We say that a subset $X$ quasi-isometrically boundedly generates a finitely generated group $Γ$ if each element $γ$ of a finite-index subgroup of $Γ$ can be written as a product $γ= x_1 x_2 \cdots x_r$ of a bounded number of elements of $X$, such that the word length of each $x_i$ is bounded by a constant times the word length of $γ$. A. Lubotzky, S. Mozes, and M.S. Raghunathan observed in 1993 that ${\rm SL}(n,{\mathbb Z})$ is quasi-isometrically boundedly generated by the elements of its natural ${\rm SL}(2,{\mathbb Z})$ subgroups. We generalize (a slightly weakened version of) this by showing that every $S$-arithmetic subgroup of an isotropic, almost-simple ${\mathbb Q}$-group is quasi-isometrically boundedly generated by standard ${\mathbb Q}$-rank-1 subgroups.
We show that non-abelian two-generator subgroups of right-angled Artin groups are quasi-isometrically embedded free groups. This provides an alternate proof of a theorem of A. Baudisch: that all two-generator subgroups are free or free abelian. Additionally, it shows that they are quasi-isometrically embedded. Our theorem also gives a method for detecting groups that are not isomorphic to a subgroup of any RAAG. We present some counterexamples in subgroups with more than two generators.
The goal of this paper is to construct quasi-isometrically embedded subgroups of Thompson's group $F$ which are isomorphic to $\fz^n$ for all $n$. A result estimating the norm of an element of Thompson's group is found. As a corollary, Thompson's group is seen to be an example of a finitely presented group which has an infinite-dimensional asymptotic cone.
We use geometric techniques to investigate several examples of quasi-isometrically embedded subgroups of Thompson's group F. Many of these are explored using the metric properties of the shift map phi in F. These subgroups have simple geometric but complicated algebraic descriptions. We present them to illustrate the intricate geometry of Thompson's group F as well as the interplay between its standard finite and infinite presentations. These subgroups include those of the form F^m cross Z^n, for integral non-negative m and n, which were shown to occur as quasi-isometrically embedded subgroups…
A subgroup $H\leq G$ is said to be almost normal if every conjugate of $H$ is commensurable to $H$. If $H$ is almost normal, there is a well-defined quotient space $G/H$. We show that if a group $G$ has type $F_{n+1}$ and contains an almost normal coarse $PD_n$ subgroup $H$ with $e(G/H)=\infty$, then whenever $G'$ is quasi-isometric to $G$, it contains an almost normal subgroup $H'$ that is quasi-isometric to $H$. Moreover, the quotient spaces $G/H$ and $G'/H'$ are quasi-isometric. This generalises a theorem of Mosher-Sageev-Whyte, who prove the case in which $G/H$ is quasi-isometric to a fini…
In the spirit of peripheral subgroups in relatively hyperbolic groups, we exhibit a simple class of quasi-isometrically rigid subgroups in graph products of finite groups, which we call eccentric subgroups. As an application, we prove that, if two right-angled Coxeter groups $C(Γ_1)$ and $C(Γ_2)$ are quasi-isometric, then for any minsquare subgraph $Λ_1 \leq Γ_1$ there exists a minsquare subgraph $Λ_2 \leq Γ_2$ such that the right-angled Coxeter groups $C(Λ_1)$ and $C(Λ_2)$ are quasi-isometric as well. Various examples of non-quasi-isometric groups are deduced. Our arguments are based on a stu…
We study the quasi-isometric rigidity of a large family of finitely generated groups that split as graphs of groups with virtually free vertex groups and two-ended edge groups. Let $G$ be a group that is one-ended, hyperbolic relative to virtually abelian subgroups, and has JSJ decomposition over two-ended subgroups containing only virtually free vertex groups that aren't quadratically hanging. Our main result is that any group quasi-isometric to $G$ is abstractly commensurable to $G$. In particular, our result applies to certain "generic" HNN extensions of a free group over cyclic subgroups.
We describe the kernel of the canonical map from the Floyd boundary of a relatively hyperbolic group to its Bowditch boundary. Using our methods we then prove that a finitely generated group $H$ admitting a quasi-isometric map $ϕ$ into a relatively hyperbolic group $G$ is relatively hyperbolic with respect to a system of subgroups whose image under $ϕ$ is situated in a uniformly bounded distance from the parabolic subgroups of $G$.
