We study the problem of deciding whether or not the image of an irreducible representation of the braid group $\B_3$ of degree $\leq 5$ has finite image if we are only given the eigenvalues of a generator. We provide a partial algorithm that determines when the images are finite or infinite in all but finitely many cases, and use these results to study examples coming from quantum groups. Our technique uses two classification theorems and the computational group theory package GAP.
We study various aspects of the structure and representation theory of singular Artin monoids. This includes a number of generalizations of the desingularization map and explicit presentations for certain finite quotient monoids of diagrammatic nature. The main result is a categorification of the classical desingularization map for singular Artin monoids associated to finite Weyl groups using BGG category $\mathcal{O}$.
We study systematically groups whose marked finite quotients form a recursive set. We give several definitions, and prove basic properties of this class of groups, and in particular emphasize the link between the growth of the depth function and solvability of the word problem. We give examples of infinitely presented groups whose finite quotients can be effectively enumerated. Finally, our main result is that a residually finite group can be even not recursively presented and still have computable finite quotients, and that, on the other hand, it can have solvable word problem while still not…
An algorithm for computing power conjugate presentations for finite soluble quotients of predetermined structure of finitely presented groups is described. Practical aspects of an implementation are discussed.
Using the computer algebra program GAP, we show that all crystallographic groups in dimensions at most 4 are distinguished from each other by their sets of finite quotients.
We show that any group with arbitrarily large finite quotients admits generating sets with respect to which it has arbitrarily large finite dead-end depth. This extends a joint result with Riley and partially answers a question asked there.
We show that every finitely generated nilpotent group of class 2 occurs as the quotient of a finitely presented abelian-by-nilpotent group by its largest nilpotent normal subgroup.
Two finitely generated groups have the same set of finite quotients if and only if their profinite completions are isomorphic. Consider the map which sends (the isomorphism class of) an S-arithmetic group to (the isomorphism class of) its profinite completion. We show that for a wide class of S-arithmetic groups, this map is finite to one, while the the fibers are of unbounded size.
We derive a lower bound on the size of finite non-cyclic quotients of the braid group that is superexponential in the number of strands. We also derive a similar lower bound for nontrivial finite quotients of the commutator subgroup of the braid group.
In this paper we introduce and study the lattice of normal subgroups of a group $G$ that determine solitary quotients. It is closely connected to the well-known lattice of solitary subgroups of $G$ (see \cite{5}). A precise description of this lattice is given for some particular classes of finite groups.
If G is a semidirect product N by H with N normal and finitely generated then G has the property that every finite group is a quotient of some finite index subgroup of G if and only if one of N and H has this property. This has applications to 3-manifolds and to cyclically presented groups, for instance for any fibred hyperbolic 3-manifold M and any finite simple group S, there is a cyclic cover of M whose fundamental group surjects to S. We also give a short proof of the residual finiteness of ascending HNN extensions of finite rank free groups when the induced map on homology is injective.
This paper is a continuation of our first paper [10] in which we showed how deformation theory of representation varieties can be used to study finite simple quotients of triangle groups. While in Part I, we mainly used deformations of the principal homomorphism from ${\rm SO}(3,\R)$, in this part we use ${\rm PGL}_2(\R)$ as well as deformations of representations which are very different from the principal homomorphism.
In this note we refine examples by Aka from arithmetic to S-arithmetic groups to show that the vanishing of the $i$-th $\ell^2$-Betti number is not a profinite invariant for all $i \ge 2$.
Let N be a normal subgroup of a finite group G. We prove that under certain (unavoidable) conditions the subgroup [N,G] is a product of commutators [N,y] (with prescribed values of y from a given set Y) of length bounded by a function of d(G) and |Y| only. This has several applications: 1. A new proof that G^n is closed (and hence open) in any finitely generated profinite group G. 2. A finitely generated abstract quotient of a compact Hausdorff group must be finite. 3. Let G be a topologically finitely generated compact Hausdorff group. Then G has a countably infinite abstract quotient if and …
In this paper we describe a family of isomorphism invariants of a finitely generated Coxeter group W. Each of these invariants is the isomorphism type of a quotient group W/N of W by a characteristic subgroup N. The virtue of these invariants is that W/N is also a Coxeter group. For some of these invariants, the isomorphism problem of W/N is solved and so we obtain isomorphism invariants that can be effectively used to distinguish isomorphism types of finitely generated Coxeter groups.
