We introduce a notion of $L^2$-Betti numbers for locally compact, second countable, unimodular groups. We study the relation to the standard notion of $L^2$-Betti numbers of countable discrete groups for lattices. In this way, several new computations are obtained for countable groups, including lattices in algebraic groups over local fields, and Kac-Moody lattices.
We also extend the vanishing of reduced $L^2$-cohomology for countable amenable groups, a well known theorem due to Cheeger and Gromov, to cover all amenable, second countable, unimodular locally compact groups.
We provide a proof that the vanishing of $\ell^2$-Betti numbers of unimodular locally compact second countable groups is an invariant of coarse equivalence.
We prove that the L^2-Betti numbers of a unimodular locally compact group G coincide, up to a natural scaling constant, with the L^2-Betti numbers of the countable equivalence relation induced on a cross section of any essentially free ergodic probability measure preserving action of G. As a consequence, we obtain that the reduced and un-reduced L^2-Betti numbers of G agree and that the L^2-Betti numbers of a lattice Gamma in G equal those of G up to scaling by the covolume of Gamma in G. We also deduce several vanishing results, including the vanishing of the reduced L^2-cohomology for amenab…
We announce new results concerning the asymptotic behavior of the Betti numbers of higher rank locally symmetric spaces as their volumes tend to infinity. Our main theorem is a uniform version of the Lück Approximation Theorem \cite{luck}, which is much stronger than the linear upper bounds on Betti numbers given by Gromov in \cite{BGS}. The basic idea is to adapt the theory of local convergence, originally introduced for sequences of graphs of bounded degree by Benjamimi and Schramm, to sequences of Riemannian manifolds. Using rigidity theory we are able to show that when the volume tends to …
We prove that twisted $\ell^2$-Betti numbers of locally indicable groups are equal to the usual $\ell^2$-Betti numbers rescaled by the dimension of the twisting representation; this answers a question of Lück for this class of groups. It also leads to two formulae: given a fibration $E$ with base space $B$ having locally indicable fundamental group, and with a simply-connected fibre $F$, the first formula bounds $\ell^2$-Betti numbers $b_i^{(2)}(E)$ of $E$ in terms of $\ell^2$-Betti numbers of $B$ and usual Betti numbers of $F$; the second formula computes $b_i^{(2)}(E)$ exactly in terms of th…
This survey is an extended version of a talk during the Arbeitsgemeinschaft on totally disconnected locally compact groups, held in Oberwolfach in October 2014. We explain the definition of l2-Betti numbers of locally compact groups -- both discrete and non-discrete. Specific topics include proportionality principle, dimension function, Petersen's definition for locally compact groups, examples.
We compute $L^2$-Betti numbers of postliminal, locally compact, unimodular groups in terms of ordinary dimensions of reduced cohomology with coefficients in irreducible unitary representations and the Plancherel measure. This allows us to compute the $L^2$-Betti numbers for semi-simple Lie groups with finite center, simple algebraic groups over local fields, and automorphism groups of locally finite trees acting transitively on the boundary.
Wreath products of non-discrete locally compact groups are usually not locally compact groups, nor even topological groups. We introduce a natural extension of the wreath product construction to the setting of locally compact groups. As an application, we disprove a conjecture of Trofimov, constructing compactly generated locally compact groups of intermediate growth without nontrivial compact normal subgroups.
We describe the global structure of totally disconnected locally compact groups having a linear open compact subgroup. Among the applications, we show that if a non-discrete, compactly generated, topologically simple, totally disconnected locally compact group is locally linear, then it is a simple algebraic group over a local field.
We announce various results concerning the structure of compactly generated simple locally compact groups. We introduce a local invariant, called the structure lattice, which consists of commensurability classes of compact subgroups with open normaliser, and show that its properties reflect the global structure of the ambient group.
