The goal of this paper is to construct and describe certain arithmetic subgroups of the automorphism group of a partially commutative group. More precisely, given an arbitrary finite graph $Γ$ we construct an arithmetic subgroup $St(L(G))$, represented as a subgroup of $GL(n,Z)$, where $n$ is the number of vertices of the graph $Γ$.
In the last section of the paper we give a description of the decomposition of the group of automorphisms $St^{conj}(L(G))$ as a semidirect product of the group of conjugating automorphisms $Conj(G)$ and $St(L(G))$. This result is closely related to Theorem 1.4 of the paper arXiv:0710.2573v1.
It is well known that every finite subgroup of automorphism group of polynomial algebra of rank 2 over the field of zero characteristic is conjugated with a subgroup of linear automorphisms. We prove that it is not true for an arbitrary torsion subgroup. We construct an example of abelian $p$-group of automorphism of polynomial algebra of rank 2 over the field of complex numbers, which is not conjugated with a subgroup of linear automorphisms.
We study subgroups and quotients of outer automorphism groups of right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs). We prove that for all RAAGS, the outer automorphism group is residually finite and, for a large class of RAAGs, it satisfies the Tits alternative. We also investigate which of these automorphism groups contain non-abelian solvable subgroups.
Among other things, we prove that the group of automorphisms fixing every normal subgroup of a nilpotent-by-abelian group is nilpotent-by-metabelian. In particular, the group of automorphisms fixing every normal subgroup of a metabelian group is soluble of derived length at most 3. An example shows that this bound cannot be improved.
We show that in the free group of rank 3, given an arbitrary number of automorphisms, the intersection of their fixed subgroups is equal to the fixed subgroup of some other single automorphism.
The structure of a certain subgroup $S$ of the automorphism group of a partially commutative group (RAAG) $G$ is described in detail: namely the subgroup generated by inversions and elementary transvections. We define admissible subsets of the generators of $G$, and show that $S$ is the subgroup of automorphisms which fix all subgroups $\langle Y\rangle$ of $G$, for all admissible subsets $Y$. A decomposition of $S$ as an iterated tower of semi-direct products in given and the structure of the factors of this decomposition described. The construction allows a presentation of $S$ to be computed…
Let G be a right-angled Artin group. We use geometric methods to compute a presentation of the subgroup H of Aut(G) consisting of the automorphisms that send each generator to a conjugate of itself. This generalizes a result of McCool on basis-conjugating automorphisms of free groups.
In this paper, we describe the automorphism group of semidirect product of two groups that fixes the non-normal subgroup of it. We have computed these automorphisms for the non-abelian metacyclic $p$-group and non-abelian $p$-groups $(p\ge 5)$ of order $p^{4}$, where $p$ is a prime.
Let αbe an automorphism of the totally disconnected group G. The compact open subgroup, V, if G is tidy for αif [α(V') : α(V')\cap V'] is minimised at V, where V' ranges over all compact open subgroups of G. Identifying a subgroup tidy for αis analogous to identifying a basis which puts a linear transformation into Jordan canonical form. This analogy is developed here by showing that commuting automorphisms have a common tidy subgroup of G and, conversely, that a group H of automorphisms having a common tidy subgroup V is abelian modulo the automorphisms which leave V invariant. Certain subgro…
We prove that the tree almost automorphism groups admit exactly three commensurability classes of closed commensurated subgroups. Our proof utilizes an independently interesting characterization of subgroups of the tree almost automorphism groups which contain only periodic elements in terms of the dynamics of the action on the boundary of the tree. Our results further cover several interesting finitely generated subgroups of the tree almost automorphism groups, including the Thompson groups $F$, $T$, and $V$. We show in particular that Thompson's group $T$ has no commensurated subgroups other…
Let G be a finitely generated relatively hyperbolic group. We show that if no peripheral subgroup of G is hyperbolic relative to a collection of proper subgroups, then the fixed subgroup of every automorphism of G is relatively quasiconvex. It follows that the fixed subgroup is itself relatively hyperbolic with respect to a natural family of peripheral subgroups. If all peripheral subgroups of G are slender (respectively, slender and coherent), our result implies that the fixed subgroup of every automorphism of G is finitely generated (respectively, finitely presented). In particular, this hap…
Let F be a local field of positive characteristic, and let G be either a Heisenberg group over F, or a certain (nonabelian) two-dimensional unipotent group over F. If H is an arithmetic subgroup of G, we provide an explicit description of every automorphism of H. From this description, it follows that every automorphism of H virtually extends to a virtual automorphism of G.
