A restricted Magnus property for profinite surface groups

TL;DR

This paper investigates a restricted Magnus property for profinite surface groups, showing that algebraically simple elements with equal normal closures of all powers are conjugate up to units, extending classical results to the profinite setting.

Contribution

It establishes a restricted Magnus property for profinite surface groups, generalizing classical results and applying to the structure of profinite Dehn twists.

Findings

Proves a restricted Magnus property for algebraically simple elements in profinite surface groups.

Extends the property to a wider class of profinite completions.

Generalizes the description of centralizers of profinite Dehn twists.

Abstract

Magnus proved that, given two elements $x$ and $y$ of a finitely generated free group $F$ with equal normal closures $\langle x\rangle^F=\langle y\rangle^F$, then $x$ is conjugated either to $y$ or $y^{-1}$. More recently, this property, called the Magnus property, has been generalized to oriented surface groups. In this paper, we consider an analogue property for profinite surface groups. While Magnus property, in general, does not hold in the profinite setting, it does hold in some restricted form. In particular, for ${\mathscr S}$ a class of finite groups, we prove that, if $x$ and $y$ are \emph{algebraically simple} elements of the pro-${\mathscr S}$ completion $\hat{\Pi}^{\mathscr S}$ of an orientable surface group $\Pi$, such that, for all $n\in{\mathbb N}$, there holds $\langle x^n\rangle^{\hat{\Pi}^{\mathscr S}}=\langle y^n\rangle^{\hat{\Pi}^{\mathscr S}}$, then $x$ is conjugated to $y^s$ for some $s\in(\hat{\mathbb Z}^{\mathscr S})^\ast$. As a matter of fact, a much more general property is proved and further extended to a wider class of profinite completions. The most important application of the theory above is a generalization of the description of centralizers of profinite Dehn twists to profinite Dehn multitwists.