We calculate the K-theory of the Cuntz-Krieger algebra ${\cal O}_E$ associated with an infinite, locally finite graph, via the Bass-Hashimoto operator. The formulae we get express the Grothendieck group and the Whitehead group in purely graph theoretic terms. We consider the category of finite (black-and-white, bi-directed) subgraphs with certain graph homomorphisms and construct a continuous functor to abelian groups. In this category $K_0$ is an inductive limit of $K$-groups of finite graphs, which were calculated in \cite{MM}. In the case of an infinite graph with the finite Betti number we…
We first obtain finiteness properties for the collection of closed normal subgroups of a compactly generated locally compact group. Via these properties, every compactly generated locally compact group admits an essentially chief series - i.e. a finite normal series in which each factor is compact, discrete, or a topological chief factor. Additionally, a Jordan-Hölder theorem holds for the `large' factors in an essentially chief series.
The class, denoted by $\mathscr{S}$, of totally disconnected locally compact groups which are non-discrete, compactly generated, and topologically simple contains many compelling examples. In recent years, a general theory for these groups, which studies the interaction between the compact open subgroups and the global structure, has emerged. In this article, we study the non-discrete totally disconnected locally compact groups $H$ that admit a continuous embedding with dense image into some $G\in \mathscr{S}$; that is, we consider the dense locally compact subgroups of groups $G\in \mathscr{S…
We show how a recent result of Hrushovsky implies that if an asymptotic cone of a finitely generated group is locally compact, then the group is virtually nilpotent.
We introduce and explore a natural rank for totally disconnected locally compact groups called the bounded conjugacy rank. This rank is shown to be a lattice invariant for lattices in sigma compact totally disconnected locally compact groups; that is to say, for a given sigma compact totally disconnected locally compact group, some lattice has bounded conjugacy rank n if and only if every lattice has bounded conjugacy rank n. Several examples are then presented.
A result due to M. Gromov states that any two finitely generated groups Γ and Λ are quasi-isometric if and only if they admit a topological coupling, i.e., a commuting pair of proper continuous cocompact actions $Γ\curvearrowright X\curvearrowleft Λ$ on a locally compact Hausdorff space. This result is extended here to all (compactly generated) locally compact second countable groups.
In the last years, there has been a large amount of research on embeddability properties of finitely generated hyperbolic groups. In this paper, we elaborate on the more general class of locally compact hyperbolic groups. We compute the equivariant $L_p$-compression in a number of locally compact examples, such as the groups $SO(n,1)$: by proving that the equivariant $L_p$-compression of a locally compact compactly generated group is minimal for $p=2$, we calculate all equivariant $L_p$-compressions of $SO(n,1)$. Next, we show that although there are locally compact, non-discrete hyperbolic gr…
We obtain a sufficient condition, given a totally disconnected, locally compact group $G$ with a topologically simple monolith $S$, to ensure that $S$ is open in $G$ and abstractly simple.
We investigate the class of locally compact lacunary hyperbolic groups. We prove that if a locally compact compactly generated group G admits one asymptotic cone that is a real tree and whose natural transitive isometric action is focal, then G must be a focal hyperbolic group. As an application, we characterize connected Lie groups and linear algebraic groups over an ultrametric local field of characteristic zero having cut-points in one asymptotic cone. We prove several results for locally compact lacunary hyperbolic groups, and extend the characterization of finitely generated lacunary hype…
We observe a correspondence between collections of closed subgroups and normal subgroups in totally disconnected locally compact groups. This correspondence is applied to prove structure theorems for two classes of totally disconnected locally compact second countable groups: the class of such groups with an open solvable subgroup and the class of such groups with a pro-nilpotent compact open subgroup. As a second application, we give new proofs and generalizations of results of G. Willis and Y. Barnea, M. Ershov, and T. Weigel on totally disconnected locally compact groups which are topologic…
The class of locally compact near abelian groups is introduced and investigated as a class of metabelian groups formalizing and applying the concept of scalar multiplication. The structure of locally compact near abelian groups and its close connections to prime number theory are discussed and elucidated by graph theoretical tools. These investigations require a thorough reviewing and extension to present circumstances of various aspects of the general theory of locally compact groups such as -the Chabauty space of closed subgroups with its natural compact Hausdorff topology, -a very general S…
In this article we study algebraic properties of the specific class of groups $\mathcal{G}$ generated by direct products and wreath products. Such class of groups appears in calculation of fundamental groups of orbits of Morse functions on compact manifolds. We prove that for any group $G\in\mathcal{G}$ the ranks of the center $Z(G)$ and the quotient by commutator subgroup $G/[G,G]$ coincide. Moreover, this rank is a first Betti number of the orbit of Morse function.
