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 happens when G is a limit group, and thus for any automorphism ϕof G, Fix(ϕ) is a limit subgroup of G.
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.
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…
In this article we study automorphisms and endomorphisms of lacunary hyperbolic groups. We prove that every lacunary hyperbolic group is Hopfian, answering a question by Henry Wilton. In addition, we show that if a lacunary hyperbolic group has the fix point property for actions on $\mathbf R$-trees, then it is co-Hopfian and its outer automorphism group is locally finite. We also construct lacunary hyperbolic groups whose automorphism group is infinite, locally finite, and contains any locally finite group given in advance.
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.
We prove that an automorphism $ϕ:F\to F$ of a finitely generated free group $F$ is hyperbolic in the sense of Gromov if it has no nontrivial periodic conjugacy classes.
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 show that word hyperbolicity of automorphism groups of graph products $G_Γ$ and of Coxeter groups $W_Γ$ depends strongly on the shape of the defining graph $Γ$. We also characterized those $Aut(G_Γ)$ and $Aut(W_Γ)$ in terms of $Γ$ that are virtually free.
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.
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 …
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 classify finitely generated, residually finite automorphism-induced HNN-extensions in terms of the residual separability of a single associated subgroup. This classification provides a method to construct automorphism-induced HNN-extensions which are not residually finite. We prove that this method can never yield a "new" counter-example to Gromov's conjecture on the residual finiteness of hyperbolic groups.
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
We prove that for a free product $G$ with free factor system $\mathcal{G}$, any automorphism $ϕ$ preserving $\mathcal{G}$, atoroidal (in a sense relative to $\mathcal{G}$) and none of whose power send two different conjugates of subgroups in $\mathcal{G}$ on conjugates of themselves by the same element, gives rise to a semidirect product $G\rtimes_ϕ\mathbb{Z}$ that is relatively hyperbolic with respect to suspensions of groups in $\mathcal{G}$. We recover a theorem of Gautero-Lustig and Ghosh that, if $G$ is a free group, $ϕ$ an automorphism of $G$, and $\mathcal{G}$ is its family of polynomia…
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.
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 $K$ 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 introduce the notion of über-contracting element, a strengthening of the notion of strongly contracting element which yields a particularly tractable criterion to show the acylindrical hyperbolicity, and thus a strong form of non-simplicity, of groups acting on non locally compact spaces of arbitrary dimension. We also give a simple local criterion to construct über-contracting elements for groups acting on complexes with unbounded links of vertices. As an application, we show the acylindrical hyperbolicity of the tame automorphism group of $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})$, a subgroup of the $3$…
Part 1 : We remark that the conjugacy problem for pairs of hyperbolic au- tomorphisms of a finitely presented group (typically a free group) is decidable. The solution that we propose uses the isomorphism problem for the suspensions, and the study of their automorphism group. Part 2 : In a previous work (part 1), we remarked that the conjugacy problem for pairs of atoroidal automorphisms of a free group was solvable by mean of the isomorphism problem for hyperbolic groups and an orbit problem for the automorphism group of their suspensions (i.e. their semidirect product with Z for the relevant…
Let $G$ be a group and $H$ a subgroup of $G$. This note introduces an equivalent definition of hyperbolic embedded subgroup based on Bowditch's approach to relatively hyperbolic groups in terms of fine graphs.
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…
We define relatively quasiconvex subgroups of relatively hyperbolic groups in the sense of Osin and show that such subgroups have expected properties. Also we state several definitions equivalent to the definition of relatively hyperbolic groups in the sense of Osin.
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…
A subgroup of a group $G$ is called algebraic if it can be expressed as a finite union of solution sets to systems of equations. We prove that a non-elementary subgroup $H$ of an acylindrically hyperbolic group $G$ is algebraic if and only if there exists a finite subgroup $K$ of $G$ such that $C_G(K) \leq H \leq N_G(K)$. We provide some applications of this result to free products, torsion-free relatively hyperbolic groups, and ascending chains of algebraic subgroups in acylindrically hyperbolic groups.
A group $G$ is called subgroup conjugacy separable if for every pair of non-conjugate finitely generated subgroups of $G$, there exists a finite quotient of $G$ where the images of these subgroups are not conjugate. It is proved that the fundamental group of a hyperbolic 3-manifold (closed or with cusps) is subgroup conjugacy separable.
There is a family of hyperbolic groups known as hyperbolic hydra which contain heavily distorted free subgroups. We prove the existence of Cannon--Thurston maps (that is, maps of the boundaries induced by subgroup inclusion) for these free subgroups. It is known that Cannon--Thurston maps between hyperbolic space boundaries can exist even in the presence of arbitrarily heavy (even non-recursive) distortion. The hyperbolic hydra examples show that Cannon--Thurston maps can exist even between hyperbolic group boundaries in the presence of arbitrarily heavy primitive recursive distortion.
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.