For any right-angled Artin group, we show that its outer automorphism group contains either a finite-index nilpotent subgroup or a nonabelian free subgroup. This is a weak Tits alternative theorem. We find a criterion on the defining graph that determines which case holds. We also consider some examples of solvable subgroups, including one that is not virtually nilpotent and is embedded in a non-obvious way.
This paper is devoted to the investigation of the property of order separability for HNN extensions and free products with commutative subgroups. Particularly it was proven that HNN extension of a free group with maximal connected cyclic subgroups is 2-order separable.
We observe that automorphism groups of right-angled Artin groups contain nilpotent non-abelian subgroups, namely $H_3(\mathbb{Z})$ the three-dimensional integer Heisenberg group, provided they admit a certain type of element, called an adjacent transvection. This represents a (minor) extension of a result of Charney-Vogtmann.
We investigate some situation in which automorphisms of a group G are uniquely determined by their restrictions to a proper subgroup H. Much of the paper is devoted to studying under which additional hypotheses this property forces G to be nilpotent if H is. As an application we prove that certain countably infinite locally nilpotent groups have uncountably many (outer) automorphisms.
We describe some of the geometric properties of the automorphism group Aut(F) of Thompson's group F. We give realizations of Aut(F) geometrically via periodic tree pair diagrams, which lead to natural presentations and give effective methods for estimating the word length of elements. We study some natural subgroups of Aut(F) and their metric properties. In particular, we show that the subgroup of inner automorphisms of F is at least quadratically distorted in Aut(F), whereas other subgroups of Aut(F) isomorphic to F are undistorted.
By calculating the symmetric subgroups $\Aut(\fru_0)^θ$ and their involution classes, we classify the Klein four subgroups $Γ$ of $\Aut(\fru_0)$ for each compact simple Lie algebra $\fru_0$ up to conjugation. This leads to a new approach of classification of semisimple symmetric pairs and $\bbZ_2\times \bbZ_2$-symmetric spaces. We also determine the fixed point subgroup $\Aut(\fru_0)^Γ$.
Given a finitely presented group $G$, we wish to explore the conditions under which automorphisms of quotients $G/N$ can be lifted to automorphisms of $G$. We discover that in the case where $N$ is a central subgroup of $G$, the question of lifting can be reduced to solving a certain matrix equation. We then use the techniques developed to show that $Inn(G)$ is not characteristic in $Aut(G)$, where $G$ is a metacyclic group of order $p^n$, $p\neq 2$.
We prove that if F is a finitely generated free group and f:F -> F is an automorphism with polynomial growth of degree d, then there exists a characteristic subgroup S < F of finite index such that the induced automorphism of the abelianisation of S also grows polynomially of degree d. The proof is geometric in nature and makes use of improved relative train track representatives.
We give a new computer-assisted proof of the classification of maximal subgroups of the simple group ${}^2E_6(2)$ and its extensions by any subgroup of the outer automorphism group $S_3$. This is not a new result, but no earlier proof exists in the literature. A large part of the proof consists of a computational analysis of subgroups generated by an element of order 2 and an element of order 3. This method can be effectively automated, and via statistical analysis also provides a sanity check on results that may have been obtained by delicate theoretical arguments.
Let S be a finite graph and G be the corresponding free partially commutative group. In this paper we study subgroups generated by vertices of the graph S, which we call canonical parabolic subgroups. A natural extension of the definition leads to canonical quasiparabolic subgroups. It is shown that the centralisers of subsets of G are the conjugates of canonical quasiparabolic centralisers satisfying certain graph theoretic conditions.
