This article studies automorphism groups of graph products of arbitrary groups. We completely characterise automorphisms that preserve the set of conjugacy classes of vertex groups as those automorphisms that can be decomposed as a product of certain elementary automorphisms (inner automorphisms, partial conjugations, automorphisms associated to symmetries of the underlying graph). This allows us to completely compute the automorphism group of certain graph products, for instance in the case where the underlying graph is finite, connected, leafless and of girth at least $5$. If in addition the underlying graph does not contain separating stars, we can understand the geometry of the automorphism groups of such graph products of groups further: we show that such automorphism groups do not satisfy Kazhdan's property (T) and are acylindrically hyperbolic. Applications to automorphism groups of graph products of finite groups are also included. The approach in this article is geometric and relies on the action of graph products of groups on certain complexes with a particularly rich combinatorial geometry. The first such complex is a particular Cayley graph of the graph product that has a quasi-median geometry, a combinatorial geometry reminiscent of (but more general than) CAT(0) cube complexes. The second (strongly related) complex used is the Davis complex of the graph product, a CAT(0) cube complex that also has a structure of right-angled building.
This article initiates a geometric study of the automorphism groups of general graph products of groups, and investigates the algebraic and geometric structure of automorphism groups of cyclic product of groups. For a cyclic product of at least five groups, we show that the action of the cyclic product on its Davis complex extends to an action of the whole automorphism group. This action allows us to completely compute the automorphism group and to derive several of its properties: Tits Alternative, acylindrical hyperbolicity, lack of property (T).
In this paper, we consider the automorphism groups of the Cayley graph with respect to the Coxeter generators and the Davis complex of an arbitrary Coxeter group. We determine for which Coxeter groups these automorphism groups are discrete. In the case where they are discrete, we express them as semidirect products of two obvious families of automorphisms. This extends a result of Haglund and Paulin.
We study those fully irreducible outer automorphisms phi of a finite rank free group F_r which are ``parageometric'', meaning that the attracting fixed point of phi in the boundary of outer space is a geometric R-tree with respect to the action of F_r, but phi itself is not a geometric outer automorphism in that it is not represented by a homemorphism of a surface. Our main result shows that the expansion factor of phi is strictly larger than the expansion factor of the inverse of phi. As corollaries (proved independently by Guirardel), the inverse of a parageometric outer automorphism is neit…
The main result of this paper is an algorithmic answer to the question raised in the title, up to replacing the given $\hatϕ \in Out(F_n)$ by a positive power. In order to provide this algorithm, it is shown that every polynomially growing automorphism $\hat ϕ$ can be represented by an iterated Dehn twist on some graph-of-groups $\cal{G}$ with $π_1{\cal{G}} = F_n$. One then uses results of two previous papers \cite{KY01, KY02} as well as some classical results such as the Whitehead algorithm to prove the claim.
If H is a flat group of automorphisms of finite rank n of a totally disconnected, locally compact group G, then each orbit of H in the metric space B(G) of compact, open subgroups of G is quasi-isometric to n-dimensional euclidean space. In this note we prove the following partial converse: Assume that G is a totally disconnected, locally compact group such that B(G) is a proper metric space and let H be a group of automorphisms of G such that some (equivalently every) orbit of H in B(G) is quasi-isometric to n-dimensional euclidean space, then H has a finite index subgroup which is flat of ra…
A \textit{geometric realization} of an abstract polyhedron $\mathcal{P}$ is a mapping $ρ: \mathcal{P} \to \mathbb{E}^3$ that sends an $i$-face to an open set of dimension $i$. This work adapts a method based on Wythoff construction to generate a full rank realization of a regular abstract polyhedron from its automorphism group $Γ$. The method entails finding a real orthogonal representation of $Γ$ of degree 3 and applying its image to suitably chosen open sets in space. To demonstrate the use of the method, we apply it to the abstract polyhedra whose automorphism groups are isomorphic to the n…
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.
