Given a prime $p$, a group is called residually $p$ if the intersection of its $p$-power index normal subgroups is trivial. A group is called virtually residually $p$ if it has a finite index subgroup which is residually $p$. It is well-known that finitely generated linear groups over fields of characteristic zero are virtually residually $p$ for all but finitely many $p$. In particular, fundamental groups of hyperbolic $3$-manifolds are virtually residually $p$. It is also well-known that fundamental groups of $3$-manifolds are residually finite. In this paper the authors prove a common generalisation of these results: every $3$-manifold group is virtually residually $p$ for all but finitely many $p$. This gives evidence for the conjecture (Thurston) that fundamental groups of $3$-manifolds are linear groups.
Introduction Preliminaries Embedding theorems for $p$-Groups Residual
properties of graphs of groups Proof of the main results The case of graph
manifolds Bibliography Index
Matthias Aschenbrenner, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Stefan Friedl, University of Koln, Germany
