The triviality problem for profinite completions

DOI10.1007/S00222-015-0578-8MaRDI QIDQ894233zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Martin R. Bridson, Henry Wilton

Publication date 30 November 2015

Published in Inventiones Mathematicae (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.2273, https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/246916

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)

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.

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Cited in

(16)

• Minsky Machines and Algorithmic Problems
• 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
• The subgroup identification problem for finitely presented groups.
• Profinite Rigidity in the SnapPea Census
• Non-positive curvature and complexity for finitely presented groups.
• Decision problems and profinite completions of groups.
• 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
• The Schur multiplier, profinite completions and decidability.
• Immutability is not uniformly decidable in hyperbolic groups
• Around 3-manifold groups

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