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Finitely Presented Wreath Products and Double Coset Decompositions

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Abstract

We characterize which permutational wreath products \(G \ltimes W^{(X)}\) are finitely presented. This occurs if and only if G and W are finitely presented, G acts on X with finitely generated stabilizers, and with finitely many orbits on the cartesian square X 2. On the one hand, this extends a result of G. Baumslag about infinite presentation of standard wreath products; on the other hand, this provides nontrivial examples of finitely presented groups. For instance, we obtain two quasi-isometric finitely presented groups, one of which is torsion-free and the other has an infinite torsion subgroup. Motivated by the characterization above, we discuss the following question: which finitely generated groups can have a finitely generated subgroup with finitely many double cosets? The discussion involves properties related to the structure of maximal subgroups, and to the profinite topology.

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Correspondence to Yves de Cornulier.

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de Cornulier, Y. Finitely Presented Wreath Products and Double Coset Decompositions. Geom Dedicata 122, 89–108 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10711-006-9061-4

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