Obstruction to a Higman embedding theorem for residually finite groups with solvable word problem (Q831193)

The well known Higman's embedding theorem states that every finitely generated recursively presented group can be embedded as a subgroup of some finitely presented group. On the other hand, not all finitely generated recursively presented residually finite groups embed into finitely presented residually finite groups. On the basis of the following observations \begin{itemize} \item[1.] all finitely presented residually finite groups have a solvable word problem; \item[2.] there are many recursively presented residually finite groups with a non-solvable word problem; \end{itemize} \textit{O. Kharlampovich} et al. [Bull. Math. Sci. 7, No. 2, 309--352 (2017; Zbl 1423.20022)] deduced that the non-existence of the embedding could have been related only to the non-solvability of the word problem. The aim of this paper is to show that this is not actually the case. In fact, Theorem 1 shows that there exist finitely generated recursively presented residually finite groups with solvable word problem that do not embed into any finitely presented residually finite group. In doing so, the author make a strong use of \textit{Dyson's groups}, i.e. amalgamated products of two lamplighter groups, to reduce the proof to a problem about subsets of \(\mathbb{Z}\).