We present amalgamated free products satisfying coupling rigidity with respect to the automorphism group of the associated Bass-Serre tree. As an application, we obtain orbit equivalence rigidity for amalgamated free products of mapping class groups.
A discrete countable group Γis said to be ME rigid if any discrete countable group that is measure equivalent to Γis virtually isomorphic to Γ. In this paper, we construct ME rigid groups by amalgamating two groups satisfying rigidity in a sense of measure equivalence. A class of amalgamated free products is introduced, and discrete countable groups which are measure equivalent to a group in that class are investigated.
We partly generalize the estimate for the rank of intersection of subgroups in free products of groups, proved earlier by S.V.Ivanov and W.Dicks, to the case of free amalgamated products of groups with normal finite amalgamated subgroup. We also prove that the obtained estimate is sharp and cannot be further improved when the amalgamated product contains an involution.
We obtain an upper bound for relative Dehn functions of amalgamated products and HNN--extensions with respect to certain collections of subgroups. Our main results generalize the combination theorems for relatively hyperbolic groups proved by Dahmani.
It is shown that the compressed word problem for an HNN-extension with base group H and finite associated subgroups is polynomial time Turing-reducible to the compressed word problem for H. An analogous result for amalgamated free products is shown as well.
We get three types of results on measure equivalence rigidity; direct product groups of Ozawa's class $\mathcal{S}$ groups, wreath product groups and amalgamated free products. We prove measure equivalence factorization results on direct product groups of Ozawa's class $\mathcal{S}$ groups. As consequences, Monod--Shalom type orbit equivalence rigidity theorems follow. We prove that if two wreath product groups $A \wr G$, $B \wr Γ$ of non-amenable exact direct product groups $G$, $Γ$ with amenable bases $A$, $B$ are measure equivalent, then $G$ and $Γ$ are measure equivalent. We get Bass--Serr…
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 an amalgamated free product $G*_{A}H$ admits a discrete isolated ordering, under some assumptions of $G,H$ and $A$. This generalizes the author's previous construction of isolated orderings, and unlike known constructions of isolated orderings, can produce an isolated ordering with many non-trivial proper convex subgroups.
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.
In this paper we study residual solvability of the amalgamated product of two finitely generated free groups, in the case of doubles. We find conditions where this kind of structure is residually solvable, and show that in general this is not the case. However this kind of structure is always meta-residually-solvable.
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 $\mathbb{S}^1$.
Gromov asked whether an asymptotic cone of a finitely generated group was always simply connected or had uncountable fundamental group. We prove that Gromov's dichotomy holds for asympotic cones with cut points, as well as, HNN extensions and amalgamated products where the associated subgroups are nicely embedded. We also show a slightly weaker dichotomy for multiple HNN extensions of free groups.
A group $G$ possesses the Magnus property if for every two elements $u,v \in G$ with the same normal closure, $u$ is conjugate in $G$ to $v$ or $v^{-1}$. We prove the Magnus property for some amalgamated products including the fundamental group of a closed non-orientable surface of genus 3. This answers a question of O. Bogopolski and K. Sviridov, who obtained the analogous result for genus $g > 3$.
We discuss the linearity and discreteness of amalgamated products of linear word-hyperbolic groups. In particular, we prove that the double of an Anosov group along a maximal cyclic subgroup is always linear, and we construct examples of such groups which do not admit any discrete and faithful representation in rank 1. We also build new examples of non-linear word-hyperbolic groups, elaborating on a previous work of Canary--Stover--Tsouvalas.
We prove that there is a gap between $\sqrt{2}$ and $(1+\sqrt{5})/2$ for the exponential growth rate of free products $G=A*B$ not isomorphic to the infinite dihedral group. For amalgamated products $G=A*_C B$ with $([A:C]-1)([B:C]-1)\geq2$, we show that lower exponential growth rate than $\sqrt{2}$ can be achieved by proving that the exponential growth rate of the amalgamated product $\mathrm{PGL}(2,\mathbb{Z})\cong (C_2\times C_2) *_{C_2} D_6$ is equal to the unique positive root of the polynomial $z^3-z-1$. This answers two questions by Avinoam Mann [The growth of free products, Journal of A…
Stallings folding theory is modified, using double coset representatives, and to applied to the study of subgroups of amalgamated products of finite rank free groups. As a first application the subgroup membership problem for such groups is shown to be decidable. An algorithm for this problem is constructed and its complexity is analysed. Groups in this class are also shown to possess the Howson property.
