A rigidity theorem for automorphism groups of trees

Abstract

A group G is called unsplittable if Hom(G, Z) = 0 and this group is not a non-trivial amalgam. Let X be a tree with a countable number of edges incident at each vertex and G be its automorphism group. In this paper we prove that the vertex stabilizers are unsplittable groups. Bass and Lubotzky proved (see [3]) that for certain locally finite trees X, the automorphism group determines the tree X (that is, knowing the automorphism group we can “construct” the tree X). We generalize this Theorem of Bass and Lubotzky, using the above result. In particular we show that the Theorem holds even for trees which are not locally finite. Moreover, we prove that the permutation group of an infinite countable set is unsplittable and the infinite (or finite) cartesian product of unsplittable groups is an unsplittable group as well.