We show a global adelic analog of the classical Margulis Lemma from hyperbolic geometry. We introduce a conjugation invariant normalized height $\hat{h}(F)$ of a finite set of matrices $F$ in $GL_{n}(\bar{\Bbb{Q}})$ which is the adelic analog of the minimal displacement on a symmetric space. We then show, making use of theorems of Bilu and Zhang on the equidistribution of Galois orbits of small points, that $\hat{h}(F)>ε$ as soon as $F$ generates a non-virtually solvable subgroup of $SL_{n}(\bar{\Bbb{Q}}),$ where $ε=ε(n)>0$ is an absolute constant.
The subgroup structure of Thompson's group F is not yet fully understood. The group F is a subgroup of the group PL(I) of orientation preserving, piecewise linear self homeomorphisms of the unit interval and this larger group thus also has a poorly understood subgroup structure. It is reasonable to guess that F is the "only" subgroup of PL(I) that is not elementary amenable. In this paper, we explore the complexity of the elementary amenable subgroups of F in an attempt to understand the boundary between the elementary amenable subgroups and the non-elementary amenable. We construct an example…
By classifying $S$-maximal amenable subgroups of algebraic groups over a global field of characteristic zero, we obtain a complete classification of maximal amenable subgroups up to commensurability in the respective arithmetic groups. Futhermore, we prove that these commensurably maximal amenable subgroups are singular and therefore give rise to maximal amenable von Neumann subalgebras.
We consider groups of automorphisms of locally finite trees, and give conditions on its subgroups that imply that they are not elementary amenable. This covers all known examples of groups that are not elementary amenable and act on the trees: groups of intermediate growths and Basilica group, by giving a more straightforward proof. Moreover, we deduce that all finitely generated branch groups are not elementary amenable, which was conjectured by Grigorchuk.
We show that an amenable Invariant Random Subgroup of a locally compact second countable group lives in the amenable radical. This answers a question raised in the introduction of the paper "Kesten's Theorem for Invariant Random Subgroup" by Abert, Glasner and Virag. We also consider, in the opposite direction, property (T), and prove a similar statement for this property. The Appendix by Phillip Wesolek proves that the set of amenable subgroups is a Borel subset in the Chabauty topology.
We show that the class of amalgamated free products of two free groups over a cyclic subgroup admits amenable, faithful and transitive actions on infinite countable sets. This work generalizes the results on such actions for doubles of free group on 2 generators.
We show that elementary amenable groups, which have a bound on the orders of their finite subgroups, admit a finite dimensional model for the classifying space with virtually cyclic isotropy.
We provide a general criterion to deduce maximal amenability of von Neumann subalgebras $LΛ\subset LΓ$ arising from amenable subgroups $Λ$ of discrete countable groups $Γ$. The criterion is expressed in terms of $Λ$-invariant measures on some compact $Γ$-space. The strategy of proof is different from S. Popa's approach to maximal amenability via central sequences [Po83], and relies on elementary computations in a crossed-product C*-algebra.
We study lattice embeddings for the class of countable groups $Γ$ defined by the property that the largest amenable uniformly recurrent subgroup $A_Γ$ is continuous. When $A_Γ$ comes from an extremely proximal action and the envelope of $A_Γ$ is co-amenable in $Γ$, we obtain restrictions on the locally compact groups $G$ that contain a copy of $Γ$ as a lattice, notably regarding normal subgroups of $G$, product decompositions of $G$, and more generally dense mappings from $G$ to a product of locally compact groups.
We show that if $H \leq G$ is a closed amenable and cocompact subgroup of a unimodular locally compact group, then the reduced group C*-algebra of $G$ is not simple. Equivalently, there are unitary representations of $G$ that are weakly contained in the left-regular representation, but not weakly equivalent to it. We discuss applications of this result and pose the problem to construct non-discrete topologically simple groups with a cocompact amenable closed subgroup but without a Gelfand pair.
We study the behavior of the co-spectral radius of a subgroup $H$ of a discrete group $Γ$ under taking intersections. Our main result is that the co-spectral radius of an invariant random subgroup does not drop upon intersecting with a deterministic co-amenable subgroup. As an application, we find that the intersection of independent co-amenable invariant random subgroups is co-amenable.
In this short note, we show that R. Thompson's group $F$ admits a normalish amenable subgroup, and that the standard copy of $F$ in R. Thompson's group $T$ is normalish in $T$. We further conjecture that if $F$ is non-amenable, then $T$ does not admit a normalish amenable subgroup, and therefore that the reduced $C^*$ algebra of $T$ is in fact simple in that case.