We prove rationality of the quotient $\mathbb{C}^n / H_n$ for the finite Heisenberg group $H_n$, any $n \ge 1$, acting on $\mathbb{C}^n$ via its irreducible representation.
We generalize the Plesken-Fabiańska $\mathrm{L}_2$-quotient algorithm for finitely presented groups on two or three generators to allow an arbitrary number of generators. The main difficulty lies in a constructive description of the invariant ring of $\mathrm{GL}(2, K)$ on $m$ copies of $\mathrm{SL}(2, K)$ by simultaneous conjugation. By giving this description, we generalize and simplify some of the known results in invariant theory. An implementation of the algorithm is available in the computer algebra system Magma.
Let $2 \leq a \leq b \leq c \in \mathbb{N}$ with $μ=1/a+1/b+1/c<1$ and let $T=T_{a,b,c}=< x,y,z: x^a=y^b=z^c=xyz=1>$ be the corresponding hyperbolic triangle group. Many papers have been dedicated to the following question: what are the finite (simple) groups which appear as quotients of $T$? (Classically, for $(a,b,c)=(2,3,7)$ and more recently also for general $(a,b,c)$.) These papers have used either explicit constructive methods or probabilistic ones. The goal of this paper is to present a new approach based on the theory of representation varieties (via deformation theory). As a corollary…
We prove that the minimal nontrivial finite quotient group of the mapping class group M_g of a closed orientable surface of genus g is the symplectic group PSp(2g,Z_2), for g = 3 and 4 (this might remain true, however, for arbitrary genus g > 2). We discuss also some results for arbitrary genus g.
We state and prove a condition under which the strong Atiyah Conjecture carries over to subgroups. Moreover, we show that if a group satisfies the (strong) Atiyah Conjecture then any quotient with finite kernel does.
We investigate symmetric quotient algebras of symmetric algebras, with an emphasis on finite group algebras over a complete discrete valuation ring ${\mathcal O}$. Using elementary methods, we show that if an ordinary irreducible character $χ$ of a finite group $G$ gives rise to a symmetric quotient over ${\mathcal O}$ which is not a matrix algebra, then the decomposition numbers of the row labelled by $χ$ are all divisible by the characteristic $p$ of the residue field of ${\mathcal O}$.
These notes are devoted to lattices in products of trees and related topics. They provide an introduction to the construction, by M. Burger and S. Mozes, of examples of such lattices that are simple as abstract groups. Two features of that construction are emphasized: the relevance of non-discrete locally compact groups, and the two-step strategy in the proof of simplicity, addressing separately, and with completely different methods, the existence of finite and infinite quotients. A brief history of the quest for finitely generated and finitely presented infinite simple groups is also sketche…
For a finite group $G$ with a normal subgroup $H$, the enhanced quotient graph of $G/H$, denoted by $\mathcal{G}_{H}(G),$ is the graph with vertex set $V=(G\backslash H)\cup \{e\}$ and two vertices $x$ and $y$ are edge connected if $xH = yH$ or $xH,yH\in \langle zH\rangle$ for some $z\in G$. In this article, we characterize the enhanced quotient graph of $G/H$. The graph $\mathcal{G}_{H}(G)$ is complete if and only if $G/H$ is cyclic, and $\mathcal{G}_{H}(G)$ is Eulerian if and only if $|G/H|$ is odd. We show some relation between the graph $\mathcal{G}_{H}(G)$ and the enhanced power graph $\m…
More than 70 years ago, P. Hall showed that if $G$ is a finite $p$-group such that a term $\der G{d+1}$ of the derived series is non-trivial, then the order of the quotient $\der Gd/\der G{d+1}$ is at least $p^{2^d+1}$. Recently Mann proved that, in a finite $p$-group, Hall's lower bound can be taken for at most two distinct $d$. We improve this result and show that if $p$ is odd, then it can only be taken for two distinct $d$ in a group with order $p^6$.
