Generic algebraic properties in spaces of enumerated groups

Abstract

We introduce and study Polish topologies on various spaces of countable enumerated groups, where an enumerated group is simply a group whose underlying set is the set of natural numbers. Using elementary tools and well-known examples from combinatorial group theory, combined with the Baire category theorem, we obtain a plethora of results demonstrating that several phenomena in group theory are generic. In effect, we provide a new topological framework for the analysis of various well known problems in group theory. We also provide a connection between genericity in these spaces, the word problem for finitely generated groups and model-theoretic forcing. Using these connections, we investigate a natural question raised by Osin: when does a certain space of enumerated groups contain a comeager isomorphism class? We obtain a sufficient condition that allows us to answer Osin’s question in the negative for the space of all enumerated groups and the space of left orderable enumerated groups. We document several open questions in connection with these considerations.