Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 2 4 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write and let be the quotient group homomorphism. The subgroup in the question is exactly the fiber product of groupsEvery specified generator belongs to the right-hand side, so one inclusion is immediate. For the reverse inclusion, diagonal generator pairs produce for every . Alsoso their products and inverses produce for every . If , then and , proving equality.
In particular . Constructing the input pair is effective, so a solution of the membership problem for a subgroup would solve the insoluble word problem for a group in . The subgroup membership problem is therefore undecidable. This is the Mihailova subgroup construction; its finite generating set follows from the finiteness of .