Compact presentability of tree almost automorphism groups
Adrien Le Boudec
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The results are extended to some almost automorphism groups of trees associated with closed regular branch groups. In particular we prove that the simple group (containing the profinite completion of the Grigorchuk group) constructed by Barnea, Ershov and Weigel, is compactly presented
We establish compact presentability, i.e. the locally compact version of finite presentability, for an infinite family of tree almost automorphism groups. Examples covered by our results include Neretin's group of spheromorphisms, as well as the topologically simple group containing the profinite completion of the Grigorchuk group constructed by Barnea, Ershov and Weigel.
We additionally obtain an upper bound on the Dehn function of these groups in terms of the Dehn function of an embedded Higman-Thompson group. This, combined with a result of Guba, implies that the Dehn function of the Neretin group of the regular trivalent tree is polynomially bounded.
We give simple examples of Kazhdan groups with infinite outer automorphism groups. This answers a question of Paulin, independently answered by Ollivier and Wise by completely different methods. As arithmetic lattices in (non-semisimple) Lie groups, our examples are in addition finitely presented. We also use results of Abels about compact presentability of p-adic groups to exhibit a finitely presented non-Hopfian Kazhdan group. This answers a question of Ollivier and Wise.
In this paper we study obstructions to presentability by products for finitely generated groups. Along the way we develop both the concept of acentral subgroups, and the relations between presentability by products on the one hand, and certain geometric and measure or orbit equivalence invariants of groups on the other. This leads to many new examples of groups not presentable by products, including all groups with infinitely many ends, the (outer) automorphism groups of free groups, Thompson's groups, and even some elementary amenable groups.
Let $\mathcal{G}$ be a Kac-Moody group functor in the sense of Tits, with associated Coxeter system $(W,S)$. For any field $F$, the group $\mathcal{G}(F)$ is finitely generated iff $F$ is finite. We are interested in the question when $G = \mathcal{G}(\mathbb{F}_q)$ is finitely presented. If $(W,S)$ is 2-spherical, it is well known that this is "almost always" the case. It is conjectured that $G$ is never finitely presented if $(W,S)$ is not 2-spherical (which means that there exist $s,t \in S$ with $|st| = \infty$), which so far (to the best of our knowledge) has only been proved for the type…
We determine when two almost automorphisms of a regular tree are conjugate. This is done by combining the classification of conjugacy classes in the automorphism group of a level-homogeneous tree by Gawron, Nekrashevych and Sushchansky and the solution of the conjugacy problem in Thompson's $V$ by Belk and Matucci. We also analyze dynamics of tree almost automorphisms.
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 paper, given a split extension of an arbitrary Coxeter group by automorphisms of the Coxeter graph, we determine the involutions in that extension whose centralizer has finite index. Our result has applications to many problems such as the isomorphism problem of general Coxeter groups. In the argument, some properties of certain special elements and of the fixed-point subgroups by graph automorphisms in Coxeter groups, which are of independent interest, are also given.
Let $FH$ be a Frobenius group with kernel $F$ and complement $H$, acting coprimely on the finite solvable group $G$ by automorphisms. We prove that if $C_{G}(H)$ is of Fitting length $n$ then the index of the $n$-th Fitting subgroup $F_{n}(G)$ in $G$ is bounded in terms of $|C_{G}(F)|$ and $|F|.$ This generalizes a result of Khukhro and Makarenko \cite{k-m} which handles the case $n=1.$
Automorphism groups of Cayley graphs on almost simple groups with normal connection sets
Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Renmin University of China（中国人民大学数学科学研究所）；Laboratory of Mathematics and Complex Systems (Ministry of Education), School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学数学科学学院数学与复杂系统教育部重点实验室）；School of Mathematics and Statistics The University of Melbourne（墨尔本大学数学与统计学院）
It is proved that if a finite $p$-soluble group $G$ admits an automorphism $φ$ of order $p^n$ having at most $m$ fixed points on every $φ$-invariant elementary abelian $p'$-section of $G$, then the $p$-length of $G$ is bounded above in terms of $p^n$ and $m$; if in addition the group $G$ is soluble, then the Fitting height of $G$ is bounded above in terms of $p^n$ and $m$. It is also proved that if a finite soluble group $G$ admits an automorphism $ψ$ of order $p^aq^b$ for some primes $p,q$, then the Fitting height of $G$ is bounded above in terms of $|ψ|$ and $|C_G(ψ)|$.
