Indecomposability of various profinite groups arising from hyperbolic curves

Abstract

In this paper, we prove that the etale fundamental group of a hyperbolic curve over an arithmetic field [e.g., a finite extension field of Q or Qp] or an algebraically closed field is indecomposable [i.e., cannot be decomposed into the direct product of nontrivial profinite groups]. Moreover, in the case of characteristic zero, we also prove that the etale fundamental group of the configuration space of a curve of the above type is indecomposable. Finally, we consider the topic of indecomposability in the context of the comparison of the absolute Galois group of Q with the Grothendieck-Teichmuller group GT and pose the question: Is GT indecomposable? We give an affirmative answer to a pro-l version of this question