We prove that the automorphism group of the braid group on four strands acts faithfully and geometrically on a CAT(0) 2-complex. This implies that the automorphism group of the free group of rank two acts faithfully and geometrically on a CAT(0) 2-complex, in contrast to the situation for rank three and above.
Let Γbe a geometrically finite tree lattice. We prove a Khintchine-Sullivan type theorem for the Hausdorff measure of the points at infinity of the tree that are well approximated by the parabolic fixed points of G. Using Bruhat-Tits trees, an application is given for the Diophantine approximation of formal Laurent series in the variable 1/X over the finite field Fq by rational fractions in X over Fq, satisfying some congruence properties
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.
The present thesis studies structural properties of non-crossing partitions associated to finite Coxeter groups from both algebraic and geometric perspectives. On the one hand, non-crossing partitions are lattices, and on the other hand, we can view them as simplicial complexes by considering their order complexes. We make use of these different interpretations and their interactions in various ways. The order complexes of non-crossing partitions have a rich geometric structure, which we investigate in this thesis. In particular, we interpret them as subcomplexes of spherical buildings. From a…
For a right-angled Artin group $A_Γ$, the untwisted outer automorphism group $U(A_Γ)$ is the subgroup of $Out(A_Γ)$ generated by all of the Laurence-Servatius generators except twists (where a {\em twist} is an automorphisms of the form $v\mapsto vw$ with $vw=wv$). We define a space $Σ_Γ$ on which $U(A_Γ)$ acts properly and prove that $Σ_Γ$ is contractible, providing a geometric model for $U(A_Γ)$ and its subgroups. We also propose a geometric model for all of $Out(A_Γ)$ defined by allowing more general markings and metrics on points of $Σ_Γ$.
We study the automorphisms of graph products of cyclic groups, a class of groups that includes all right-angled Coxeter and right-angled Artin groups. We show that the group of automorphism generated by partial conjugations is itself a graph product of cyclic groups providing its defining graph does not contain any separating intersection of links (SIL). In the case that all the cyclic groups are finite, this implies that the automorphism group is virtually CAT(0); it has a finite index subgroup which acts geometrically on a right-angled building.
McCarthy's Theorem for the mapping class group of a closed hyperbolic surface states that for any two mapping classes $σ,τ\in \mathrm{Mod}(S)$ there is some power $N$ such that the group $\langle σ^N,τ^N\rangle$ is either free of rank two or abelian, and gives a geometric criterion for the dichotomy. The analogous statement is false in linear groups, and unresolved for outer automorphisms of a free group. Several analogs are known for exponentially growing outer automorphisms satisfying various technical hypothesis. In this article we prove an analogous statement when $σ$ and $τ$ are linearly …
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.
In this article we raise some new questions about positive definite functions on free groups, and explain how these are related to more well-known questions. The article is intended as a survey of known results that also offers some new perspectives and interesting observations; therefore the style is expository.
We prove that numerous negatively curved simply connected locally compact polyhedral complexes, admitting a discrete cocompact group of automorphisms, have automorphism groups which are locally compact, uncountable, non linear and virtually simple. Examples include hyperbolic buildings, Cayley graphs of word hyperbolic Coxeter systems, and generalizations of cubical complexes, that we call even polyhedral complexes. We use tools introduced by Tits in the case of automorphism groups of trees, and Davis-Moussong's geometric realisation of Coxeter systems.
Let $F$ be a perfect field and $M^*(F)$ the nonassociative simple Moufang loop consisting of the units in the (unique) split octonion algebra $O(F)$ modulo the center. Then $Aut(M^*(F))$ is equal to $G_2(F) \rtimes Aut(F)$. In particular, every automorphism of $M^*(F)$ is induced by a semilinear automorphism of $O(F)$. The proof combines results and methods from geometrical loop theory, groups of Lie type and composition algebras; its gist being an identification of the automorphism group of a Moufang loop with a subgroup of the automorphism group of the associated group with triality.