We show that a large class of right-angled Artin groups (in particular, those with planar complementary defining graph) can be embedded quasi-isometrically in pure braid groups and in the group of area preserving diffeomorphisms of the disk fixing the boundary (with respect to the $L^2$-norm metric); this extends results of Benaim and Gambaudo who gave quasi-isometric embeddings of $F\_n$ and $\Z^n$ for all $n>0$. As a consequence we are also able to embed a variety of Gromov hyperbolic groups quasi-isometrically in pure braid groups and in the diffeomorphism group of the disk. Examples includ…
Let $G$ and $H$ be quasi-isometric finitely generated groups and let $P\leq G$; is there a subgroup $Q$ (or a collection of subgroups) of $H$ whose left cosets coarsely reflect the geometry of the left cosets of $P$ in $G$? We explore sufficient conditions for a positive answer. The article consider pairs of the form $(G,\mathcal{P})$ where $G$ is a finitely generated group and $\mathcal{P}$ a finite collection of subgroups, there is a notion of quasi-isometry of pairs, and quasi-isometrically characteristic collection of subgroups. A subgroup is qi-characteristic if it belongs to a qi-charact…
Let $Δ$ be a cocompact lattice in $\mathsf{Sp}(m,1)$, $m \geq 2$, or $F_{4}^{(-20)}$. We exhibit examples of finitely generated subgroups of $Δ\times Δ$ with positive first Betti number all of whose discrete faithful representations into any real semisimple Lie group are quasi-isometric embeddings. The examples of this paper are inspired by the counterexamples of Bass-Lubotzky [BL00] to Platonov's conjecture.
We compute the relative divergence and the subgroup distortion of Bestvina-Brady subgroups. We also show that for each integer $n\geq 3$, there is a free subgroup of rank $n$ of some right-angled Artin group whose inclusion is not a quasi-isometric embedding. This result answers the question of Carr about the minimum rank $n$ such that some right-angled Artin group has a free subgroup of rank $n$ whose inclusion is not a quasi-isometric embedding. It is well-known that a right-angled Artin group $A_Γ$ is the fundamental group of a graph manifold whenever the defining graph $Γ$ is a tree. We sh…
In this note we explain how Day's fixed point theorem can be used to conjugate certain groups of biLipschitz maps of a metric space into special subgroups like similarity groups. In particular, we use Day's theorem to establish Tukia-type theorems and to give new proofs of quasi-isometric rigidity results.
We abstract the notion of an A/QI triple from a number of examples in geometric group theory. Such a triple (G,X,H) consists of a group G acting on a Gromov hyperbolic space X, acylindrically along a finitely generated subgroup H which is quasi-isometrically embedded by the action. Examples include strongly quasi-convex subgroups of relatively hyperbolic groups, convex cocompact subgroups of mapping class groups, many known convex cocompact subgroups of Out(Fn), and groups generated by powers of independent loxodromic WPD elements of a group acting on a Gromov hyperbolic space. We initiate the…
We prove that abelian subgroups of the outer automorphism group of a free group are quasi-isometrically embedded. Our proof uses recent developments in the theory of train track maps by Feighn-Handel. As an application, we prove the rank conjecture for $\mathrm{Out}(F_n)$.
We prove that if $G$ is a non-uniform lattice in a rank-one semi-simple Lie group $\ne Isom(\H^2_\R)$ then $G$ is quasi-isometrically co-Hopf. This means that every quasi-isometric embedding $G\to G$ is coarsely onto and thus is a quasi-isometry.
We describe sufficient conditions which guarantee that a finite set of mapping classes generate a right-angled Artin group quasi-isometrically embedded in the mapping class group. Moreover, under these conditions, the orbit map to Teichmuller space is a quasi-isometric embedding for both of the standard metrics. As a consequence, we produce infinitely many genus h surfaces (for any h at least 2) in the moduli space of genus g surfaces (for any g at least 3) for which the universal covers are quasi-isometrically embedded in the Teichmuller space.
We prove that if $T$ is an $\mathbb R$-tree with a minimal free isometric action of $F_N$, then the $Out(F_N)$-stabilizer of the projective class $[T]$ is virtually cyclic. For the special case where $T=T_+(ϕ)$ is the forward limit tree of an atoroidal iwip element $ϕ\in Out(F_N)$ this is a consequence of the results of Bestvina, Feighn and Handel, via very different methods. We also derive a new proof of the Tits alternative for subgroups of $Out(F_N)$ containing an iwip (not necessarily atoroidal): we prove that every such subgroup $G\le Out(F_N)$ is either virtually cyclic or contains a fre…
We prove that an arbitrary right-angled Artin group $G$ admits a quasi-isometric group embedding into a right-angled Artin group defined by the opposite graph of a tree. Consequently, $G$ admits quasi-isometric group embeddings into a pure braid group and into the area-preserving diffeomorphism groups of the 2--disk and the 2--sphere, answering questions due to Crisp--Wiest and M. Kapovich. Another corollary is that a pure braid group contains a closed hyperbolic manifold group as a quasi-isometrically embedded subgroup up to dimension eight. Finally, we show that the isomorphism problem, conj…
The main goal of this note is to suggest an algebraic approach to the quasi-isometric classification of partially commutative groups (alias right-angled Artin groups). More precisely, we conjecture that if the partially commutative groups $\mathbb{G}(Δ)$ and $\mathbb{G}(Γ)$ are quasi-isometric, then $\mathbb{G}(Δ)$ is a (nice) subgroup of $\mathbb{G}(Γ)$ and vice-versa. We show that the conjecture holds for all known cases of quasi-isometric classification of partially commutative groups, namely for the classes of $n$-tress and atomic graphs. As in the classical Mostow rigidity theory for irre…
We describe a family of finitely presented groups which are quasi-isometric but not bilipschitz equivalent. The first such examples were described by the first author and are the lamplighter groups $F \wr \mathbb{Z}$ where $F$ is a finite group; these groups are finitely generated but not finitely presented. The examples presented in this paper are higher rank generalizations of these lamplighter groups and include groups that are of type $F_n$ for any $n$.
