Groups with infinitely many ends are not fraction groups

Abstract

We show that any finitely generated group $F$ with infinitely many ends is not a group of fractions of any finitely generated proper subsemigroup $P$, that is $F$ cannot be expressed as a product $P P^{-1}$. In particular this solves a conjecture of Navas in the positive. As a corollary we obtain a new proof of the fact that finitely generated free groups do not admit isolated left-invariant orderings.