We show that, for every transitive group $G$ of degree $n\ge 2$, the largest abelian quotient of $G$ has cardinality at most $4^{n/\sqrt{\log_2 n}}$. This gives a positive answer to a 1989 outstanding question of László Kovács and Cheryl Praeger.
For any orientable finite-volume hyperbolic 3-manifold, this paper proves that the profinite isomorphism type of the fundamental group uniquely determines the isomorphism type of the first integral cohomology, as marked with the Thurston norm and the fibered classes; moreover, up to finite ambiguity, the profinite isomorphism type determines the isomorphism type of the fundamental group, among the class of finitely generated 3-manifold groups.
It is shown that any finitely generated non-elementary Fuchsian group has among its homomorphic images all but finitely many of the alternating groups. This settles in the affirmative a conjecture of Graham Higman.
We construct several series of explicit presentations of infinite hyperbolic groups enjoying Kazhdan's property (T). Some of them are significantly shorter than the previously known shortest examples. Moreover, we show that some of those hyperbolic Kazhdan groups possess finite simple quotient groups of arbitrarily large rank; they constitute the first known specimens combining those properties. All the hyperbolic groups we consider are non-positively curved k-fold generalized triangle groups, i.e. groups that possess a simplicial action on a CAT(0) triangle complex, which is sharply transitiv…
We give a criterion for distinguishing a prime knot $K$ in $S^3$ from every other knot in $S^3$ using the finite quotients of $π_1(S^3\setminus K)$. Using recent work of Baldwin-Sivek, we apply this criterion to the hyperbolic knots $5_2$, $15n_{43522}$, and the three-strand pretzel knots $P(-3,3,2n+1)$ for every integer $n$.
We provide a description of the fundamental group of the quotient of a product of topological spaces $X_i$, each admitting a universal cover, by a finite group $G$, provided that there is only a finite number of path-connected components in $X_i^g$ for every $g\in G$. This generalizes previous work of Bauer-Catanese-Grunewald-Pignatelli and Dedieu-Perroni.
In the case where $G=$SL$_{2}(F)$ for a non-archimedean local field $F$ and $Γ$ is a discrete torsion-free cocompact subgroup of $G$, there is a known relationship between the Ihara zeta function for the quotient of the Bruhat-Tits tree of $G$ by the action of $Γ$, and an alternating product of determinants of twisted Poincaré series for parabolic subgroups of the affine Weyl group of $G$. We show how this can be generalised to other split simple algebraic groups of rank two over $F$, and formulate a conjecture about how this might be generalised to groups of higher rank.
Let $G$ be a finite group, and let $V$ be a completely reducible faithful $G$-module. It has been known for a long time that if $G$ is abelian, then $G$ has a regular orbit on $V$. In this paper we show that $G$ has an orbit of size at least $|G/G'|$ on $V$. This generalizes earlier work of the authors, where the same bound was proved under the additional hypothesis that $G$ is solvable. For completely reducible modules it also strengthens the 1989 result $|G/G'|<|V|$ by Aschbacher and Guralnick.
Groups that can be approximated by finite groups have been the center of much research. This has led to the investigations of the subgroups of metric ultraproducts of finite groups. This paper attempts to study the dual problem: what are the quotients of ultraproducts of finite groups? Since an ultraproduct is an abstract quotient of the direct product, this also led to a more general question: what are the abstract quotients of profinite groups? Certain cases were already well-studied. For example, if we have a pro-solvable group, then it is well-known that any finite abstract quotients are s…
For a prime number $p$, we show that if two certain canonical finite quotients of a finitely generated Bloch-Kato pro-$p$ group $G$ coincide, then $G$ has a very simple structure, i.e., $G$ is a $p$-adic analytic pro-$p$ group. This result has a remarkable Galois-theoretic consequence: if the two corresponding canonical finite extensions $F^{(3)}/F$ and $F^{\{3\}}/F$ of a field $F$ -- with $F$ containing a primitive $p$-th root of unity -- coincide, then $F$ is $p$-rigid. The proof relies only on group-theoretic tools, and on certain properties of Bloch-Kato pro-$p$ groups.
