Generalized torsion and Dehn filling (Q820658)

A generalized torsion element in a group is related to products of its conjugates. It is evident that generalized torsion and torsion are the same for an abelian group. Hence we can say that generalized torsion but not torsion elements reveal some structure of a non-abelian group. Here the authors consider the fundamental group of a 3-manifold obtained by Dehn surgery along a knot in \(S^{3}\). For the fundamental group of a 3-manifold, there is a conjecture that it is bi-orderable if and only if it has no generalized torsion element. The part of ``only if'' is always true for any group. For the ``if'' part, it is known that the fundamental group of a 3-manifold obtained by Dehn surgery along a knot in \(S^{3}\) is not bi-orderable except for the meridian and longitude surgery slopes. Then there is another conjecture claiming that the group of a knot's surgery space has a generalized torsion element except for the meridian and longitude surgery slopes. In this paper, the authors construct generalized torsion elements for groups of several knots' surgery spaces. This gives new supporting evidences for the above two conjectures. These knots include torus knots, cable knots, composite knots, knots having singular spanning disks, genus one two-bridge knots, generalized Whitehead doubles, Montesinos knots, (almost) positive knots. The proofs are based on careful observations and computations of products of conjugates in a group. In the final section, the authors propose some interesting questions.