We prove that the amalgamated free product of two free groups of rank two over a common cyclic subgroup, admits an amenable, faithful, transitive action on an infinite countable set. We also show that any finite index subgroup admits such an action, which applies for example to surface groups and fundamental groups of surface bundles over $\mathbb{S}^1$.
Let $G$ be an amenable group. We define and study an algebra $\mathcal{A}_{sn}(G)$, which is related to invariant means on the subnormal subgroups of $G$. For a just infinite amenable group $G$, we show that $\mathcal{A}_{sn}(G)$ is nilpotent if and only if $G$ is not a branch group, and in the case that it is nilpotent we determine the index of nilpotence. We next study $\operatorname{rad} \ell^1(G)^{**}$ for an amenable branch group $G$, and show that it always contains nilpotent left ideals of arbitrarily large index, as well as non-nilpotent elements. This provides infinitely many finitely…
The paper is concerned with Kropholler's conjecture on splitting a finitely generated group over a codimension-1 subgroup. For a subgroup H of a group G, we define the notion of "finite splitting height" which generalises the finite-height property. By considering the dual CAT(0) cube complex associated to a codimension-1 subgroup H in G, we show that the Kropholler-Roller conjecture holds when H has finite splitting height in G. Examples of subgroups of finite height are stable subgroups or more generally strongly quasiconvex subgroups. Examples of subgroups of finite splitting height include…
Consider $\operatorname{Sym}(n)$, endowed with the normalized Hamming metric $d_n$. A finitely-generated group $Γ$ is \emph{P-stable} if every almost homomorphism $ρ_{n_k}\colon Γ\rightarrow\operatorname{Sym}(n_k)$ (i.e., for every $g,h\inΓ$, $\lim_{k\rightarrow\infty}d_{n_k}( ρ_{n_k}(gh),ρ_{n_k}(g)ρ_{n_k}(h))=0$) is close to an actual homomorphism $φ_{n_k} \colonΓ\rightarrow\operatorname{Sym}(n_k)$. Glebsky and Rivera observed that finite groups are P-stable, while Arzhantseva and Păunescu showed the same for abelian groups and raised many questions, especially about P-stability of amenable g…
We give a complete characterization of the locally compact groups that are non-elementary Gromov-hyperbolic and amenable. They coincide with the class of mapping tori of discrete or continuous one-parameter groups of compacting automorphisms. We moreover give a description of all Gromov-hyperbolic locally compact groups with a cocompact amenable subgroup: modulo a compact normal subgroup, these turn out to be either rank one simple Lie groups, or automorphism groups of semi-regular trees acting doubly transitively on the set of ends. As an application, we show that the class of hyperbolic loca…
For each symmetric, aperiodic probability measure $μ$ on a finitely generated group $G$, we define a subset $A_μ$ consisting of group elements $g$ for which the limit of the ratio ${μ^{\ast n}(g)}/{μ^{\ast n}(e)}$ tends to $1$. We prove that $A_μ$ is a subgroup, is amenable, contains every finite normal subgroup, and $G=A_μ$ if and only if $G$ is amenable. For non-amenable groups we show that $A_μ$ is not always a normal subgroup, and can depend on the measure. We formulate some conjectures relating $A_μ$ to the amenable radical.
The Tarski number of a non amenable group is the smallest number of pieces needed for a paradoxical decomposition of the group. Non amenable groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms were introduced by Monod, and non amenable finitely presented groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms were introduced by the author in joint work with Justin Moore. These groups do not contain non abelian free subgroups. In this article we prove that the Tarski number of all groups in both families is at most 25. In particular we demonstrate the existence of a paradoxical decomposition with 25 pieces. Ou…
In [Bl1], it is proved that a subgroup of $PL_{+}(I)$ has a finite height if and only if it is solvable. We prove the "only if" part for any subgroup of Homeo$_{+}(I)$, and present a construction which indicates a plethora of examples of solvable groups with infinite height.