A scale-multiplicative semigroup in a totally disconnected, locally compact group $G$ is one for which the restriction of the scale function on $G$ is multiplicative. The maximal scale-multiplicative semigroups in groups acting 2-transitively on the set of ends of trees without leaves are determined in this paper and shown to correspond to geometric features of the tree.
A geometric characterization of the structure of the group of automorphisms of an arbitrary Birkhoff-Grothendieck bundle splitting $\bigoplus_{i=1}^{r} \mathcal(m_{i})$ over $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^{1}$ is provided, in terms of its action on a suitable space of generalized flags in the fibers over a finite subset $S\subset\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^{1}$. The relevance of such characterization derives from the possibility of constructing geometric models for diverse moduli spaces of stable objects in genus 0, such as parabolic bundles, parabolic Higgs bundles, and logarithmic connections, as collection…
A normal subgroup of the (extended) mapping class group of a surface is said to be geometric if its automorphism group is the mapping class group. We prove that in the case of the Cantor tree surface, every normal subgroup is geometric. We note that there is no non-trivial finite-type mapping class group for which this statement is true. We study a generalisation of the curve graph, proving that its automorphism group is again the mapping class group. This strategy is adapted from that of Brendle-Margalit and the author for certain normal subgroups in the finite-type setting.
We study the automorphisms of a graph product of finitely-generated abelian groups W. More precisely, we study a natural subgroup Aut* W of Aut W, with Aut* W = Aut W whenever vertex groups are finite and in a number of other cases. We prove a number of structure results, including a semi-direct product decomposition of Aut* W in which one of the factors is Inn W. We also give a number of applications, some of which are geometric in nature.
We investigate the combinatorial and geometric properties of automorphism groups of universal right-angled Coxeter groups, which are the automorphism groups of free products of copies of Z_2. It is currently an open question as to whether or not these automorphism groups have non-positive curvature. Analogous to Outer Space as a model for Out(F_n), we prove that the natural combinatorial and topological model for their outer automorphism groups can \emph{not} be given an equivariant CAT(0) metric. This is particularly interesting as there are very few non-trivial examples of proving that a mod…
The main goal of this paper is a calculation of the integral (co)homology of the group of symmetric automorphisms of a free product. We proceed by giving a geometric interpretation of symmetric automorphisms via a moduli space of certain diagrams, which we name cactus products. To describe this moduli space a theory of diagonal complexes is introduced. This offers a generalisation of the theory of right-angled Artin groups in that each diagonal complex defines what we call a diagonal right-angled Artin group (DRAAG).
We define an integer-valued invariant of special cube complexes called the genus, and prove that having genus one characterizes special cube complexes with abelian fundamental group. Using the genus, we obtain a new proof that the fundamental group of a special cube complex is either free abelian or surjects onto a non-cyclic free group. We also investigate automorphisms of special cube complexes, and give a new geometric proof that the Torelli subgroup for a right-angled Artin group is torsion-free.
