Permanence criteria for semi-free profinite groups

Random Normal Subgroups of Free Profinite Groups

Profinite Topologies in Free Products of Groups

Let H be an abstract group and let C be a variety of finite groups (i.e., a class of finite groups closed under taking subgroups, quotients and finite direct products); for example the variety of all finite p-groups, for a fixed prime p. Consider the smallest topology on H such that all the homomorphism H −→ C from H to any group C ∈ C (endowed with the discrete topology) is continuous. We refe...

HILBERTIAN FIELDS AND FREE PROFINITE GROUPS* by

Maximal abelian subgroups of free profinite groups

THEOREM. Let F be the free profinite group on a set X, where \X\ > 2, and let n be a non-empty set of primes. Then F has a maximal abelian subgroup isomorphic to HpEn Zp. The idea of the proof is the following: we show that A — Ylpe7I1p is a free factor of Pa, i.e. fia ^ A *B for some profinite group B. To conclude from this that A is a maximal abelian subgroup of Fa (the general case then foll...

Sofic groups and profinite topology on free groups

We give a definition of weakly sofic groups (w-sofic groups). Our definition is rather natural extension of the definition of sofic groups where instead of Hamming metric on symmetric groups we use general bi-invariant metrics on finite groups. The existence of non w-sofic groups is equivalent to some conjecture about profinite topology on free groups.