \(2\)-generator subgroups are finitely presented and several others).\N\NThe author points out that Theorem A is a consequence of a result he proved in [in: Elementary theory of groups and group rings, and related topics. Proceedings of the conference held at Fairfield University and at the Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY, USA, November 1--2, 2018. Berlin: De Gruyter. 11--28 (2020; Zbl 1528.20094)] using theorems of \textit{G. Higman} [Proc. R. Soc. Lond., Ser. A 262, 455--475 (1961;Zbl 0104.0210167)] and \textit{G. Baumslag} et al. [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 16, 1--47 (1980; Zbl 0419.20026)].