We complete characterization of bijections preserving commutators (PC-maps) in the group of unitriangular matrices $UT(n,F)$ over a field $F$, where $n$ is a natural number or infinity. PC-maps were recently described up to almost identity PC-maps by M.Chen, D.Wang, and H.Zhai (2011) for finite $n$ and by R.Slowik (2013) for $n=\infty$. An almost identity map is a map, preserving elementary transvections. We show that an almost identity PC-map is a multiplication by a central element. In particular, if $n=\infty$, then an almost identity map is identity. Together with the result of R.Slowik th…
We prove that the Reidemeister zeta functions of automorphisms of crystallographic groups with diagonal holonomy $\mathbb{Z}_2$ are rational. As a result, we obtain that Reidemeister zeta functions of automorphisms of almost-crystallographic groups up to dimension 3 are rational.
We prove that the group of almost-automorphisms of the infinite rooted regular $d$-ary tree $\mathcal{T}_d$ arises naturally as the Thompson-like group of a so called $d$-ary cloning system. A similar phenomenon occurs for any Röver-Nekrashevych group $V_d(G)$, for $G\le Aut(\mathcal{T}_d)$ a self-similar group. We use this framework to expand on work of Belk and Matucci, who proved that the Röver group, using the Grigorchuk group for $G$, is of type $F_\infty$. Namely, we find some natural conditions on subgroups of $G$ to ensure that $V_d(G)$ is of type $F_\infty$, and in particular we prove…
We prove that finitely generated virtually free groups are stable in permutations. As an application, we show that almost-periodic almost-automorphisms of labelled graphs are close to periodic automorphisms.
We show that tree almost automorphism groups, including Neretin groups, satisfy the analogue of the $F_\infty$-finiteness condition in the world of totally disconnected groups: They possess a cellular action on a contractible cellular complex such that the stabilizers are open and compact and the restriction of the action on each $n$-skeleton is cocompact.
We give sufficient conditions for a subgroup of a tree almost automorphism group to be isomorphic to the topological full groups of a one-sided shift in the sense of Matui. As an application, we show that almost automorphism groups of trees obtained from universal groups constructed by Burger and Mozes are compactly generated and virtually simple. In addition, using the approach of Bader, Caprace, Gelander and Mozes we show that some of these almost automorphism groups do not have any lattice.
For a finite group $G$, we denote by $ω(G)$ the number of $\operatorname{Aut}(G)$-orbits on $G$, and by $\operatorname{o}(G)$ the number of distinct element orders in $G$. In this paper, we are primarily concerned with the two quantities $\mathfrak{d}(G):=ω(G)-\operatorname{o}(G)$ and $\mathfrak{q}(G):=ω(G)/\operatorname{o}(G)$, each of which may be viewed as a measure for how far $G$ is from being an AT-group in the sense of Zhang (that is, a group with $ω(G)=\operatorname{o}(G)$). We show that the index $|G:\operatorname{Rad}(G)|$ of the soluble radical $\operatorname{Rad}(G)$ of $G$ can be …
In this article, we study $2$-designs with prime replication number admitting a flag-transitive automorphism group. The automorphism groups of these designs are point-primitive of almost simple or affine type. We determine $2$-designs with prime replication number admitting an almost simple automorphism group.
In this article, we study flag-transitive automorphism groups of non-trivial symmetric $(v, k, λ)$ designs, where $λ$ divides $k$ and $k\geq λ^2$. We show that such an automorphism group is either point-primitive of affine or almost simple type, or point-imprimitive with parameters $v=λ^{2}(λ+2)$ and $k=λ(λ+1)$, for some positive integer $λ$. We also provide some examples in both possibilities.
There are various results in the literature which are part of the general philosophy that a finite group for which a certain parameter (for example, the number of conjugacy classes or the maximum number of elements inverted, squared or cubed by a single automorphism) is large enough must be close to being abelian. In this paper, we show the following: Fix a real number $ρ$ with $0<ρ\leq 1$. Then a finite group $G$ with an automorphism inverting or squaring at least $ρ|G|$ of the elements in $G$ is "almost abelian" in the sense that both the index and the derived length of the solvable radical …
We consider the outer automorphism group Out(A_Gamma) of the right-angled Artin group A_Gamma of a random graph Gamma on n vertices in the Erdos--Renyi model. We show that the functions (log(n)+log(log(n)))/n and 1-(log(n)+log(log(n)))/n bound the range of edge probability functions for which Out(A_Gamma) is finite: if the probability of an edge in Gamma is strictly between these functions as n grows, then asymptotically Out(A_Gamma) is almost surely finite, and if the edge probability is strictly outside of both of these functions, then asymptotically Out(A_Gamma) is almost surely infinite. T…
Many common finite p-groups admit automorphisms of order coprime to p, and when p is odd, it is reasonably difficult to find finite p-groups whose automorphism group is a p-group. Yet the goal of this paper is to prove that the automorphism group of a finite p-group is almost always a p-group. The asymptotics in our theorem involve fixing any two of the following parameters and letting the third go to infinity: the lower p-length, the number of generators, and p. The proof of this theorem depends on a variety of topics: counting subgroups of a p-group; analyzing the lower p-series of a free gr…
The paper is an investigation of the structure of block-transitive automorphism groups of a 3-design with small block size. Let $G$ be a block-transitive automorphism group of a nontrivial $3$-$(v,k,λ)$ design $\mathcal{D}$ with $k\le 6$. We prove that if $G$ is point-primitive then $G$ is of affine or almost simple type. If $G$ is point-imprimitive then $\mathcal{D}$ is a $3$-$(16,6,λ)$ design with $λ\in\{4, 12, 16, 24, 28, 48, 56, 64, 84, 96, 112, 140\}$, and $rank(G)=3$.