The question of existence of outer automorphisms of a simple algebraic group $G$ arises naturally both when working with the Galois cohomology of $G$ and as an example of the algebro-geometric problem of determining which connected components of the automorphism group of $G$ have rational points. The existence question remains open only for four types of groups, and we settle one of the remaining cases, type $^3D_4$. The key to the proof is a Skolem-Noether theorem for cubic etale subalgebras of Albert algebras which is of independent interest. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a simply …
We construct an invariant deformation retract of a deformation space of G-trees. We show that this complex is finite dimensional in certain cases and provide an example that is not finite dimensional. Using this complex we compute the automorphism group of the classical non-solvable Baumslag-Solitar groups BS(p,q). The most interesting case is when p properly divides q. Collins and Levin computed a presentation for Aut(BS(p,q)) in this case using algebraic methods. Our computation uses Bass-Serre theory to derive these presentations. Additionally, we provide a geometric argument showing Out(BS…
By using a notion of a geometric Dehn twist in $\sharp_k(S^2 \times S^1)$, we prove that when projections of two $\mathbb{Z}$-splittings to the free factor complex are far enough from each other in the free factor complex, Dehn twist automorphisms corresponding to the $\mathbb{Z}$-splittings generate a free group of rank $2$. Moreover, every element from this free group is either conjugate to a power of one of the Dehn twists or it is a fully irreducible outer automorphism of the free group. We also prove that, when projected to the intersection graph, the same group of Dehn twists produce ato…
The right invariant metric on the analytic automorphism group of the unit open disk induced by maximal modulus
School of Mathematical Science, Heilongjiang University（黑龙江大学数学科学学院）；Sixth High School of CAIDA（CAIDA第六中学）；School of Mathematics, Jilin University（吉林大学数学学院）
Pseudo-automorphisms are birational transformations acting as regular automorphisms in codimension 1. We import ideas from geometric group theory to prove that a group of birational transformations that satisfies a fixed point property on CAT(0) cubical complexes, for example a discrete countable group with Kazhdan Property (T), is birationally conjugate to a group acting by pseudo-automorphisms on some non-empty Zariski-open subset. We apply this argument to classify groups of birational transformations of surfaces with this fixed point property up to birational conjugacy.
We give a geometric characterization of finite rational groups. In particular, we prove that a finite group is rational if and only if there exists a finite geometry $Γ$ of type $I$ and action of $G$ on $Γ$ as a group of automorphisms such that if $g$ and $h$ are elements of $G$ fixing the same number of flags of type $J$ for all subsets $J$ of $I$, then $g$ and $h$ are conjugate in $G$.
The geometric dimension for proper actions $\underline{\mathrm{gd}}(G)$ of a group $G$ is the minimal dimension of a classifying space for proper actions $\underline{E}G$. We construct for every integer $r\geq 1$, an example of a virtually torsion-free Gromov-hyperbolic group $G$ such that for every group $Γ$ which contains $G$ as a finite index normal subgroup, the virtual cohomological dimension $\mathrm{vcd}(Γ)$ of $Γ$ equals $\underline{\mathrm{gd}}(Γ)$ but such that the outer automorphism group $\mathrm{Out}(G)$ is virtually torsion-free, admits a cocompact model for $\underline E\mathrm{…
We study the outer automorphism group of a right-angled Artin group $A_Γ$ with finite defining graph $Γ$. We construct a subnormal series for $Out(A_Γ)$ such that each consecutive quotient is either finite, free-abelian, $GL(n,\mathbb{Z})$, or a Fouxe-Rabinovitch group. The last two types act respectively on a symmetric space or a deformation space of trees, so that there is a geometric way of studying each piece. As a consequence we prove that the group $Out(A_Γ)$ is type VF (it has a finite index subgroup with a finite classifying space). The main technical work is a study of relative outer …
By analyzing how the Borel regulator classes vanish on various groups related to $\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathrm{Z})$, we define three series of secondary characteristic classes for subgroups of automorphism groups of free groups. The first case is the $\mathrm{IA}$-automorphism groups and we show that our classes coincide with higher $\mathrm{FR}$ torsions due to Igusa. The second case is the mapping class groups and our classes also turn out to be his higher torsions which are non-zero multiples of the Mumford-Morita-Miller classes of even indices. Our construction gives new group cocycles for these …
The BNSR-invariants of a group $G$ are a sequence $Σ^1(G)\supseteq Σ^2(G) \supseteq \cdots$ of geometric invariants that reveal important information about finiteness properties of certain subgroups of $G$. We consider the symmetric automorphism group $ΣAut_n$ and pure symmetric automorphism group $PΣAut_n$ of the free group $F_n$, and inspect their BNSR-invariants. We prove that for $n\ge 2$, all the ``positive'' and ``negative'' character classes of $PΣAut_n$ lie in $Σ^{n-2}(PΣAut_n)\setminus Σ^{n-1}(PΣAut_n)$. We use this to prove that for $n\ge 2$, $Σ^{n-2}(ΣAut_n)$ equals the full charact…
