Hopfian group

In mathematics, a Hopfian group is a group G for which every epimorphism

G → G

is an isomorphism. Equivalently, a group is Hopfian if and only if it is not isomorphic to any of its proper quotients. A group G is co-Hopfian if every monomorphism

G → G

is an isomorphism. Equivalently, G is not isomorphic to any of its proper subgroups.

Examples of Hopfian groups

• Every finite group, by an elementary counting argument.
• More generally, every polycyclic-by-finite group.
• Any finitely generated free group.
• The group Q of rationals.
• Any finitely generated residually finite group.
• Any word-hyperbolic group.

Examples of non-Hopfian groups

• Quasicyclic groups.
• The group R of real numbers.
• The Baumslag–Solitar group B(2,3).

Properties

It was shown by (Collins 1969) that it is an undecidable problem to determine, given a finite presentation of a group, whether the group is Hopfian. Unlike the undecidability of many properties of groups this is not a consequence of the Adian–Rabin theorem, because Hopficity is not a Markov property, as was shown by (Miller Schupp).

References

• Collins, D. J. (1969). "On recognising Hopf groups". Archiv der Mathematik 20 (3): 235–240. doi:10.1007/BF01899291. 
• Johnson, D. L. (1990). Presentations of groups. London Mathematical Society Student Texts. 15. Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN 0-521-37203-8. 
• Miller, C. F.; Schupp, P. E. (1971). "Embeddings into hopfian groups". Journal of Algebra 17 (2): 171. doi:10.1016/0021-8693(71)90028-7. 

External links

• Hopfian group at PlanetMath.org.
• Non-Hopf group in the Encyclopedia of Mathematics