We demonstrate the existence of a family of finitely generated subgroups of Richard Thompson's group $F$ which is strictly well-ordered by the embeddability relation in type $ε_0 +1$. All except the maximum element of this family (which is $F$ itself) are elementary amenable groups. In fact we also obtain, for each $α< ε_0$, a finitely generated elementary amenable subgroup of $F$ whose EA-class is $α+ 2$. These groups all have simple, explicit descriptions and can be viewed as a natural continuation of the progression which starts with $\mathbf{Z} + \mathbf{Z}$, $\mathbf{Z} \wr \mathbf{Z}$, a…
It is well known that a dense subgroup $G$ of the complex unitary group $U(d)$ cannot be amenable as a discrete group when $d>1$. When $d$ is large enough we give quantitative versions of this phenomenon in connection with certain estimates of random Fourier series on the compact group $\bar G$ that is the closure of $G$. Roughly, we show that if $\bar G$ covers a large enough part of $U(d)$ in the sense of metric entropy then $G$ cannot be amenable. The results are all based on a version of a classical theorem of Jordan that says that if $G$ is finite, or amenable as a discrete group, then $G…
We show that certain amenable subgroups inside $\tilde{A}_2$-groups are singular in the sense of Boutonnet and Carderi. This gives a new family of examples of singular group von Neumann subalgebras. We also give a geometric proof that if $G$ is an acylindrically hyperbolic group, $H$ is an infinite amenable subgroup containing a loxodromic element, then $H<G$ is singular. Finally, we present (counter)examples to show both situations happen concerning maximal amenability of $LH$ inside $LG$ if $H$ does not contain loxodromic elements.
We calculate the rank gradient and p-gradient of free products, free products with amalgamation over an amenable subgroup, and HNN extensions with an amenable associated subgroup. The notion of cost is used to compute the rank gradient of amalgamated free products and HNN extensions. For the p-gradient the Kurosh subgroup theorems for amalgamated free products and HNN extensions will be used.
We show that for every integer $d$, there is a constant $N(d)$ such that if $K$ is any field and $F$ is a finite subset of $GL_d(K)$, which generates a non amenable subgroup, then $F^{N(d)}$ contains two elements, which freely generate a non abelian free subgroup. This improves the original statement of the Tits alternative. It also implies a growth gap and a co-growth gap for non-amenable linear groups, and has consequences about the girth and uniform expansion of small sets in finite subgroups of $GL_d(\Bbb{F}_q)$ as well as other diophantine properties of non-discrete subgroups of Lie group…
Let $F_m$ be a free group with $m$ generators and let $R$ be its normal subgroup such that $F_m/R$ projects onto $\zz$. We give a lower bound for the growth rate of the group $F_m/R'$ (where $R'$ is the derived subgroup of $R$) in terms of the length $ρ=ρ(R)$ of the shortest nontrivial relation in $R$. It follows that the growth rate of $F_m/R'$ approaches $2m-1$ as $ρ$ approaches infinity. This implies that the growth rate of an $m$-generated amenable group can be arbitrarily close to the maximum value $2m-1$. This answers an open question by P. de la Harpe. In fact we prove that such groups …
The aim of this brief note is to offer another proof of a theorem of Hrushovski that approximate subgroups of GL_n(C) are almost nilpotent. This approach generalizes to uniformly non amenable groups.
We construct a finitely presented non-amenable group without free non-cyclic subgroups thus providing a finitely presented counterexample to von Neumann's problem. Our group is an extension of a group of finite exponent n >> 1 by a cyclic group, so it satisfies the identity [x,y]^n = 1.
This paper investigates the asymptotic behaviour of the minimal number of generators of finite index subgroups in residually finite groups. We analyze three natural classes of groups: amenable groups, groups possessing an infinite soluble normal subgroup and virtually free groups. As a tool for the amenable case we generalize Lackenby's trichotomy theorem on finitely presented groups.
The connective constant $μ(G)$ of an infinite transitive graph $G$ is the exponential growth rate of the number of self-avoiding walks from a given origin. The relationship between connective constants and amenability is explored in the current work. Various properties of connective constants depend on the existence of so-called 'graph height functions', namely: (i) whether $μ(G)$ is a local function on certain graphs derived from $G$, (ii) the equality of $μ(G)$ and the asymptotic growth rate of bridges, and (iii) whether there exists a terminating algorithm for approximating $μ(G)$ to a give…
We show that every finitely-generated non-amenable linear group over a field of characteristic zero admits an ergodic action which is rigid in the sense of Popa. If this group has trivial solvable radical, we prove that these actions can be chosen to be free. Moreover, we give a positive answer to a question raised by Ioana and Shalom concerning the existence of such a free action for $\mathbb{F}_2\times\Z$. More generally, we show that for groups $Γ$ considered by Fernos in \cite{Fer}, e.g. Zariski-dense subgroups in PSL$_n(\R)$, the product group $Γ\times \Z$ admit a free ergodic rigid actio…
We show that free products of sofic groups with amalgamation over monotileably amenable subgroups are sofic. Consequently, so are HNN extensions of sofic groups relative to homomorphisms of monotileably amenable subgroups. We also show that families of independent uniformly distributed permutation matrices and certain families of non-random permutation matrices (essentially, those coming from quasi--actions of a sofic group) are asymptotically *-free as the matrix size grows without bound.
