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 locally compact groups with a cusp-uniform non-uniform lattice, is very restricted.
We prove that for any infinite, maximal amenable subgroup $H$ in a hyperbolic group $G$, the von Neumann subalgebra $LH$ is maximal amenable inside $LG$. It provides many new, explicit examples of maximal amenable subalgebras in II$_1$ factors. We also prove similar maximal amenability results for direct products of relatively hyperbolic groups and orbit equivalence relations arising from measure-preserving actions of such groups.
We show that, if $G$ is an amenable group and $H$ is a hyperbolic group, then the free product $G\ast H$ is weakly amenable. A key ingredient in the proof is the fact that $G\ast H$ is orbit equivalent to $\mathbb{Z}\ast H$.
In this paper we show that if $Y=N \times \mathbb{Q}_m$ is a metric space where $N$ is a Carnot group endowed with the Carnot-Caratheodory metric then any quasisymmetric map of $Y$ is actually bilipschitz. The key observation is that $Y$ is the parabolic visual boundary of a mixed type locally compact amenable hyperbolic group. The same results also hold for a larger class of nilpotent Lie groups $N$. As part of the proof we also obtain partial quasi-isometric rigidity results for mixed type locally compact amenable hyperbolic groups. Finally we prove a rigidity result for uniform subgroups of…
We show that any stationary symmteric $α$-stable ($SαS$) random field indexed by a countable amenable group $G$ is weakly mixing if and only if it is generated by a null action, extending works of Samorodnitsky and Wang-Roy-Stoev for abelian groups to all amenable groups. This enables us to improve significantly the domain of a recently discovered connection to von Neumann algebras. We also establish ergodicity of stationary $SαS$ fields associated with boundary and double boundary actions of a hyperbolic group $G$, where the boundary is equipped with either the Patterson-Sullivan or the hitti…
The goal of this article is to study results and examples concerning finitely presented covers of finitely generated amenable groups. We collect examples of groups $G$ with the following properties: (i) $G$ is finitely generated, (ii) $G$ is amenable, e.g. of intermediate growth, (iii) any finitely presented group $E$ with a quotient isomorphic to $G$ contains non-abelian free subgroups, or the stronger (iii') any finitely presented group with a quotient isomorphic to $G$ is large.
A group $G$ is called mixed identity-free if for every $n \in \mathbb{N}$ and every $w \in G \ast F_n$ there exists a homomorphism $φ: G \ast F_n \rightarrow G$ such that $φ$ is the identity on $G$ and $φ(w)$ is nontrivial. In this paper, we make a modification to the construction of elementary amenable lacunary hyperbolic groups given by Ol'shanskii, Osin, and Sapir to produce finitely generated elementary amenable groups which are mixed identity-free. As a byproduct of this construction, we also obtain locally finite $p$-groups which are mixed identity-free.
There are several natural families of groups acting on rooted trees for which every member is known to be amenable. It is, however, unclear what the elementary amenable members of these families look like. Towards clarifying this situation, we here study elementary amenable bounded automata groups. We are able to isolate the elementary amenable bounded automata groups in three natural subclasses of bounded automata groups. In particular, we show that iterated monodromy groups of post-critically finite polynomials are either virtually abelian or not elementary amenable.
We prove that any finitely generated elementary amenable group of zero (algebraic) entropy contains a nilpotent subgroup of finite index or, equivalently, any finitely generated elementary amenable group of exponential growth is of uniformly exponential growth. We also show that 0 is an accumulation point of the set of entropies of elementary amenable groups.
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 prove that hyperbolic groups are weakly amenable. This partially extends the result of Cowling and Haagerup showing that lattices in simple Lie groups of real rank one are weakly amenable. We take a combinatorial approach in the spirit of Haagerup and prove that for the word length metric d on a hyperbolic group, the Schur multipliers associated with r^d have uniformly bounded norms for 0<r<1. We then combine this with a Bozejko-Picardello type inequality to obtain weak amenability.
Whyte showed that any quasi-isometry between non-amenable groups is a bounded distance from a bijection. In contrast this paper shows that for amenable groups, inclusion of a proper subgroup of finite index is never a bounded distance from a bijection.
We consider a finitely generated group acting minimally on a compact space by homeomorphsims, and assume that the Schreier graph of at least one orbit is quasi-isometric to a line. We show that the topological full group of such an action is amenable.
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.
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.
In this paper, a group is called weakly amenable if its left regular representation is not uniformly isolated from the trivial representation. First examples of finitely generated non-amenable weakly amenable groups are constructed.
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 $G$.
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…
Let $X$ be a locally compact Hadamard space and $G$ be a totally disconnected group acting continuously, properly and cocompactly on $X$. We show that a closed subgroup of $G$ is amenable if and only if it is (topologically locally finite)-by-(virtually abelian). We are led to consider a set $\bdfine X$ which is a refinement of the visual boundary $\bd X$. For each $x \in \bdfine X$, the stabilizer $G_x$ is amenable.
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 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 give a simple and unified proof showing that the unrestricted wreath product of a weakly sofic, sofic, linear sofic, or hyperlinear group by an amenable group is weakly sofic, sofic, linear sofic, or hyperlinear, respectively. By means of the Kaloujnine-Krasner theorem, this implies that group extensions with amenable quotients preserve the four aforementioned metric approximation properties. We also discuss the case of co-amenable groups.
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…
We provide the first examples of finitely generated simple groups that are amenable (and infinite). This follows from a general existence result on invariant states for piecewise-translations of the integers. The states are obtained by constructing a suitable family of densities on the classical Bernoulli space.
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.
