The triviality problem for profinite completions

DOI10.1007/S00222-015-0578-8zbMATH Open1360.20020arXiv1401.2273OpenAlexW2011800945MaRDI QIDQ894233FDOQ894233

Martin R. Bridson, Henry Wilton

Publication date: 30 November 2015

Published in: Inventiones Mathematicae (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We prove that there is no algorithm that can determine whether or not a finitely presented group has a non-trivial finite quotient; indeed, this remains undecidable among the fundamental groups of compact, non-positively curved square complexes. We deduce that many other properties of groups are undecidable. For hyperbolic groups, there cannot exist algorithms to determine largeness, the existence of a linear representation with infinite image (over any infinite field), or the rank of the profinite completion.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.2273

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zbMATH Keywords

algorithmfundamental groupprofinite completionresidual finitenesshyperbolic grouplinear representationfinite index subgroup

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Limits, profinite groups (20E18) Geometric group theory (20F65) Hyperbolic groups and nonpositively curved groups (20F67) Topological methods in group theory (57M07) Word problems, other decision problems, connections with logic and automata (group-theoretic aspects) (20F10)

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Cited In (12)

• UNDECIDABILITY AND THE DEVELOPABILITY OF PERMUTOIDS AND RIGID PSEUDOGROUPS
• Leighton's theorem : extensions, limitations and quasitrees
• Imitator homomorphisms for special cube complexes
• On projections of free semialgebraic sets
• Profinite Rigidity in the SnapPea Census
• Algorithms determining finite simple images of finitely presented groups
• On the outer automorphism groups of finitely generated, residually finite groups.
• On the recognition problem for virtually special cube complexes
• Computability of finite quotients of finitely generated groups
• Immutability is not uniformly decidable in hyperbolic groups
• Around 3-manifold groups
• Minsky Machines and Algorithmic Problems

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