We study soluble groups G in which each subnormal subgroup H with infinite rank is commensurable with a normal subgroup, i.e. there exists a normal subgroup N such that the intersection of H and N has finite index in both H and N. We show that if such a G is periodic, then all subnormal subgroups are commensurable with a normal subgroup, provided either the Hirsch-Plotkin radical of G has infinite rank or G is nilpotent-by-abelian (and has infinite rank).
We investigate the structure of the minimal displacement set in $8$-located complexes with the SD'-property. We show that such set embeds isometrically into the complex. Since $8$-location and simple connectivity imply Gromov hyperbolicity, the minimal displacement set in such complex is systolic. Using these results, we construct a low-dimensional classifying space for the family of virtually cyclic subgroups of a group acting properly on an $8$-located complex with the SD'-property.
We prove a general dichotomy theorem for groups of finite Morley rank with solvable local subgroups and of Prüfer p-rank at least 2, leading either to some p-strong embedding, or to the Prüfer p-rank being exactly 2.
We construct the first examples of finitely presented groups with quadratic Dehn function containing a finitely generated infinite torsion subgroup. These examples are "optimal" in the sense that the Dehn function of any such finitely presented group must be at least quadratic. Moreover, we show that for any $n\geq2^{48}$ such that $n$ is either odd or divisible by $2^9$, any infinite free Burnside group with exponent $n$ is a quasi-isometrically embedded subgroup of a finitely presented group with quadratic Dehn function satisfying the Congruence Extension Property.
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…
We define the structure of spaces with labelled partitions which generalizes the structure of spaces with measured walls and study the link between actions by automorphisms on spaces with labelled partitions and isometric affine actions on Banach spaces, and more particularly, on $L^p$ spaces. We build natural spaces with labelled partitions for the action of various contructions of groups, namely: direct sum; semi-direct product; wreath product and amalgamated free product. We apply this to prove that the wreath product of a group with property $PL^p$ by a group with Haagerup property has pro…
Let $G$ be a finite group with a Sylow $p$-subgroup $P$. We prove that the principal $p$-blocks of $G$ and $N_G(P)$ are perfectly isometric under the assumption $G$ has a cyclic $p$-hyperfocal subgroup.
We prove an estimate for the rank of the intersection of free subgroups in virtually free groups, which is analogous to the Hanna Neumann inequality for subgroups in a free group and to the S.V. Ivanov estimate for subgroups in free products of groups. We also prove a more general estimate for the rank of the intersection of free subgroups in the fundamental group of a finite graph of groups with finite edge groups.
Suppose that $p$ is a prime, $G$ is a finite group and $H$ is a strongly $p$-embedded subgroup in $G$. We consider the possibility that $F^*(H)$ is a simple group of Lie rank 2 defined in characteristic $p$.
We show that if $w$ is a multilinear commutator word and $G$ a finite group in which every metanilpotent subgroup generated by $w$-values is of rank at most $r$, then the rank of the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is bounded in terms of $r$ and $w$ only. In the case where $G$ is soluble we obtain a better result -- if $G$ is a finite soluble group in which every nilpotent subgroup generated by $w$-values is of rank at most $r$, then the rank of $w(G)$ is at most $r+1$.
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.
