Every non-trivial knot group is fully residually perfect

Abstract

Given a class $\mathcal{P}$ of groups we say that a group $G$ is fully residually $\mathcal{P}$ if for any finite subset $F$ of $G$, there exists an epimorphism from $G$ to a group in $\mathcal{P}$ which is injective on $F$. It is known that any non-trivial knot group is fully residually finite. For hyperbolic knots, its knot group is fully residually closed hyperbolic $3$--manifold group, and fully residually simple. In this article, we show that every non-trivial knot group is fully residually perfect, closed $3$--manifold group.

23 pages, 6 figures; Accepted version incorporating the referee's comments