We compute the $L^2$-Betti numbers of the free $C^*$-tensor categories, which are the representation categories of the universal unitary quantum groups $A_u(F)$. We show that the $L^2$-Betti numbers of the dual of a compact quantum group $G$ are equal to the $L^2$-Betti numbers of the representation category $Rep(G)$ and thus, in particular, invariant under monoidal equivalence. As an application, we obtain several new computations of $L^2$-Betti numbers for discrete quantum groups, including the quantum permutation groups and the free wreath product groups. Finally, we obtain upper bounds for…
We study irrational pencils with isolated critical points on compact aspherical complex manifolds. We prove that if the set of critical points is nonempty, the homology of the kernel of the morphism induced by the pencil on fundamental groups is not finitely generated. This generalizes a result by Dimca, Papadima and Suciu. By considering self-products of the Cartwright-Steger surface, this allows us to build new examples of smooth projective varieties whose fundamental group has a non-finitely generated homology.
We define a class of spaces on which one may generalise the notion of compactness following motivating examples from higher-dimensional number theory. We establish analogues of several well-known topological results (such as Tychonoff's Theorem) for such spaces. We also discuss several possible applications of this framework, including the theory of harmonic analysis on non-locally compact groups.
The aim of this work is to understand some of the asymptotic properties of sequences of lattices in a fixed locally compact group. In particular we will study the asymptotic growth of the Betti numbers of the lattices renormalized by the covolume and the rank gradient, the minimal number of generators also renormalized by the covolume. For doing so we will consider the ultraproduct of the sequence of actions of the locally compact group on the coset spaces and we will show how the properties of one of its cross sections are related to the asymptotic properties of the lattices.
We prove that any II$_1$ factor $L^{\infty}(X)\rtimesΓ$ arising from a compact, free, ergodic, probability measure preserving action of a countable group $Γ$ with positive first $\ell^2$-Betti number, has a unique group measure space Cartan subalgebra, up to unitary conjugacy.
We study expressive power of continuous logic in classes of (locally compact) groups. We also describe locally compact groups which are separably categorical structures.
We give some new characterizations of exactness for locally compact second countable groups. In particular, we prove that a locally compact second countable group is exact if and only if it admits a topologically amenable action on a compact Hausdorff space. This answers an open question by Anantharaman-Delaroche.
We describe locally compact groups which are separably categorical metric structures. The paper extends (and corrects) Section 3 of the paper A.Ivanov, "Locally compact groups and continuous logic", arXiv: 1206.5473
In this paper we investigate locally compact semitopological graph inverse semigroups. Our main result is the following: if a directed graph $E$ is strongly connected and contains a finite amount of vertices then a locally compact semitopological graph inverse semigroup $G(E)$ is either compact or discrete. This result generalizes results of Gutik and Bardyla who proved the above dichotomy for locally compact semitopological polycyclic monoids $\mathcal{P}_1$ and $\mathcal{P}_λ$, respectively.
If $M$ is a compact 3-manifold whose first betti number is 1, and $N$ is a compact 3-manifold such that $π_1N$ and $π_1M$ have the same finite quotients, then $M$ fibres over the circle if and only if $N$ does. We prove that groups of the form $F_2\rtimes\mathbb{Z}$ are distinguished from one another by their profinite completions. Thus, regardless of betti number, if $M$ and $N$ are punctured torus bundles over the circle and $M$ is not homeomorphic to $N$, then there is a finite group $G$ such that one of $π_1M$ and $π_1N$ maps onto $G$ and the other does not.