The so-called Tits class, associated to an adjoint absolutely almost simple algebraic group, provides a cohomological obstruction for this group to admit an outer automorphism. If the group has inner type, this obstruction is the only one. In this paper, we prove this is not the case for classical groups of outer type, except for groups of type $^2\mathsf{A}_n$ with $n$ even, or $n=5$. More precisely, we prove a descent theorem for exponent $2$ and degree $6$ algebras with unitary involution, which shows that their automorphism groups have outer automorphisms. In all other relevant classical t…
We show that the following problems are decidable in a rank 2 free group F_2: does a given finitely generated subgroup H contain primitive elements? and does H meet the orbit of a given word u under the action of G, the group of automorphisms of F_2? Moreover, decidability subsists if we allow H to be a rational subset of F_2, or alternatively if we restrict G to be a rational subset of the set of invertible substitutions (a.k.a. positive automorphisms). In higher rank, we show the decidability of the following weaker problem: given a finitely generated subgroup H, a word u and an integer k, d…
We show that the sporadic simple group $\M(22)$, the exceptional group of Lie type ${}^2\E_6(2)$ and their automorphism groups are uniquely determined by the approximate structure of the centralizer of an element of order 3 together with some information about the fusion of this element in the group.
We say that a finite almost simple $G$ with socle $S$ is admissible (with respect to the spectrum) if $G$ and $S$ have the same sets of orders of elements. Let $L$ be a finite simple linear or unitary group of dimension at least three over a field of odd characteristic. We describe admissible almost simple groups with socle $L$. Also we calculate the orders of elements of the coset $Lτ$, where $τ$ is the inverse-transpose automorphism of $L$.
We classify the regular maps $\mathcal M$ which have automorphism groups $G$ acting faithfully and primitively on their vertices. As a permutation group $G$ must be of almost simple or affine type, with dihedral point stabilisers. We show that all such almost simple groups, namely all but a few groups ${\rm PSL}_2(q)$, ${\rm PGL}_2(q)$ and ${\rm Sz}(q)$, arise from regular maps, which are always non-orientable. In the affine case, the maps $\mathcal M$ occur in orientable and non-orientable Petrie dual pairs. We give the number of maps associated with each group, together with their genus and …
Every Ree group $R(q)$, with $q\neq 3$ an odd power of 3, is the automorphism group of an abstract regular polytope, and any such polytope is necessarily a regular polyhedron (a map on a surface). However, an almost simple group $G$ with $R(q) < G \leq \mathsf{Aut}(R(q))$ is not a C-group and therefore not the automorphism group of an abstract regular polytope of any rank.
This paper begins the classification of all edge-primitive 3-arc-transitive graphs by classifying all such graphs where the automorphism group is an almost simple group with socle an alternating or sporadic group, and all such graphs where the automorphism group is an almost simple classical group with a vertex-stabiliser acting faithfully on the set of neighbours.
A generalised quadrangle is a point-line incidence geometry G such that: (i) any two points lie on at most one line, and (ii) given a line L and a point p not incident with L, there is a unique point on L collinear with p. They are a specific case of the generalised polygons introduced by Tits, and these structures and their automorphism groups are of some importance in finite geometry. An integral part of understanding the automorphism groups of finite generalised quadrangles is knowing which groups can act primitively on their points, and in particular, which almost simple groups arise as au…
A graph is called a GRR if its automorphism group acts regularly on its vertex-set. Such a graph is necessarily a Cayley graph. Godsil has shown that there are only two infinite families of finite groups that do not admit GRRs : abelian groups and generalised dicyclic groups. Indeed, any Cayley graph on such a group admits specific additional graph automorphisms that depend only on the group. Recently, Dobson and the last two authors showed that almost all Cayley graphs on abelian groups admit no automorphisms other than these obvious necessary ones. In this paper, we prove the analogous resul…
An almost Abelian Lie algebra is a non-Abelian Lie algebra with a codimension 1 Abelian ideal. Most 3-dimensional real Lie algebras are almost Abelian, and they appear in every branch of physics that deals with anisotropic media - cosmology, crystallography etc. In differential geometry and theoretical physics, almost Abelian Lie groups have given rise to some of the simplest solvmanifolds on which various geometric structures such as symplectic, Kähler, spin etc., are currently studied in explicit terms. However, a systematic study of almost Abelian Lie groups and algebras from mathematics pe…
We study lines through the origin of finite-dimensional complex vector spaces that enjoy a doubly transitive automorphism group. This paper classifies those lines that exhibit almost simple symmetries. We introduce a general recipe involving Schur covers to recover doubly transitive lines from their automorphism group. Combining our results with recent work on the affine case by Dempwolff and Kantor, we deduce a classification of all linearly dependent doubly transitive lines in real or complex space.