We discuss the time complexity of the word and conjugacy search problems for free products $G = A \star_C B$ of groups $A$ and $B$ with amalgamation over a subgroup $C$. We stratify the set of elements of $G$ with respect to the complexity of the word and conjugacy problems and show that for the generic stratum the conjugacy search problem is decidable under some reasonable assumptions about groups $A,B,C$.
Let $G=\mathop{A\ast B}\limits_C$ be an amalgamated product of finite rank free groups $A$, $B$ and $C$. We introduce atomic measures and corresponding asymptotic densities on a set of normal forms of elements in $G$. We also define two strata of normal forms: the first one consists of regular (or stable) normal forms, and second stratum is formed by singular (or unstable) normal forms. In a series of previous work about classical algorithmic problems, it was shown that standard algorithms work fast on elements of the first stratum and nothing is known about their work on the second stratum. I…
In this paper we introduce a new family of icc groups $Γ$ which satisfy the following product rigidity phenomenon, discovered in [DHI16] (see also [dSP17]): all tensor product decompositions of the II$_1$ factor $L(Γ)$ arise only from the canonical direct product decompositions of the underlying group $Γ$. Our groups are assembled from certain HNN-extensions and amalgamated free products and include many remarkable groups studied throughout mathematics such as graph product groups, poly-amalgam groups, Burger-Mozes groups, Higman group, various integral two-dimensional Cremona groups, etc. As …
In 1930, Wilhelm Magnus introduced the so-called Freiheitssatz: Let $F$ be a free group with basis $\mathcal{X}$ and let $r$ be a cyclically reduced element of $F$ which contains a basis element $x \in \mathcal{X}$, then every non-trivial element of the normal closure of $r$ in $F$ contains the basis element $x$. Equivalently, the subgroup freely generated by $\mathcal{X} \backslash \{x\}$ embeds canonically into the quotient group $F / \langle \! \langle r \rangle \! \rangle_{F}$. In this article, we want to introduce a Freiheitssatz for amalgamated products $G=A \ast_{U} B$ of free groups $A…
Let $G$ be a free product of two groups with amalgamated subgroup, $π$ be either the set of all prime numbers or the one-element set \{$p$\} for some prime number $p$. Denote by $Σ$ the family of all cyclic subgroups of group $G$, which are separable in the class of all finite $π$-groups. Obviously, cyclic subgroups of the free factors, which aren't separable in these factors by the family of all normal subgroups of finite $π$-index of group $G$, the subgroups conjugated with them and all subgroups, which aren't $π^{\prime}$-isolated, don't belong to $Σ$. Some sufficient conditions are obtaine…
We give a means of estimating the equivariant compression of a group G in terms of properties of open subgroups G_i whose direct limit is G. Quantifying a result by S.R. Gal, we also study the behaviour of the equivariant compression under amalgamated free products G1*_H G2 where H is of finite index in both G_1 and G_2.
In this paper, we give some necessary and sufficient conditions for a normal subgroup of an amalgamated product of groups to be finitely generated. We apply these conditions together with Stallings' fibering theorem to prove that an irreducible multilink in a homology 3-sphere fibers if and only if each of its multilink splice components fibers.
We establish the MF property of the reduced group $ C^* $-algebra of an amalgamated free product of countable Abelian discrete groups. This result is then used to give a characterization of the amalgamated free products of Abelian groups for which the BDF semigroup of the reduced group $ C^* $-algebra is a group. Along the way we get a tensor product factorization of the corresponding group von Neumann algebra. We end the exposition by applying the ideas from the first part to give a few more examples of groups with a reduced group $ C^* $-algebra which is MF.
We prove the inequality $$ \as A\ast_CB\le\max\{\as A,\as B,\as C+1\} $$ and we apply this inequality to show that the asymptotic dimension of any right-angled Coxeter group does not exceed the dimension of its Davis' complex.
The authors announce the following theorem. Theorem 1. If $G=A*_H B$ is an amalgamated product where $A$ and $B$ are finitely presented and semistable at infinity, and $H$ is finitely generated, then $G$ is semistable at infinity. If $G=A*_H$ is an HNN-extension where $A$ is finitely presented and semistable at infinity, and $H$ is finitely generated, then $G$ is semistable at infinity.
It is shown that the knapsack problem, which was introduced by Myasnikov et al. for arbitrary finitely generated groups, can be solved in NP for graph groups. This result even holds if the group elements are represented in a compressed form by SLPs, which generalizes the classical NP-completeness result of the integer knapsack problem. We also prove general transfer results: NP-membership of the knapsack problem is passed on to finite extensions, HNN-extensions over finite associated subgroups, and amalgamated products with finite identified subgroups.
