The Kervaire-Laudenbach conjecture and presentations of simple groups

The statement ``no nonabelian simple group can be obtained from a nonsimple group by adding one generator and one relator" 1) is equivalent to the Kervaire--Laudenbach conjecture; 2) becomes true under the additional assumption that the initial nonsimple group is either finite or torsion-free. Key words: Kervaire--Laudenbach conjecture, relative presentations, simple groups, car motion, cocar comotion. AMS MSC: 20E32, 20F05, 20F06.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figure

Relative hyperbolicity and similar properties of one-generator one-relator relative presentations with powered unimodular relator

A group obtained from a nontrivial group by adding one generator and one relator which is a proper power of a word in which the exponent-sum of the additional generator is one contains the free square of the initial group and almost always (with one obvious exception) contains a non-abelian free subgroup. If the initial group is involution-free or the relator is at least third power, then the obtained group is SQ-universal and relatively hyperbolic with respect to the initial group.Comment: 11 pages. A Russian version of this paper is at http://mech.math.msu.su/department/algebra/staff/klyachko/papers.htm V3: revised following referee's comment

The number of non-solutions to an equation in a group and non-topologizable torsion-free groups

It is shown that, for any pair of cardinals with infinite sum, there exist a group and an equation over this group such that the first cardinal is the number of solutions to this equation and the second cardinal is the number of non-solutions to this equation. A countable torsion-free non-topologizable group is constructed.Comment: 5 pages; minor changes in the introduction and reference