This thesis has three goals related to the automorphism groups of finite $p$-groups. The primary goal is to provide a complete proof of a theorem showing that, in some asymptotic sense, the automorphism group of almost every finite $p$-group is itself a $p$-group. We originally proved this theorem in a paper with Martin; the presentation of the proof here contains omitted proof details and revised exposition. We also give a survey of the extant results on automorphism groups of finite $p$-groups, focusing on the order of the automorphism groups and on known examples. Finally, we explore a conn…
Let T be a d-regular tree (d > 2) and A=Aut(T), its automorphism group. Let G be a group generated by n independent Haar-random elements of A. We show that almost surely, every nontrivial element of G has finitely many fixed points on T.
The automorphism tower of a group is obtained by computing its automorphism group, the automorphism group of THAT group and so on, iterating transfinitely. Each group maps into the next using inner automorphisms and one takes a direct limit at limit stages. The question is whether the process ever terminates in a fixed point, a group which is isomorphic to its automorphism group by the natural map. In this talk I will prove that every group has a terminating automorphism tower. After this, I will discuss the set-theoretic aspects of the height of the automorphism tower of a group, and sketch m…
The spectrum of a finite group is the set of its elements orders. Groups are said to be isospectral if their spectra coincide. For every finite simple exceptional group $L=E_7(q)$, we prove that each finite group isospectral to $L$ is isomorphic to a group $G$ squeezed between $L$ and its automorphism group, that is $L\leq G\leq \operatorname{Aut}L$; in particular, up-to isomorphism, there are only finitely many such groups. This assertion, together with a series of previously obtained results, implies that the same is true for every finite simple exceptional group except the group ${}^3D_4(2)…
An almost Abelian Lie group is a non-Abelian Lie group with a codimension 1 Abelian normal subgroup. The majority of 3-dimensional real Lie groups are almost Abelian, and they appear in all parts of physics that deal with anisotropic media - cosmology, crystallography etc. In theoretical physics and differential geometry, almost Abelian Lie groups and their homogeneous spaces provide some of the simplest solvmanifolds on which a variety of geometric structures such as symplectic, Kähler, spin etc., are currently studied in explicit terms. Recently, almost Abelian Lie algebras were classified a…
We prove in this paper that a finite almost simple group $R$ with socle the non-abelian simple group $S$ possesses a conjugacy class of core-free maximal subgroups whose index coincides with the smallest index $\operatorname{l}(S)$ of a maximal group of $S$ or a conjugacy class of core-free maximal subgroups with a fixed index $v_S \leq {\operatorname{l}(S)^2}$, depending only on $S$. We show that the number of subgroups of the outer automorphism group of $S$ is bounded by $\log^3 {\operatorname{l}(S)}$ and $\operatorname{l}(S)^2 < |S|$.
In this article, we study $2$-designs with $\gcd(r, λ)=1$ admitting a flag-transitive automorphism group. The automorphism groups of these designs are point-primitive of almost simple or affine type. We determine all pairs $(\mathcal{D}, G)$, where $\mathcal{D}$ is a $2$-design with $\gcd(r, λ)=1$ and $G$ is a flag-transitive almost simple automorphism group of $\mathcal{D}$ whose socle is $X=\mathrm{PSU}(n, q)$ with $(n, q)\neq (3, 2)$ and prove that such a design belongs to one of the two infinite families of Hermitian unitals and Witt-Bose-Shrikhande spaces, or it is isomorphic to a design …
This paper is a significant contribution to a general programme aimed to classify all projective irreducible representations of finite simple groups over an algebraically closed field, in which the image of at least one element is represented by an almost cyclic matrix (that is, a square matrix $M$ of size $n$ over a field $F$ with the property that there exists $α\in F$ such that $M$ is similar to $diag(α\cdot Id_k, M_1)$, where $M_1$ is cyclic and $0\leq k\leq n$). While a previous paper dealt with the Weil representations of finite classical groups, which play a key role in the general pict…
