Groups with the same cohomology as their profinite completions

Abstract

For any positive integer $n$, $\mathcal{A}_n$ is the class of all groups $G$ such that, for $0\leq i\leq n$, $H^i(\hat{G},A)\cong H^i(G,A)$ for every finite discrete $\hat{G}$-module $A$. We describe certain types of free products with amalgam and HNN extensions that are in some of the classes $\mathcal{A}_n$. In addition, we investigate the residually finite groups in the class $\mathcal{A}_2$.