Richard Thompson's group F is the group of piecewise linear homeomorphisms of the unit interval with a finite number of break points, all at dyadic rational numbers (their denominators are powers of 2) and with slopes which are powers of 2. A discrete group G is amenable if there exists a finitely-additive probability measure on G which is invariant under left translations and is defined on all subsets of G. The amenability question for F is a well known open problem. In this paper we prove that group F is not amenable.
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…
The paper has three parts. It is conjectured that for every elementary amenable group G and every non-zero commutative ring k, the homological dimension of G over k is equal to the Hirsch length of G whenever G has no k-torsion. In Part I this is proved for several classes, including the abelian-by-polycyclic groups. In Part II it is shown that elementary amenable groups of homological dimension one are filtered colimits of systems of groups of cohomological dimension one. Part III is devoted to the deeper study of cohomological dimension with particular emphasis on the nilpotent-by-polycyclic…
The class A of countable groups that admit a faithful, transitive, amenable -- in the sense that there is an invariant mean -- action on a set has been widely investigated in the past. In this paper, we no longer require the action to be transitive, but we ask for it to preserve a locally finite metric (and still to be faithful and amenable). The groups having such actions are those that embed into a totally disconnected amenable locally compact group. Then we focus on the subclass A 1 of groups for which the actions are moreover transitive. This class is strictly contained into A and includes…
We prove that a uniformly coarsely proper hyperbolic cone over a bounded metric space consisting of a finite union of uniformly coarsely connected components each containing at least two points is non-amenable and apply this to visual Gromov hyperbolic spaces.
We prove non-amenability of the product replacement graphs Γ_n(G) for uniformly non-amenable groups. We also prove it for Z-large groups, when n is sufficiently large. It follows that Γ_n(G) is non-amenable when n is sufficiently large for hyperbolic groups, linear groups, and elementary amenable groups.
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 prove that the approximation conjecture of Luck holds for all amenable groups in the complex group algebra case. This result was previously proved by Dodziuk, Linnell, Mathai, Schick and Yates under the assumption that the group is torsion-free elementary amenable.
We prove that every amenable group of cohomological dimension two whose integral group ring is a domain is solvable and investigate certain homological finiteness properties of groups that satisfy the analytic zero divisor conjecture and act on an acyclic CW-complex with amenable stabilisers.
We prove that every ergodic amenable action of an algebraic group over a local field of characteristic zero is induced from an ergodic action of an amenable subgroup.
We introduce the notion of groups of polytope class and show that torsion-free amenable groups satisfying the Atiyah Conjecture possess this property. A direct consequence is the homotopy invariance of the $L^2$-torsion polytope among $G$-CW-complexes for these groups. As another application we prove that the $L^2$-torsion polytope of an amenable group vanishes provided that it contains a non-abelian elementary amenable normal subgroup.
In this note, we construct torsion-free countable, amenable, weakly mixing groups, which answer a question of V. Bergelson. Some results related to verbal subgroups and crystallographic groups are also presented.
We show that the group C*-algebra of any elementary amenable group is quasidiagonal. This is an offspring of recent progress in the classification theory of nuclear C*-algebras.
We investigate the notion of relatively amenable topological action and show that the action of Thompson's group $T$ on $S^1$ is relatively amenable with respect to Thompson's group $F$. We use this to conclude that $F$ is exact if and only if $T$ is exact. Moreover, we prove that the groupoid of germs of the action of $T$ on $S^1$ is Borel amenable.
Let $A_L$ be the right-angled Artin group associated to a finite flag complex $L$. We show that the amenable category of $A_L$ equals the virtual cohomological dimension of the right-angled Coxeter group $W_L$. In particular, right-angled Artin groups satisfy a question of Capovilla--Löh--Moraschini proposing an inequality between the amenable category and Farber's topological complexity.
We construct examples of principal groupoids that have weak containment but are not amenable, thus answering questions by Claire Anantharaman-Delaroche and Rufus Willett.
Let X be a proper hyperbolic geodesic metric space and let G be a closed subgroup of the isometry group Iso(X) of X. We show that if G is not amenable then its second continuous bounded cohomology group with coefficients the regular representation does not vanish. This yields some structure results for such groups.
We study under which condition an amalgamated free product or an HNN-extension over a finite subgroup admits an amenable, transitive and faithful action on an infinite countable set. We show that such an action exists if the initial groups admit an amenable and almost free action with infinite orbits (e.g. virtually free groups or infinite amenable groups). Our result relies on the Baire category Theorem. We extend the result to groups acting on trees.
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.
We introduce an Ulam-type stability condition for positive definite maps defined on a countable group and prove that this condition characterizes amenability.
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.
In this paper we classify countable locally finite-by-abelian groups up to coarse isomorphism. This classification is derived from a coarse classification of amenable shift-homogeneous metric spaces.
We construct inner amenable groups G with infinite conjugacy classes and such that the associated II_1 factor does not have property Gamma of Murray and von Neumann. This solves a problem posed by Effros in 1975.
We prove that the first reduced cohomology with values in a mixing Lp-representation, p larger than 1, vanishes for a class of amenable groups including connected amenable Lie groups. In particular this solves for this class of amenable groups a conjecture of Gromov saying that every finitely generated amenable group has no first reduced lp-cohomology. As a byproduct, we prove a conjecture by Pansu. Namely, the first reduced Lp-cohomology on homogeneous, closed at infinity, Riemannian manifolds vanishes. We also prove that a Gromov hyperbolic geodesic metric measure space with bounded geometry…
It is proved that for every ICC group which is embeddable into a hyperbolic group, the reduced group C*-algebra is realized as the intersection of a decreasing sequence of isomorphs of the Cuntz algebra O_2. The proof is based on the study of amenable quotients of the boundary actions.
