The subgroups of direct products of surface groups. (Q698121)

A surface group is the fundamental group of a connected 2-manifold; such a group is either free (of finite or countably infinite rank) or isomorphic to the fundamental group of a closed 2-manifold. Generalizing results for subgroups of direct products of free groups (in particular of \textit{G. Baumslag} and \textit{J. E. Roseblade} [J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 30, 44-52 (1984; Zbl 0559.20018)], who showed that a finitely presented subgroup of a direct product of two free groups is virtually a direct product of free groups), it is shown in the present paper that if a subgroup \(G\) of a product of \(n\) surface groups is of type \(FP_n\) (i.e., the trivial \(\mathbb{Z} G\)-module \(\mathbb{Z}\) admits a partial resolution of length \(n\) by projective or free modules of finite rank; in particular, a finitely presented group is of type \(FP_2\)) then \(G\) is virtually a direct product of at most \(n\) finitely generated surface groups (it is known that uncountably many nonisomorphic groups arise as subgroups of such finite products of free resp. surface groups, and that the full range of finiteness properties is to be found amongst such subgroups).