In this paper, we show that all Coleman automorphisms of a finite group with self-central minimal non-trivial characteristic subgroup are inner; therefore the normalizer property holds for these groups. Using our methods we show that the holomorph and wreath product of finite simple groups, among others, have no non-inner Coleman automorphisms. As a further application of our theorems, we provide partial answers to questions raised by M. Hertweck and W. Kimmerle. Furthermore, we characterize the Coleman automorphisms of extensions of a finite nilpotent group by a cyclic $p$-group. Lastly, we n…
We define several "standard" subgroups of the automorphism group Aut(G) of a partially commutative (right-angled Artin) group and use these standard subgroups to describe decompositions of Aut(G). If C is the commutation graph of G, we show how Aut(G) decomposes in terms of the connected components of C: obtaining a particularly clear decomposition theorem in the special case where C has no isolated vertices. If C has no vertices of a type we call dominated then we give a semi-direct decompostion of Aut(G) into a subgroup of locally conjugating automorphisms by the subgroup stabilising a certa…
The groups of order 64p without a normal sylow p-subgroup are listed, and their automorphism groups are also determined. As a by-product of our original effort to get these groups, we needed to determine the automorphism groups of those groups of order 64 with an odd-order automorphism. In view of the fact that we already had determined these groups and that these automorphism groups are not given explicitly in the literature, we have appended to this report these automorphism groups. In another project we were looking for new complete groups by following automorphism group towers up to comple…
Let $T$ be a tree and $e$ an edge in $T$. If $C$ is a component of $T\setminus e$ and both $C$ and its complement are infinite we say that $C$ is a half-tree. The main result of this paper is that if $G$ is a closed subgroup of the automorphism group of $T$ and $G$ leaves no non-trivial subtree invariant and fixes no end of $T$ then the subgroup generated by the pointwise stabilizers of half-trees is topologically simple. This result is used to derive analogues of recent results of Caprace and De Medts (2011) and it is also applied in the study of the full automorphism group of a locally finit…
We consider closed, Weyl-transitive groups of automorphisms of thick buildings. For each element of such a group, we derive a combinatorial formula for its scale and establish the existence of a tidy subgroup for it that equals the stabilizer of a simplex. Simplices whose stabilizers are tidy for some element of the group are characterized in terms of the minimal set of the isometry induced by the element on the Davis-realisation of the building and in terms of the Weyl-distance between them and their image. We use our results to derive some topological properties of closed, Weyl-transitive gr…
In this paper we prove that every automorphism of (elementary) adjoint Chevalley group with root system of rank $>1$ over a commutative ring (with 1/2 for the systems $A_2$, $F_4$, $B_l$, $C_l$; with 1/2 and 1/3 for the system $G_2$) is standard, i.\,e., it is a composition of ring, inner, central and graph automorphisms.
We show that the outer automorphism groups of graph products of finitely generated abelian groups satisfy the Tits alternative, are residually finite, their so-called Torelli subgroups are finitely generated, and they satisfy a dichotomy between being virtually nilpotent and containing a non-abelian free subgroup that is determined by a graphical condition on the underlying labelled graph. Graph products of finitely generated abelian groups simultaneously generalize right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs) and right-angled Coxter groups (RACGs), providing a common framework for studying these groups.…
Using abelian coverings of Salvetti complexes, embeddings of outer automorphism groups of right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs) into outer automorphism groups of their particular characteristic subgroups are constructed. Virtual embeddings of outer automorphism groups of finitely generated groups having the unique root property into outer automorphism groups of their particular subgroups are also given. These results provide us with rich examples of (virtual) embeddings between outer automorphism groups of RAAGs. Finite subgroups of pure (outer) automorphism groups of RAAGs are also investigated. …
A rigid automorphism of a linking system is an automorphism which restricts to the identity on the Sylow subgroup. A rigid inner automorphism is conjugation by an element in the center of the Sylow subgroup. At odd primes, it is known that each rigid automorphism of a centric linking system is inner. We prove that the group of rigid outer automorphisms of a linking system at the prime $2$ is elementary abelian, and that it splits over the subgroup of rigid inner automorphisms. In a second result, we show that if an automorphism of a finite group $G$ restricts to the identity on the centric lin…
We investigate the endomorphism monoids of certain finite $p$-groups of order $p^8$ first studied by Jonah and Konvisser in 1975 as examples for finite $p$-groups with abelian automorphism group, and we show some necessary conditions for a finite $p$-group to have commutative endomorphism monoid. As a by-product, apart from formulas for the number of conjugacy classes of endomorphisms of said groups, we will be able to derive the following: There exist nonabelian groups with commutative endomorphism monoid, and having commutative endomorphism monoid is a group property strictly stronger than h…
A multi-edge spinal group is a subgroup of the automorphism group of a regular p-adic rooted tree, generated by one rooted automorphism and a finite number of directed automorphisms sharing a common directing path. We prove that torsion multi-edge spinal groups do not have maximal subgroups of infinite index. This generalizes a result of Pervova for GGS-groups.