In this paper we study the generic, i.e., typical, behavior of finitely generated subgroups of hyperbolic groups and also the generic behavior of the word problem for amenable groups. We show that a random set of elements of a nonelementary word hyperbolic group is very likely to be a set of free generators for a nicely embedded free subgroup. We also exhibit some finitely presented amenable groups for which the restriction of the word problem is unsolvable on every sufficiently large subset of words.
We show that if $H$ is a quasiconvex subgroup of infinite index in a non-elementary hyperbolic group $G$ then the Schreier coset graph $X$ for $G$ relative to $H$ is non-amenable (that is, $X$ has positive Cheeger constant). We present some corollaries regading the Martin boundary and Martin compactification of $X$ and the co-growth of $H$ in $G$.
We study actions of countable discrete groups which are amenable in the sense that there exists a mean on X which is invariant under the action of G. Assuming that G is nonamenable, we obtain structural results for the stabilizer subgroups of amenable actions which allow us to relate the first l2-Betti number of G with that of the stabilizer subgroups. An analogous relationship is also shown to hold for cost. This relationship becomes even more pronounced for transitive amenable actions, leading to a simple criterion for vanishing of the first l2-Betti number and triviality of cost. Moreover, …
We describe elementary examples of finitely presented sofic groups which are not residually amenable (and thus not initially subamenable or LEA, for short). We ask if an amalgam of two amenable groups over a finite subgroup is residually amenable and answer this positively for some special cases, including countable locally finite groups, residually nilpotent groups and others.
We prove two conjectures of E. Khukhro and P. Shumyatsky concerning the Fitting height and insoluble length of finite groups. As a by-product of our methods, we also prove a generalization of a result of Flavell, which itself generalizes Wielandt's Zipper Lemma and provides a characterization of subgroups contained in a unique maximal subgroup. We also derive a number of consequences of our theorems, including some applications to the set of odd order elements of a finite group inverted by an involutory automorphism.
Let $G$ be a locally compact amenable group. We say that G has property (M) if every closed subgroup of finite covolume in G is cocompact. A classical theorem of Mostow ensures that connected solvable Lie groups have property (M). We prove a non-Archimedean extension of Mostow's theorem by showing the amenable linear locally compact groups have property (M). However property (M) does not hold for all solvable locally compact groups: indeed, we exhibit an example of a metabelian locally compact group with a non-uniform lattice. We show that compactly generated metabelian groups, and more genera…
Let $Γ< \mathrm{GL}_n(F)$ be a countable non-amenable linear group with a simple, center free Zariski closure, $\mathrm{Sub}(Γ)$ the space of all subgroups of $Γ$ with the, compact, metric, Chabauty topology. An invariant random subgroup (IRS) of $Γ$ is a conjugation invariant Borel probability measure on $\mathrm{Sub}(Γ)$. An $\mathrm{IRS}$ is called nontrivial if it does not have an atom in the trivial group, i.e. if it is nontrivial almost surely. We denote by $\mathrm{IRS}^{0}(Γ)$ the collection of all nontrivial $\mathrm{IRS}$ on $Γ$. We show that there exits a free subgroup $F < Γ$ and a…
We introduce right generating sets, Cayley graphs, growth functions, types and rates, and isoperimetric constants for left homogeneous spaces equipped with coordinate systems; characterise right amenable finitely right generated left homogeneous spaces with finite stabilisers as those whose isoperimetric constant is $0$; and prove that finitely right generated left homogeneous spaces with finite stabilisers of sub-exponential growth are right amenable, in particular, quotient sets of groups of sub-exponential growth by finite subgroups are right amenable.