We notice that the class of nontrivial groups without proper subgroups of finite index is not elementary, because some groups in this class, such as $\mathbb Q*\mathbb Q$, have ultrapowers that map homomorphically onto $\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z$ for every prime $p$. Also, some ultrapowers of certain simple groups map homomorphically onto $\mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z$.
We prove that, for n=3 and 4, the minimal nonabelian finite factor group of the outer automorphism group Out F_n of a free group of rank n is the linear group PSL_n(Z_2) (conjecturally, this may remain true for arbitrary rank n > 2). We also discuss some computational results on low index subgroups of Aut F_n and Out F_n, for n = 3 and 4, using presentations of these groups.
Our main result is that the image of the quantum representation of a central extension of the mapping class group of the genus $g\geq 3$ closed orientable surface at a prime $p\geq 5$ is a Zariski dense discrete subgroup of some higher rank algebraic semi-simple Lie group $\mathbb G_p$ defined over $\Q$. As an application we find that, for any prime $p\geq 5$ a central extension of the genus $g$ mapping class group surjects onto the finite groups $\mathbb G_p(\Z/q\Z)$, for all but finitely many primes $q$. This method provides infinitely many finite quotients of a given mapping class group out…
We construct a natural map from the set [BG,BU(n)] into a set of characters of the Sylow p-subgroups of G and prove that this natural map is a surjection for all finite groups G of rank two. We show, furthermore, that this same natural map is in fact a bijection for two types of finite groups G: those with periodic cohomology and those of rank two with odd order.
Let $W$ be a right-angled Coxeter group corresponding to a finite non-discrete graph $\mathcal{G}$ with at least $3$ vertices. Our main theorem says that $\mathcal{G}^c$ is connected if and only if for any infinite index quasiconvex subgroup $H$ of $W$ and any finite subset $\{ γ_1, \ldots , γ_n \} \subset W \setminus H$ there is a surjection $f$ from $W$ to a finite alternating group such that $f (γ_i) \notin f (H)$. A corollary is that a right-angled Artin group splits as a direct product of cyclic groups and groups with many alternating quotients in the above sense. Similarly, finitely gene…
In this expanded account of a talk given at the Oberwolfach Arbeitsgemeinschaft "Totally Disconnected Groups", October 2014, we discuss results of Nikolay Nikolov and Dan Segal on abstract quotients of compact Hausdorff topological groups, paying special attention to the class of finitely generated profinite groups. Our primary source is a paper, entitled "Generators and commutators in finite groups; abstract quotients of compact groups", that was published by Nikolov and Segal in 2012. Sidestepping all difficult and technical proofs, we present a selection of accessible arguments to illuminat…
If a class of finitely generated groups Curly(G) is closed under isometric amalgamations along free subgroups, then every G in Curly(G) can be quasi-isometrically embedded in a group Hat(G) in Curly(G) that has no proper subgroups of finite index. Every compact, connected, non-positively curved space X admits an isometric embedding into a compact, connected, non-positively curved space Overline(X) such that Overline(X) has no non-trivial finite-sheeted coverings.
For a finite smooth algebraic group $F$ over a field $k$ and a smooth algebraic group $\bar G$ over the separable closure of $k$, we define the notion of $F$-kernel in $\bar G$ and we associate to it a set of nonabelian 2-cohomology. We use this to study extensions of $F$ by an arbitrary smooth $k$-group $G$. We show in particular that any such extension comes from an extension of finite $k$-groups when $k$ is perfect and we give explicit bounds on the order of these finite groups when $G$ is linear. We prove moreover some finiteness results on these sets.