A Grigorchuk-Gupta-Sidki (GGS-)group is a subgroup of the automorphism group of the $p$-adic tree for an odd prime $p$, generated by one rooted automorphism and one directed automorphism. Pervova proved that all torsion GGS-groups do not have maximal subgroups of infinite index. Here we extend the result to non-torsion GGS-groups, which include the weakly regular branch, but not branch, GGS-group.
Let $K$ be a field, and let $\Aut \,K^2$ be the group of polynomial automorphisms of $K^2$. We investigate which subgroups are linear or not. In characteristic zero, there are small nonlinear subgroups and some big linear subgroups. When $K$ has finite characteristic, the whole group $\Aut\,K^2$ is linear whenever $K$ is finite, and nonlinear otherwise.
We say that a polynomial automorphism $ϕ$ in $n$ variables is stably co-tame if the tame subgroup in $n$ variables is contained in the subgroup generated by $ϕ$ and affine automorphisms in $n+1$ variables. In this paper, we give conditions for stably co-tameness of polynomial automorphisms.
Suppose that p is an odd prime and G is a finite group having no normal non-trivial p'-subgroup. We show that if a is an automorphism of G of p-power order centralizing a Sylow p-group of G, then a is inner. This answers a conjecture of Gross. An easy corollary is that if p is an odd prime and P is a Sylow p-subgroup of G, then the center of P is contained in the generalized Fitting subgroup of G. We give two proofs both requiring the classification of finite simple groups. For p=2, the result fails but Glauberman in 1968 proved that the square of a is inner. This answered a problem of Kourovk…
The group A_{m} of automophisms of a one-rooted m-ary tree admits a diagonal monomorphism which we denote by x. Let A be an abelian state-closed (or self-similar) subgroup of A_{m}. We prove that the combined diagonal and tree-topological closure A* of A is additively a finitely presented Z_m [[x]]-module where Z_m is the ring of m-adic integers. Moreover, if A* is torsion-free then it is a finitely generated pro-m group. The group A splits over its torsion subgroup. We study in detail the case where A* corresponds to a cyclic Z_m[[x]]-module and when m is a prime number, we show A* to be conj…
Let $G$ be a finitely generated regular branch group acting by automorphisms on a regular rooted tree $T$. It is well-known that stabilizers of infinite rays in $T$ (aka parabolic subgroups) are weakly maximal subgroups in $G$, that is, maximal among subgroups of infinite index. We show that, given a finite subgroup $Q\leq G$, $G$ possesses uncountably many automorphism equivalence classes of weakly maximal subgroups containing $Q$. In particular, for Grigorchuk-Gupta-Sidki type groups this implies that they have uncountably many automorphism equivalence classes of weakly maximal subgroups tha…
We study the group $IAut(A)$ generated by the inertial automorphisms of an abelian group $A$, that is, automorphisms $γ$ with the property that each subgroup $H$ of $A$ has finite index in the subgroup generated by $H$ and $Hγ$. Clearly, $IAut(A)$ contains the group $FAut(A)$ of finitary automorphisms of $A$, which is known to be locally finite. In a previous paper, we showed that $IAut(A)$ is (locally finite)-by-abelian. In this paper, we show that $IAut(A)$ is also metabelian-by-(locally finite). In particular, $IAut(A)$ has a normal subgroup $Γ$ such that $IAut(A)/Γ$ is locally finite and $…
The McCool group has families of subgroups such as the ordinary pure braid group, the upper triangular McCool group and the partial inner automorphism group. The generalized Andreadakis conjecture holds for the ordinary pure braid group and the upper triangular McCool group. In this paper, we prove a similar result for the partial inner automorphism group and also establish an isomorphism between this group and the inner automorphism group of the upper triangular McCool group.