Through the glasses of didactic reduction: We consider a (periodic) tessellation $Δ$ of either Euclidean or hyperbolic $n$-space $M$. By a piecewise isometric rearrangement of $Δ$ we mean the process of cutting $M$ along corank-1 tile-faces into finitely many convex polyhedral pieces, and rearranging the pieces to a new tight covering of the tessellation $Δ$. Such a rearrangement defines a permutation of the (centers of the) tiles of $Δ$, and we are interested in the group $PI(Δ)$ of all piecewise isometric rearrangements of $Δ$. In this paper we offer: a) An illustration of piecewise isometri…
If a class of finitely generated groups Curly(G) is closed under isometric amalgamations along free subgroups, then every G in Curly(G) can be quasi-isometrically embedded in a group Hat(G) in Curly(G) that has no proper subgroups of finite index. Every compact, connected, non-positively curved space X admits an isometric embedding into a compact, connected, non-positively curved space Overline(X) such that Overline(X) has no non-trivial finite-sheeted coverings.
We prove the centrality of the congruence kernel for the elementary subgroup of a Chevalley group G of rank >1 over an arbitrary noetherian ring R (under some minor restrictions on R if G is of type C_n or G_2).
Let $G$ and $G'$ be two right-angled Artin groups (RAAG). We show they are quasi-isometric iff they are isomorphic, under the assumption that $Out(G)$ and $Out(G')$ are finite. If only $Out(G)$ is finite, then $G'$ is quasi-isometric $G$ iff $G'$ is isomorphic to a finite index subgroup of $G$. In this case, we give an algorithm to determine whether $G$ and $G'$ are quasi-isometric by looking at their defining graphs.
Let $G$ be a finite group with derived subgroup of rank $r$. We prove that $\gzz\leq |G'|^{2r}$. Motivated by the results of I. M. Isaacs in \cite{isa} we show that if $G$ is capable then $\gz\leq |G'|^{4r}$. This answers a question of L. Pyber. We prove that if $G$ is a capable $p$-group then the rank of $G/\mathbf{Z}(G)$ is bounded above in terms of the rank of $G'$.
We lay down the fundations of the theory of groups of finite Morley rank in which local subgroups are solvable and we proceed to the local analysis of these groups. We prove the main Uniqueness Theorem, analogous to the Bender method in finite group theory, and derive its corollaries. We also consider homogeneous cases as well as torsion.
In this paper it is proved that relative hyperbolicity is an invariant of quasi-isometry. As a byproduct of the arguments, simplified definitions of relative hyperbolicity are obtained. In particular we obtain a new definition very similar to the one of hyperbolicity, relying on the existence for every quasi-geodesic triangle of a central left coset of peripheral subgroup.
We prove a rigidity theorem that shows that, under many circumstances, quasi-isometric embeddings of equal rank, higher rank symmetric spaces are close to isometric embeddings. We also produce some surprising examples of quasi-isometric embeddings of higher rank symmetric spaces. In particular, we produce embeddings of $SL(n,\mathbb R)$ into $Sp(2(n-1),\mathbb R)$ when no isometric embeddings exist. A key ingredient in our proofs of rigidity results is a direct generalization of the Mostow-Morse Lemma in higher rank. Typically this lemma is replaced by the quasi-flat theorem which says that ma…
We prove that the reduced Kurosh rank of the intersection of two subgroups $H$ and $K$ of a free product of right-orderable groups is bounded above by the product of the reduced Kurosh ranks of $H$ and $K$. In particular, taking the fundamental group of a graph of groups with trivial vertex and edge groups, and its Bass-Serre tree, our Theorem becomes the desired inequality of the usual Strengthened Hanna Neumann conjecture for free groups.
We study quasi-isometric embeddings of symmetric spaces and non-uniform irreducible lattices in semisimple higher rank Lie groups. We show that any quasi-isometric embedding between symmetric spaces of the same rank can be decomposed into a product of quasi-isometric embeddings into irreducible symmetric spaces. We thus extend earlier rigidity results about quasi-isometric embeddings to the setting of semisimple Lie groups. We also present some examples when the rigidity does not hold, including first examples in which every flat is mapped into multiple flats.
T. De Medts, Y. Segev and K. Tent [Special Moufang sets, their root groups and their μ-maps, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 96 (2008), 767-791] proved that the little projective group of a special Moufang set M(U,τ) is perfect provided that U has size at least 4. We give a short, elementary and self-contained argument when U is abelian, working with Timmesfeld's concept of special (abstract) rank one groups with abelian unipotent subgroups [Abstract root subgroups and simple groups of Lie type, Monographs in Mathematics, 95. Birkhäuser, 2001]. This simplifies Timmesfeld's (quasi) simplicity criter…
Despite the significance of the notion of parabolic closures in Coxeter groups of finite ranks, the parabolic closure is not guaranteed to exist as a parabolic subgroup in a general case. In this paper, first we give a concrete example to clarify that the parabolic closure of even an irreducible reflection subgroup of countable rank does not necessarily exist as a parabolic subgroup. Then we propose a generalized notion of "locally parabolic closure" by introducing a notion of "locally parabolic subgroups", which involves parabolic ones as a special case, and prove that the locally parabolic c…
