Skip to main content
1 of 5
ADL
  • 2.8k
  • 1
  • 24
  • 32

Are groups with every proper, non-trivial subgroup infinite cyclic simple?

In the 1970s Ol'shanskii constructed a finitely generated group $G$ with the following properties:

  1. Every proper, non-trivial subgroup of $G$ is infinite cyclic.
  2. If $X^m=Y^n$ for $X, Y\in G$ with $m,n\neq0$, then $\langle X, Y\rangle$ is cyclic i.e., any two maximal subgroups of $G$ have trivial intersection.

It is easy to see that such a group is simple: Suppose $N$ is a proper, non-trivial normal subgroup of $G$. If $N$ is maximal then $G/N$ is cyclic of prime order, so $G$ is virtually-$N$, so $G$ is a torsion-free virtually-$\mathbb{Z}$ group, so must itself be cyclic. If $N$ is not maximal then $N$ is contained in a maximal subgroup $M$ such that $M^g\cap M\neq1$ for all $g\in G$, so as $M^g$ is also maximal and as maximal subgroups intersect trivially (by (2)) we have that $M^g=M$ for all $g\in G$, i.e. $M$ is normal in $G$, which is impossible by the previous case.

Property (2) was used here. I was wondering if this can be dropped. So:

Question. Suppose $G$ is a finitely generated group with every proper, non-trivial subgroup of $G$ infinite cyclic. Is $G$ simple?


If $G$ instead satisfies that every proper, non-trivial subgroup has order $p$ for a fixed prime $p$ then $G$ is a "Tarski monster" group and is indeed simple: If $N$ is a proper, non-trivial normal subgroup of $G$ and $g\not\in N$ then $N\cap\langle g\rangle=1$ so $N\langle g\rangle=N\rtimes\langle g\rangle$ has order $p^2$, a contradiction.

ADL
  • 2.8k
  • 1
  • 24
  • 32