We construct free abelian subgroups of the group $U(A_Γ)$ of untwisted outer automorphisms of a right-angled Artin group, thus giving lower bounds on the virtual cohomological dimension. The group $U(A_Γ)$ was previously studied by Charney, Stambaugh and the second author, who constructed a contractible cube complex on which it acts properly and cocompactly, giving an upper bound for the virtual cohomological dimension. The ranks of our free abelian subgroups are equal to the dimensions of the principal cubes in this complex. These are often of maximal dimension, so that the upper and lower bo…
In this paper we prove a sandwich classification theorem for subgroups of the classical symplectic group over an arbitrary commutative ring $R$ that contain the elementary block-diagonal (or subsystem) subgroup $\operatorname{Ep}(ν, R)$ corresponding to a unitary equivalence realation $ν$ such that all self-conjugate equivalence classes of $ν$ are of size at least 4 and all not-self-conjugate classes of $ν$ are of size at least 5. Namely, given a subgroup $H$ of $\operatorname{Sp}(2n, R)$ such that $\operatorname{Ep}(ν, R) \le H$ we show that there exists a unique exact major form net of ideal…
We determine normal forms of the multiplication of four-dimensional anti-commutative algebras over a field $\mathbb K$ of characteristic zero having an analogous family of flags of subalgebras as the four-dimensional non-Lie binary Lie algebras, and hence can be considered as the closest relatives of binary Lie algebras. These algebras are extensions of $\mathbb K$ by the 3-dimensional nilpotent Lie algebra and at the same time extensions of a two-dimensional Lie algebra by a two-dimensional abelian algebra. We describe their groups of automorphisms as extensions of a subgroup of the group of …
Let F be an infinitely generated free group and R a fully invariant subgroup of F such that (a) R is contained in the commutator subgroup F' of F and (b) the quotient group F/R is residually torsion-free nilpotent. Then the automorphism group Aut(F/R') of the group F/R' is complete. In particular, the automorphism group of any infinitely generated free solvalbe group of derived length at least two is complete. This extends a result by Dyer and Formanek (1977) on finitely generated groups F_n/R' where F_n is a free group of finite rank n at least two and R a characteristic subgroup of F_n.
We study the group of type-preserving automorphisms of a right-angled building, in particular when the building is locally finite. Our aim is to characterize the proper open subgroups as the finite index closed subgroups of the stabilizers of proper residues. One of the main tools is the new notion of firm elements in a right-angled Coxeter group, which are those elements for which the final letter in each reduced representation is the same. We also introduce the related notions of firmness for arbitrary elements of such a Coxeter group and $n$-flexibility of chambers in a right-angled buildin…
We describe an algorithm that uses Stallings' folding technique to decompose an element of $Aut(F_n)$ as a product of Whitehead automorphisms (and hence as a product of Nielsen transformations.) We use this to give an alternative method of finding a finite generating set for the subgroup of $Aut(F_n)$ that fixes a subset $Y$ of the basis elements, and the subgroup that fixes each element of $Y$ up to conjugacy. We show that the intersection of this latter subgroup with $IA_n$ is also finitely generated.
If H is a flat group of automorphisms of finite rank n of a totally disconnected, locally compact group G, then each orbit of H in the metric space B(G) of compact, open subgroups of G is quasi-isometric to n-dimensional euclidean space. In this note we prove the following partial converse: Assume that G is a totally disconnected, locally compact group such that B(G) is a proper metric space and let H be a group of automorphisms of G such that some (equivalently every) orbit of H in B(G) is quasi-isometric to n-dimensional euclidean space, then H has a finite index subgroup which is flat of ra…