We show that stable commutator length is rational on free products of free Abelian groups amalgamated over $\mathbb{Z}^k$, a class of groups containing the fundamental groups of all torus knot complements. We consider a geometric model for these groups and parameterize all surfaces with specified boundary mapping to this space. Using this work we provide a topological algorithm to compute stable commutator length in these groups. Further, we use the methods developed to show that in free products of cyclic groups the stable commutator length of a fixed varies quasirationally in the orders of t…
We construct a generalized version for the free product of unital C*-algebras over a family of unital C*-subalgebras, starting from the group-analogue. When all the subalgebras are the same, we recover the free product with amalgamation over a common subalgebra. We reduce the problem to the study of minimal amalgams. We specialize to triangles of algebras and subalgebras, study freeness in this context, and give some examples of constructions of minimal amalgams derived from triangles of operator algebras.
This paper gives necessary and sufficient conditions that the free product with amalgamation of circularly-ordered groups admit a circular ordering extending the given orderings of the factors. Our result follows from establishing a categorical framework that allows the problem to be restated in terms of amalgamating certain left-ordered central extensions, where we are able to apply work of Bludov and Glass.
Recently, Adrian Ioana proved that all crossed products by free ergodic probability measure preserving actions of a nontrivial free product group Γ_1 * Γ_2 have a unique Cartan subalgebra up to unitary conjugacy. Ioana deduced this result from a more general dichotomy theorem on the normalizer N_M(A)'' of an amenable subalgebra A of an amalgamated free product von Neumann algebra M = M_1 *_B M_2. We improve this dichotomy theorem by removing the spectral gap assumptions and obtain in particular a simpler proof for the uniqueness of the Cartan subalgebra in crossed products by Γ_1 * Γ_2.
We study hereditary properties of the class of countable groups admitting an amenable, transitive and faithful action on a countable set. We consider mainly the case of amalgamated free products, and we show in particular that the double of amenable groups and the amalgamated free products of two amenable groups over a finite subgroup admit such actions.
We show that if R is an integral domain with many units, then the inclusion E_2(R) --> E_2(R[t]) induces an isomorphism in integral homology. This is a consequence of the existence of an amalgamated free product decomposition for E_2(R[t]). We also use this decomposition to study the homology of E_2(Z[t]). We show that H_i(E_2(Z[t]),Z) contains a countable rank free summand for each i>0 and that this summand maps nontrivially into H_i(SL_2(Z[t]),Z); hence, the latter is not finitely generated. This improves on a result of Grunewald, et.al., which states that SL_2(Z[t]) has free quotients of co…
Let $(M_i)_{i}$ be a (finite or infinite) family of finite von Neumann algebras with a common subalgebra $P$. When $φ:\IN\rightarrow\IC$ is a function, we define the radial multiplier $M_φ$ on the amalgamated free product $M=M_1\free_P M_2\free_P\ldots$ setting $M_φ(x)=φ(n)x$ for every reduced expression $x$ of length $n$. In this paper we give a sufficient condition on $φ$ to ensure that the corresponding radial multiplier $M_φ$ is a completely bounded map, and moreover we give an upper bound on its completely bounded norm. Our condition on $φ$ does not depend on the choice of von Neumann alg…
Let C be a class of groups. We give sufficient conditions ensuring that a free product of residually C groups is again residually C, and analogous conditions are given for locally embeddable into C groups. As a corollary, we obtain that the class of residually amenable groups and the one of LEA groups (or initially subamenable groups in the terminology of Gromov) are closed under taking free products. Moreover, we consider the pro-C topology and we characterize special HNN extensions and amalgamated free products that are residually C, where C is a suitable class of groups. In this way, we des…
We establish sufficient conditions for the C$^*$-simplicity of two classes of groups. The first class is that of groups acting on trees, such as amalgamated free products, HNN-extensions, and their normal subgroups; for example normal subgroups of Baumslag-Solitar groups. The second class is that of fundamental groups of compact 3-manifolds, related to the first class by their Kneser-Milnor and JSJ-decompositions. Much of our analysis deals with conditions on an action of a group $Γ$ on a tree $T$ which imply the following three properties: abundance of hyperbolic elements, better called stron…
Using probabilistic methods, Collins and Dykema proved that the free product of two sofic groups amalgamated over a monotileably amenable subgroup is sofic as well. We show that the restriction is unnecessary; the free product of two sofic groups amalgamated over an arbitrary amenable subgroup is sofic. We also prove a group theoretical analogue of a result of Kenley Jung. A finitely generated group is amenable if and only if it has only one sofic representation up to conjugacy equivalence.
