Betti numbers of finitely presented groups and very rapidly growing functions. (Q882485)

Given a finite presentation of a group \(G\) we define its length as the sum of the lengths of all relators plus the number of generators. The \(k\)-th Betti number of a group \(G\) is defined to be \(\text{rank\,}H_k(G)\), where \(H_k(G)\) is the \(k\)-th homology group of the classifying space of \(G\). Define the function \(b_k(N)\) to be the maximum of \(\{\text{rank\,}H_k(G)\mid\text{length of }G\leq N\text{ and }\text{rank\,}H_k(G)<\infty\}\). Define the usual Turing machine to be the Turing machine of order \(1\). Inductively define a Turing machine of order \(k\) to be a Turing machine that uses the oracle deciding whether all Turing machines of order \(k-1\) halt their computation when starting with the empty tape. The \(k\)-th busy beaver function \(B_k(n)\) is the maximal time of work of a Turing machine of order \(k\) with \(\leq n\) states. The authors show (Theorem 3.2) that \(b_k(n)\) grows as \(B_3(n)\) for \(k\geq 3\); i.e., the maximum of the \(k\)-th Betti numbers that are finite for a group \(G\) with finite presentation of length \(n\) grows as the third busy beaver function. The authors present a problem about Betti numbers of finitely presented groups whose answer is expressed as a function that grows like the fifth busy beaver function. Finally, they outline a construction of a finitely presented group with homology groups trivial or \(\mathbb{Z}\) whose sequence of Betti numbers is random, in the sense that the first \(n\) bits of the sequence do not admit an essentially better description than just writing down the first \(n\) bits.