Relation Modules of Infinite Groups

DOI10.1112/S0024609398005165MaRDI QIDQ4265914zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Publication date 12 December 1999

Published in Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1112/s0024609398005165

Abelian-by-finite groups Abelian-by-nilpotet groups augmentation ideals exact sequences finitely generated groups presentations relation modules soluble groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Group rings of infinite groups and their modules (group-theoretic aspects) (20C07) Generators, relations, and presentations of groups (20F05) Generalizations of solvable and nilpotent groups (20F19)

Review text

Let \(F_n\) be the free group of rank \(n\) with basis \(x_1,\ldots,x_n\), and let \(d(G)\) denote the minimal number of generators of the finitely generated group \(G\). Suppose that \(n\geq d(G)\). There exists an exact sequence \[ R\hookrightarrow F_n@>\phi>>G\tag{1} \] and we may view the free abelian group \(\overline R=R[R,R]\) as a right \(\mathbb{Z} G\)-module by defining \((r[R,R])^g=r^{g \phi^{-1}}[R,R]\) for all \(g\in G\). We call \(\overline R\) the relation module of \(G\) associated with the presentation (1), and say that \(\overline R\) has ambient rank \(n\). It is well known that a presentation (1) determines an exact sequence \[ \overline R\hookrightarrow(\mathbb{Z} G)^n@>\phi^*>> g\tag{2} \] where \(g\) is the augmentation ideal of \(\mathbb{Z} G\), and \((\mathbb{Z} G)^n\) is the free \(\mathbb{Z} G\)-module of rank \(n\) with basis \(e_1,\ldots,e_n\). The map \(\phi^*\) is defined by \(\phi^*(e_i)=x_i\phi-1\), \(i=1,\ldots,n\). It is easy to see that if \(\overline R\) is a relation module of \(G\) of ambient rank \(n\), and \(m>0\) then \(\overline R\oplus(ZG)^m\) is a relation module of \(G\) of ambient rank \(n+m\). Let \[ R\hookrightarrow F_n@>\phi>>G\quad\text{and}\quad S\hookrightarrow F_n@>\rho>>G\tag{3} \] be two presentations of \(G\) on \(n\) generators. These determine two exact sequences of \(\mathbb{Z} G\)-modules \[ \overline R\hookrightarrow(\mathbb{Z} G)^n@>\phi^*>>g\quad\text{and}\quad\overline S\hookrightarrow(\mathbb{Z} G)^n@>\rho^*>>g\tag{4} \] and \(\overline R\oplus(\mathbb{Z} G)^n\cong\overline S\oplus(\mathbb{Z} G)^n\). Thus the relation modules \(\overline R\) and \(\overline S\) are stably isomorphic, and it is natural to ask the following questions: Question 1. Given the presentation (3), does it follow that \(\overline R\cong\overline S\) as \(\mathbb{Z} G\)-modules? Question 2. Given the presentation (3), does it follow that \(F_n/[R,R]\cong F_n/[S,S]\)? It is known that the answers to questions 1 and 2 are negative if \(n=d(G)\). The purpose of this paper is to show that there exist an infinite group \(G\) that has a presentation (3) with \(n>d(G)\) such that \(\overline R\) and \(\overline S\) are not isomorphic. More precisely, the author proves the following results. Theorem A. For each integer \(k\geq 3\), there exists a \(k\)-generator soluble group \(G\) that is Abelian-by-finite and has presentations (3) with \(n=k+1\), such that \(F_{k+1}/[R,R]\) is not isomorphic to \(F_{k+1}/[S,S]\), and \(\overline R\) is not \(\Aut G\)-isomorphic to \(\overline S\). Theorem B. For each integer \(k\geq 3\), there exists a \(k\)-generator Abelian-by-(nilpotent of class 2) group \(G\) that has infinitely many presentations \(R_i\hookrightarrow F_{k+1}\to G\) such that \(F_{k+1}/[R_i,R_i]\) is not isomorphic to \(F_{k+1}/[R_j,R_j]\), and \(\overline R_i\) is not \(\Aut G\)-isomorphic to \(\overline R_j\) if \(i\not=j\). Theorem C. There exists a \(4\)-generator group \(G\) such that for each integer \(n>4\) \(G\) has presentations (3) such that \(F_n/[R,R]\) is not isomorphic to \(F_n/[S,S]\), and \(\overline R\) is not \(\Aut G\)-isomorphic to \(\overline S\). Theorem D. There exists a \(3\)-generator group that has a directly indecomposable relation module of ambient rank \(4\).

Recommendations

Cited in

(18)

This page was built for publication: Relation Modules of Infinite Groups

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q4265914)