Three amalgams with remarkable normal subgroup structures. (Q886239)

\textit{M. Burger} and \textit{S. Mozes} proved [in Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 92, 151-194 (2000; Zbl 1007.22013)] that certain cocompact lattices in the product of automorphism groups of locally finite trees \(\Aut(T_1)\times\Aut(T_2)\) cannot have non-trivial normal subgroups of infinite index. Applying this result to a cocompact lattice containing as a subgroup a non-residually finite group, given by \textit{D. T. Wise} [in Non-positively curved squared complexes, aperiodic tilings, and non-residually finite groups, Ph.D. thesis, Princeton Univ. (1996)], the author constructs an example of a finitely presented torsion-free simple group \(\Lambda_1\), of the form \(F_9*_{F_{81}}F_9\), where \(F_k\) is the free group of rank \(k\). Two other non-simple groups \(\Lambda_2\), \(\Lambda_3\) are constructed; both having also the amalgam decompositions \(F_9*_{F_{81}}F_9\). The group \(\Lambda_2\) has no non-trivial normal subgroup of infinite index and \(\Lambda_3\) has no non-trivial finite quotients.