Right exact group completion as a transfinite invariant of the homology equivalence

Publication date 23 September 2019

Abstract: We consider a functor from the category of groups to itself

G m a p s t o m a t h b b Z_{i} n f t y G

that we call right exact

m a t h b b Z

-completion of a group. It is connected with the pronilpotent completion

h a t G

by the short exact sequence

1 o {v a r p r o j l i m}^{1} : M_{n} G o m a t h b b Z_{i} n f t y G o h a t G o 1,

where

M_{n} G

is

n

-th Baer invariant of

G .

We prove that

m a t h b b Z_{i} n f t y p i_{1} (X)

is an invariant of homological equivalence of a space

X

. Moreover, we prove an analogue of Stallings' theorem: if

G o G^{'}

is a 2-connected group homomorphism, then

m a t h b b Z_{i} n f t y G c o n g m a t h b b Z_{i} n f t y G^{'} .

We give examples of

3

-manifolds

X, Y

such that

h a t p i_{1} (X) c o n g h a t p i_{1} (Y)

but

m a t h b b Z_{i} n f t y p i_{1} (X) o t c o n g m a t h b b Z_{i} n f t y p i_{1} (Y) .

We prove that for a finitely generated group

G

we have

(m a t h b b Z_{i} n f t y G) / g a m m a_{o} m e g a = h a t G .

So the difference between

h a t G

and

m a t h b b Z_{i} n f t y G

lies in

g a m m a_{o} m e g a .

This allows us to treat

m a t h b b Z_{i} n f t y p i_{1} (X)

as a transfinite invariant of

X .

The advantage of our approach is that it can be used not only for

3

-manifolds but for arbitrary spaces.

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