Index-p rewriting bound for p-deficiency 2026-10-06
If is a normal subgroup of index in a group presented by , the Reidemeister–Schreier theorem produces a presentation withThe preimage of in the free group has rank . A relator produces at most conjugate relators of weight if its root lies in that preimage. If the root lies outside, , and the coset conjugates are redundant up to conjugation; one relator of weight at most suffices. Thus the total weighted relator cost grows by at most . Convergent infinite sums are handled term by term.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 19 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
We use . To obtain a Wirtinger presentation, choose an oriented regular knot diagram, cut its strands at undercrossings, and give each resulting arc a positively oriented meridian of a knot. The complement of the arcs above the projection plane has a free fundamental group on these meridians. At a crossing, pushing an understrand meridian past the overstrand conjugates it by the overstrand meridian. Thus, if is the overstrand generator and are the incoming and outgoing understrand generators, the relation is , where is determined by the crossing orientation. Applying the Seifert-van Kampen theorem while adjoining the crossing neighborhoods gives one such relation per crossing. The remaining three-dimensional region adds no fundamental-group relation. For a connected diagram one crossing relation is redundant. This derives a group presentation from any tame knot diagram, rather than just specifying a recipe without its topological justification.
For the Borromean rings, choose three meridians and call the other three arc meridians . Base paths and orientations can be chosen so the six crossing relations readEliminate the primed generators with the first row. The second row says respectively that commutes with , that commutes with , and that commutes with . The last relation is redundant, just as one crossing relation is redundant in the Wirtinger presentation. Alternatively the Hall-Witt identity, after conjugating its three factors, shows that any two of these cyclic relations imply the third. Hence the Borromean link group isBoth relators have zero exponent sum in each generator. Passing from the free group to its abelianization therefore imposes no relations beyond commutation, andEquivalently the three linking-number maps to independently detect the three meridians.
Here is an explicit representation, followed by a faithfulness argument:Each determinant is one. Direct multiplication verifies the two relators. For example , which commutes with . Merely checking those relators would not prove faithfulness, so we identify the image's complete group presentation.
Write , the Gaussian Bianchi group, and use its four generators from the allowed presentation. In the three proposed generators areThe last equality is in , so an overall minus sign in matrix multiplication is immaterial. Reduce matrices modulo in , and then quotient by . The finite image has order : the residue field is , has order six, and each of the three subsequent local-ring layers has a kernel of order , before the final quotient by . Elementary elimination over this local ring shows that the images of generate it. The subgroup has order , as multiplication in this finite ring verifies. Let be its inverse image in ; then .
For completeness the following gives the coset computation needed to check the subgroup presentation explicitly. Cosets are right cosets ; columns record right multiplication by . Representatives are words in the allowed generators.Apply the Reidemeister–Schreier theorem: for a transition , use generator , omitting the 23 tree transitions. Rewrite each of the eight allowed ambient relators starting at each of the 24 rows. There are 73 remaining Schreier generators. Adjoin the names , , and eliminate the Schreier generators using relations in which they occur once. The remaining relations, with an uppercase letter denoting the inverse of the corresponding lowercase one, are the wordsThis table and the rewriting rule determine every relation without an appeal to a guessed presentation. In this notation cyclically reduced versions of the two desired relators are and . Elementary substitutions of relator segments, with cyclic reduction at each step, giveusing ; conversely using . These substitutions show equality of the two normal closures. For example the first substitution replaces in the cyclic rotation of by , as allowed by , and then the initial is replaced by using . Thus has exactly the presentation of , with represented by . In particular these three matrices generate , and
To identify the actual link complement as a hyperbolic three-manifold, rather than only on a manifold with an isomorphic group, cut along the projection-plane regions, making the usual small crossing detours above and below. The octahedral projection graph has eight triangular regions. The upper and lower pieces are ideal octahedra; corresponding faces are matched with one-third-turn corner permutations, with opposite directions on adjacent checkerboard faces. Reversing these cuts reconstructs the link complement. Give both pieces the regular ideal hyperbolic space octahedron metric. All triangular face maps are isometries and each edge cycle has four dihedral angles , so the metric has no edge singularity. Equal horospherical truncations match in Euclidean squares and assemble into three flat tori, giving complete torus cusps. The compact truncated remainder and these cusps show completeness and finite volume. Thus the Borromean complement is a complete finite-volume hyperbolic three-manifold. This also supplies a geometric discrete faithful holonomy, independently of the subgroup calculation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 4 5 Solution 2026-10-06
For a group presentation with finite, let be its free group. For a nontrivial relator defineThe p-deficiency in the unshifted convention used here isIf the weighted sum diverges the value is ; identity relators may be omitted or assigned weight zero. Roots are taken in the free group, not in the presented quotient. Some authors subtract one from this definition; here the requested threshold is .
Two elementary bounds explain why p-deficiency detects infinitude. The p-rank of a group isHere denotes the subgroup generated by all th powers. Each relator that is not a th power imposes at most one linear relation in this vector space, and a th-power relator imposes none. If there are relators of the first type, then
The second bound is the index-p rewriting bound for p-deficiency. Suppose has index , and its preimage in is . The Nielsen–Schreier formula gives rank . For a relator , there are two cases in the Reidemeister–Schreier theorem. If , its coset-conjugates are all th powers in , with total weight at most . If , then , since . Its cosets generate , so representatives show that the rewritten conjugates of are redundant up to conjugation in . One relator suffices, and has weight at most . In both cases the total weight is at most times the old weight. Thus the induced group presentation of satisfiesThe argument applies termwise to infinitely many relators whenever the weighted sum converges.
If , the p-rank of a group bound gives a surjection to , hence a normal subgroup of index . The rewriting bound gives that subgroup another presentation of p-deficiency at least one. Iterating produces subgroups of index for every . p-deficiency at least one implies infinitude.
Now enumerate the nonidentity elements of and choose the presentationIts p-deficiency obeysThe infinitude criterion shows that is infinite. It is generated by two elements, and every element is represented by some or is the identity; the imposed relation makes its order a power of . Thus . This is a torsion group construction by p-power relators; the presentation intentionally has infinitely many relators.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 2 21F c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Let and take the connected two-sheeted covering graph corresponding to the kernel ofIt has two vertices, a -loop at each vertex, and two lifted -edges joining the vertices. Choose one lifted -edge as a spanning tree. The other three edges give the based loopsCollapsing the spanning tree identifies the cover with a wedge of three circles, so these loops freely generate its fundamental group. Hence they generate an explicit subgroupisomorphic to , in agreement with the Reidemeister–Schreier theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 104 3 c Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
The action on the first level defines a surjective homomorphismthat sends to the displayed cycle and to the identity. Its kernel is therefore the normal closure of , proving that normally generates .
Apply the Reidemeister–Schreier theorem with transversal . The generators arising from are trivial, while those arising from areConsequently these three elements generate .