We give a "limit-free formula" simplifying the computation of the topological entropy for topological automorphisms of totally disconnected locally compact groups. This result allows us to extend several basic properties of the topological entropy known to hold for compact groups.
A locally compact contraction group is a pair (G,f) where G is a locally compact group and f an automorphism of G which is contractive in the sense that the forward orbit under f of each g in G converges to the neutral element e, as n tends to infinity. We show that every surjective, continuous, equivariant homomorphism between locally compact contraction groups admits an equivariant continuous global section. As a consequence, extensions of locally compact contraction groups with abelian kernel can be described by continuous equivariant cohomology. For each prime number p, we use 2-cocycles t…
We prove that each closed locally continuum- connected subspace of a finite dimensional topological group is locally compact. This allows us to construct many 1-dimensional metrizable separable spaces that are not homeomorphic to closed subsets of finite-dimensional topological groups, which answers in negative a question of D.Shakhmatov. Another corollary is a characterization of Lie groups as finite-dimensional locally continuum-connected topological groups. For locally path connected topological groups this characterization was proved by Gleason and Palais in 1957.
Using topological notions of translation-like actions introduced by Schneider, we give a positive answer to a geometric version of Burnside problem for locally compact group. The main theorem states that a locally compact group is non-compact if and only if it admits a translation-like action by the group of integers $\mathbf Z$. We then characterize the existence of cocompact translation-like actions of $\mathbf Z$ or non-abelian free groups on a large class of locally compact groups, improving on Schneider's results and generalising Seward's.
Many non-locally compact second countable groups admit a comeagre conjugacy class. For example, this is the case for the automorphism group of the rational order and the automorphism group of the random graph [Truss]. A. Kechris and C. Rosendal ask if a non-trivial locally compact second countable group can admit a comeagre conjugacy class. We answer the question in the negative via an analysis of locally compact second countable groups with topological conditions on a conjugacy class.
We present a contribution to the structure theory of locally compact groups. The emphasis is on compactly generated locally compact groups which admit no infinite discrete quotient. It is shown that such a group possesses a characteristic cocompact subgroup which is either connected or admits a non-compact non-discrete topologically simple quotient. We also provide a description of characteristically simple groups and of groups all of whose proper quotients are compact. We show that Noetherian locally compact groups without infinite discrete quotient admit a subnormal series with all subquotie…
We introduce moment maps for continuous unitary representations of general topological groups. For solvable separable locally compact groups, we prove that the closure of the image of the moment map of any representation is convex.
We study universal properties of locally compact G-spaces for countable infinite groups G. In particular we consider open invariant subsets of the β-compactification of G (which is a G-space in a natural way), and their minimal closed invariant subspaces. These are locally compact free G-spaces, and the latter are also minimal. We examine the properies of these G-spaces with emphasis on their universal properties. As an example of our resuts, we use combinatorial methods to show that each countable infinite group admits a free minimal action on the locally compact non-compact Cantor set.
Inspired by Ol'shanskii's work, we provide an axiomatic framework to describe certain irreducible unitary representations of non-discrete unimodular totally disconnected locally compact groups. We then look at the applications to certain groups of automorphisms of locally finite trees and semi-regular right-angled buildings.
We study the asymptotic behaviour of Betti numbers, twisted torsion and other spectral invariants of sequences of locally symmetric spaces. Our main results are uniform versions of the DeGeorge--Wallach Theorem, of a theorem of Delorme and various other limit multiplicity theorems. A basic idea is to adapt the notion of Benjamini--Schramm convergence (BS-convergence), originally introduced for sequences of finite graphs of bounded degree, to sequences of Riemannian manifolds, and analyze the possible limits. We show that BS-convergence of locally symmetric spaces implies convergence, in an app…
