 Normal finitely presented subgroups of three-dimensional duality groups

Let $N$ be a normal finitely presented group inside a dimension-three Poincare duality group $G$, with $G/N$ containing an element of infinite order. Then $N$ is either a free group or a dimension-two Poincare duality group. The Strebel infinite-index subgroup theorem gives $\mathrm{cd}N\le 2$. If the dimension is two, take the preimage of an infinite cyclic subgroup of the quotient. The cyclic-extension shift of group-ring cohomology gives dimension three, forcing this preimage to have finite index by Strebel. Its duality then gives $H^{\ast }(N;\mathbb{Z}N)$ concentrated in degree two with top group $\mathbb{Z}$. The quotient is virtually cyclic, and surface automorphism realization gives a finite-index surface mapping-torus group.