Consider two free measure preserving group actions $Γ\actson (X, μ), Δ\actson (X, μ)$, and a measure preserving action $Δ\actson^a (Z, ν)$ where $(X, μ), (Z, ν)$ are standard probability spaces. We show how to construct free measure preserving actions $Γ\actson^c (Y, m)$, $Δ\actson^d (Y, m)$ on a standard probability space such that $E_Δ^d \subset E_Γ^c$ and $d$ has $a$ as a factor. This generalizes the standard notion of co-induction of actions of groups from actions of subgroups. We then use this construction to show that if $Γ$ is a countable non-amenable group, then $Γ$ admits continuum ma…
In this short paper we show that if $(G,H)$ is an amenable Hecke pair and $Γ$ is a subgroup of $G$ containing $H$, then the Hecke pair $(Γ, H)$ is amenable too. This answers positively a question of Pierre Eymard, asked in 1972, when it is restricted to Hecke pairs
Motivated by the Benjamini-Schramm non-unicity of percolation conjecture we study the following question. For a given finitely generated non-amenable group $Γ$, does there exist a generating set $S$ such that the Cayley graph $(Γ,S)$, without loops and multiple edges, has non-unique percolation, i.e., $p_c(Γ,S)<p_u(Γ,S)$? We show that this is true if $Γ$ contains an infinite normal subgroup $N$ such that $Γ/ N$ is non-amenable. Moreover for any finitely generated group $G$ containing $Γ$ there exists a generating set $S'$ of $G$ such that $p_c(G,S')<p_u(G,S')$. In particular this applies to fr…
In this paper we are concerned with finite soluble groups $G$ admitting a factorisation $G=AB$, with $A$ and $B$ proper subgroups having coprime order. We are interested in bounding the Fitting height of $G$ in terms of some group-invariants of $A$ and $B$: including the Fitting heights and the derived lengths.
Let $g$ be an element of a finite group $G$. For a positive integer $n$, let $E_n(g)$ be the subgroup generated by all commutators $[...[[x,g],g],\dots,g]$ over $x\in G$, where $g$ is repeated $n$ times. By Baer's theorem, if $E_n(g)=1$, then $g$ belongs to the Fitting subgroup $F(G)$. We generalize this theorem in terms of certain length parameters of $E_n(g)$. For soluble $G$ we prove that if, for some $n$, the Fitting height of $E_n(g)$ is equal to $k$, then $g$ belongs to the $(k+1)$th Fitting subgroup $F_{k+1}(G)$. For nonsoluble $G$ the results are in terms of nonsoluble length and gener…
Let $Γ$ be a finitely generated group and $X$ be a minimal compact $Γ$-space. We assume that the $Γ$-action is micro-supported, i.e. for every non-empty open subset $U \subseteq X$, there is an element of $Γ$ acting non-trivially on $U$ and trivially on the complement $X \setminus U$. We show that, under suitable assumptions, the existence of certain commensurated subgroups in $Γ$ yields strong restrictions on the dynamics of the $Γ$-action: the space $X$ has compressible open subsets, and it is an almost $Γ$-boundary. Those properties yield in turn restrictions on the structure of $Γ$: $Γ$ is…
An invariant random subgroup of the countable group Γ is a random subgroup of Γ whose distribution is invariant under conjugation by all elements of Γ. We prove that for a nonamenable invariant random subgroup H, the spectral radius of every finitely supported random walk on Γ is strictly less than the spectral radius of the corresponding random walk on Γ/H. This generalizes a result of Kesten who proved this for normal subgroups. As a byproduct, we show that for a Cayley graph G of a linear group with no amenable normal subgroups, any sequence of finite quotients of G that spectrally approxim…
We establish new results on the weak containment of quasi-regular and Koopman representations of a second countable locally compact group $G$ associated with non-singular $G$-spaces. We deduce that any two boundary representations of a hyperbolic locally compact group are weakly equivalent. We also show that non-amenable hyperbolic locally compact groups with a cocompact amenable subgroup are characterized by the property that any two proper length functions are homothetic up to an additive constant. Combining those results with the work of Ł. Garncarek on the irreducibility of boundary repres…
We address the problem to characterise closed type I subgroups of the automorphism group of a tree. Even in the well-studied case of Burger-Mozes' universal groups, non-type I criteria were unknown. We prove that a huge class of groups acting properly on trees are not of type I. In the case of Burger-Mozes groups, this yields a complete classification of type I groups among them. Our key novelty is the use of von Neumann algebraic techniques to prove the stronger statement that the group von Neumann algebra of the groups under consideration is non-amenable.
This note answers a question of Kechris: if $H<G$ is a normal subgroup of a countable group $G$, $H$ has property MD and $G/H$ is amenable and residually finite then $G$ also has property MD. Under the same hypothesis we prove that for any action $a$ of $G$, if $b$ is a free action of $G/H$, and $b_G$ is the induced action of $G$ then $\CInd_H^G(a|H) \times b_G$ weakly contains $a$. Moreover, if $H<G$ is any subgroup of a countable group $G$, and the action of $G$ on $G/H$ is amenable, then $\CInd_H^G(a|H)$ weakly contains $a$ whenever $a$ is a Gaussian action.
