Is the group $\langle x,y \mid xy^n = yx^n \rangle $ trivial

group-presentationgroup-theory

I’m currently browsing through Clara Löh’s book “Geometric Group Theory – an introduction”, and came across the exercise 2.E.14, which gives some examples of presentations of groups and asks to determine whether they are isomorphic to others. In particular it asks if the following group is trivial: \begin{equation} \langle x,y \mid xy^{2014} = yx^{2014} \rangle. \end{equation}
I have been tinkering with this example for a bit but cannot seem to find a suitable argument one way or the other. Any hint would be much appreciated!

Best Answer

No. Its abelianisation is

$$\langle x, y\mid x^{n-1}=y^{n-1}, xy=yx\rangle,$$

of which $\Bbb Z_{n-1}^2$ is a quotient.

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