We show that $\mathcal{U}(\mathbb{Z}G)$, the unit group of the integral group ring $\mathbb{Z} G$, either satisfies Kazhdan's property (T) or is, up to commensurability, a non-trivial amalgamated product, in case $G$ is a finite group satisfying some mild conditions. Crucial in the proof is the construction of amalgamated decompositions of the elementary group $\operatorname{E}_2(\mathcal{O})$, where $\mathcal{O}$ is an order in a rational division algebra. A major step is to introduce subgroups $\operatorname{E}_2(Γ_n(\mathbb{Z}))$ inside the so-called higher modular groups $\operatorname{SL}…
We study Cartan subalgebras in the context of amalgamated free product II$_1$ factors and obtain several uniqueness and non-existence results. We prove that if $Γ$ belongs to a large class of amalgamated free product groups (which contains the free product of any two infinite groups) then any II$_1$ factor $L^{\infty}(X)\rtimesΓ$ arising from a free ergodic probability measure preserving action of $Γ$ has a unique Cartan subalgebra, up to unitary conjugacy. We also prove that if $\mathcal R=\mathcal R_1*\mathcal R_2$ is the free product of any two non-hyperfinite countable ergodic probability …
We introduce a geometric invariant, called finite decomposition complexity (FDC), to study topological rigidity of manifolds. We prove for instance that if the fundamental group of a compact aspherical manifold M has FDC, and if N is homotopy equivalent to M, then M x R^n is homeomorphic to N x R^n, for n large enough. This statement is known as the stable Borel conjecture. On the other hand, we show that the class of FDC groups includes all countable subgroups of GL(n,K), for any field K, all elementary amenable groups, and is closed under taking subgroups, extensions, free amalgamated produc…
We develop a new criterion to tell if a group $G$ has the maximal gap of $1/2$ in stable commutator length (scl). For amalgamated free products $G = A \star_C B$ we show that every element $g$ in the commutator subgroup of $G$ which does not conjugate into $A$ or $B$ satisfies $scl(g) \geq 1/2$, provided that $C$ embeds as a left relatively convex subgroup in both $A$ and $B$. We deduce from this that every non-trivial element $g$ in the commutator subgroup of a right-angled Artin group $G$ satisfies $scl(g) \geq 1/2$. This bound is sharp and is inherited by all fundamental groups of special c…
We define the structure of spaces with labelled partitions which generalizes the structure of spaces with measured walls and study the link between actions by automorphisms on spaces with labelled partitions and isometric affine actions on Banach spaces, and more particularly, on $L^p$ spaces. We build natural spaces with labelled partitions for the action of various contructions of groups, namely: direct sum; semi-direct product; wreath product and amalgamated free product. We apply this to prove that the wreath product of a group with property $PL^p$ by a group with Haagerup property has pro…
We investigate which free constructions (amalgamated products and HNN-extensions) over word hyperbolic groups produce groups that are again word hyperbolic. A complete answer is obtained for the case when the amalgamated subgroups are virtually cyclic. The results are applied, in particular, to show that a ${\bf Q}$-completion of a torsion-free hyperbolic group has solvable word problem and conjugacy problem.
We show that the semidirect product of a group $C$ by $A*_D B$ is isomorphic to the free product of $A\rtimes C$ and $B\rtimes C$ amalgamated at $D\rtimes C$, where $A$, $B$ and $C$ are arbitrary groups. Moreover, we apply this theorem to prove that any group $G$ that acts without inversion on a tree $T$ that possesses a segment $Γ$ for its quotient graph, such that, if the stabilizers of the vertex set $\{\,P,Q\,\}$ and edge $y$ of a lift of $\, Γ$ in $T$ are of the form $G_{P}\!\rtimes H$, $G_{Q}\!\rtimes H$ and $G_{y}\! \rtimes H$, then $G$ is isomorphic to the semidirect product of $H$ by …
It is an old and challenging topic to investigate for which discrete groups G the full group C*-algebra C*(G) is residually finite-dimensional (RFD). In particular not much is known about how the RFD property behaves under fundamental constructions, such as amalgamated free products and HNN-extensions. In [CS19] it was proved that central amalgamated free products of virtually abelian groups are RFD. In this paper we prove that this holds much beyond this case. Our method is based on showing a certain approximation property for characters induced from central subgroups. In particular it allows…
It is proved that all finitely generated subgroups of generalized free product of two groups are finitely separable provided that free factors have this property and amalgamated subgroups are normal in corresponding factors and satisfy the maximum condition for subgroups.