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This question is related to the question The Higman group (with a nice answer by M. Sapir). So for background, please, see the above cited question.

The Higman group has an automorphism $h(a_j)=a_{j+1}$ ($j+1$ is mod 4). Does the Higman group have a nontrivial normal subgroup $N$, satisfying $h(N)=N$?

Motivation. It seems to be an open question if the Higman group is hyperlinear. I seem to know how to construct a nontrivial almost representation of it in the sense of hyperlinearity. I don't know if the almost representation is exact. The negative answer on the above question would imply the exactness of my almost representation...

More general groups. Consider $G_{q,r}=\langle a,b,w\;|\;a^q=b^{-1}ab,\;b=w^{-1}aw,\; w^r=1\rangle$. What is known about such a groups? For $q=2,\;r=4$ it is an HNN-extension a semidirect product of a cyclic group of order 4 acting on the Higman group . by $h$.

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# The Higman group II

This question is related to the question The Higman group (with a nice answer by M. Sapir). So for background, please, see the above cited question.

The Higman group has an automorphism $h(a_j)=a_{j+1}$ ($j+1$ is mod 4). Does the Higman group have a nontrivial normal subgroup $N$, satisfying $h(N)=N$?

Motivation. It seems to be an open question if the Higman group is hyperlinear. I seem to know how to construct a nontrivial almost representation of it in the sense of hyperlinearity. I don't know if the almost representation is exact. The negative answer on the above question would imply the exactness of my almost representation...

More general groups. Consider $G_{q,r}=\langle a,b,w\;|\;a^q=b^{-1}ab,\;b=w^{-1}aw,\; w^r=1\rangle$. What is known about such a groups? For $q=2,\;r=4$ it is an HNN-extension of the Higman group.