We show that if $H$ is an almost normal subgroup of $G$ such that both $H$ and $G$ are of type $VFP$ and vcd($G$) = vcd($H$) + 1, then $G$ is the fundamental group of a graph of groups in which all vertex and edge groups are commensurable to $H$. We also investigate almost normal subgroups of one-relator groups and duality groups.
Bounded-cohomological dimension of groups is a relative of classical cohomological dimension, defined in terms of bounded cohomology with trivial coefficients instead of ordinary group cohomology. We will discuss constructions that lead to groups with infinite bounded-cohomological dimension, and we will provide new examples of groups with bounded-cohomological dimension equal to 0. In particular, we will prove that every group functorially embeds into an acyclic group with trivial bounded cohomology.
We consider a class of metabelian groups first studied by Baumslag and Stammbach and we show that these groups are consistent with the Bieri-Groves conjecture which relates cohomological finiteness conditions to the Bieri-Neumann-Strebel sigma invariant.
We prove a cohomological property for a class of finite $p$-groups introduced earlier by M. Y. Xu, which we call semi-abelian $p$-groups. This result implies that a semi-abelian $p$-group has non-inner automorphisms of order $p$, which settles a longstanding problem for this class. We answer also, independetly, an old question of M. Y. Xu about the power structure of semi-abelian $p$-groups.
We describe an algorithm to find the virtual cohomological dimension of the automorphism group of a right-angled Artin group. The algorithm works in the relative setting; in particular it also applies to untwisted automorphism groups and basis-conjugating automorphism groups. The main new tool is the construction of free abelian subgroups of certain Fouxe-Rabinovitch groups of rank equal to their virtual cohomological dimension, generalizing a result of Meucci in the setting of free groups.
We show that Brin's generalisations $2V$ and $3V$ of the Thompson-Higman group $V$ are of type $FP_\infty$. Our methods also give a new proof that both groups are finitely presented.
A finite connected 2-complex K whose fundamental group is of cohomological dimension 2 is aspherical iff the subgroup Σ_K of H_2(K) consisting of spherical 2-cycles is zero. A finite connected subcomplex of an aspherical 2-complex is aspherical iff its fundamental group is of cohomological dimension 2. If G is a countable group such that extension of scalars from Z[G] to \ell_2(G) kills \bar K_0(Z[G]), and if P is a finitely generated projective Z[G]-module with P/IP=0, where I is the augmentation ideal of Z[G], then P=0. In particular, if G is a countable group of cohomological dimension 2 an…
We construct a general cohomological induction isomorphism from a uniform measure equivalence of locally compact, second countable, unimodular groups which, as a special case, yields that the graded cohomology rings of quasi-isometric, connected, simply connected, nilpotent Lie groups are isomorphic. This unifies results of Shalom and Sauer and also provides new insight into the quasi-isometry classification problem for low dimensional nilpotent Lie groups.
This article is part of the program of studying large-scale geometric properties of totally disconnected locally compact groups, TDLC-groups, by analogy with the theory for discrete groups. We provide a characterization of hyperbolic TDLC-groups, in terms of homological isoperimetric inequalities. This characterization is used to prove the main result of the article: for hyperbolic TDLC-groups with rational discrete cohomological dimension $\leq 2$, hyperbolicity is inherited by compactly presented closed subgroups. As a consequence, every compactly presented closed subgroup of the automorphis…
We give a cohomological characterization of Gromov relative hyperbolicity. As an application we prove a converse to the combination theorem for graphs of relatively hyperbolic groups given in a previous paper of the first author. We build upon, and follow the ideas of, the work of S. Gersten in ``Cohom. lower bounds for isoperim. funct. on groups'' (Topology 37, 1998) about the same topics in the classical Gromov hyperbolic setting.
A right-angled Coxeter group is a group with a given set of generators of order two, subject only to the relations that certain pairs of the generators commute. Various papers have shown how homological properties of the Coxeter group are related to homological properties of the simplicial complex whose simplices are the sets of commuting generators. Using these techniques, we construct torsion-free groups which are Poincare duality groups over some rings but not over others, and a group whose integral cohomological dimension is finite but strictly greater than its cohomological dimension over…
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 show that a countable group is locally virtually cyclic if and only if its Bredon cohomological dimension for the family of virtually cyclic subgroups is at most one.
PhD thesis concerning cohomological finiteness conditions of infinite discrete groups. Much of the material in this thesis has also appeared in arXiv:1311.7629, arXiv:1310.6262, arXiv:1311.6156, and arXiv:1207.1597.
We improve the existing lower bounds on the order of counterexamples to a conjecture by P. Schmid, determine some properties of the possible counterexamples of minimum order for each prime, and the isomorphism type of the center of the Frattini subgroup for the counterexamples of order 256. We also show that nonabelian metacyclic p-groups, nonabelian groups of maximal nilpotency class and 2-groups of coclass two satisfy the conjecture.
We prove that H^{d-1}(SL_n Z; Q) = 0, where d = n-choose-2 is the cohomological dimension of SL_n Z, and similarly for GL_n Z. We also prove analogous vanishing theorems for cohomology with coefficients in a rational representation of the algebraic group GL_n. These theorems are derived from a presentation of the Steinberg module for SL_n Z whose generators are integral apartment classes, generalizing Manin's presentation for the Steinberg module of SL_2 Z. This presentation was originally constructed by Bykovskii. We give a new topological proof of it.
We construct hyperbolic groups with the following properties: The boundary of the group has big dimension, it is separated by a Cantor set and the group does not split. This shows that Bowditch's theorem that characterizes splittings of hyperbolic groups over 2-ended groups in terms of the boundary can not be extended to splittings over more complicated subgroups.
We define a family of groups that generalises Thompson's groups $T$ and $G$ and also those of Higman, Stein and Brin. For groups in this family we descrine centralisers of finite subgroups and show, that for a given finite subgroup $Q$, there are finitely many conjugacy classes of finite subgroups isomorphic to $Q$. We use this to show that whenever defined, the T versions of these groups have a slightly weaker property, quasi-$\underline{\operatorname F}_\infty$, to that of a group possessing a finite type model for the classifying space for proper actions ${\underline{E}}G$ if and only if th…
We ask, following Bartholdi, whether it is true that the kernel of the restriction map from the cohomology of a group G to the cohomology of a finite index subgroup H is finitely generated as an ideal. We show that in case the group has virtual finite cohomological dimension it is true, and we will show that if G does not have virtual finite cohomological dimension it might not be true, even in case G is an FP infinity group.
We consider generalisations of Thompson's group $V$, denoted $V_r(Σ)$, which also include the groups of Higman, Stein and Brin. We show that, under some mild hypotheses, $V_r(Σ)$ is the full automorphism group of a Cantor-algebra. Under some further minor restrictions, we prove that these groups are of type $\mathrm{F}_\infty$ and that this implies that also centralisers of finite subgroups are of type $\mathrm{F}_\infty$.
We construct groups G that are virtually torsion-free and have virtual cohomological dimension strictly less than the minimal dimension for any model for the classifying space for proper actions of G. They are the first examples that have these properties and also admit cocompact models for this classifying space. We exhibit groups G whose virtual cohomological dimension and Bredon cohomological dimension are two that do not admit any 2-dimensional contractible proper G-CW-complex.
The paper is concerned with Kropholler's conjecture on splitting a finitely generated group over a codimension-1 subgroup. For a subgroup H of a group G, we define the notion of "finite splitting height" which generalises the finite-height property. By considering the dual CAT(0) cube complex associated to a codimension-1 subgroup H in G, we show that the Kropholler-Roller conjecture holds when H has finite splitting height in G. Examples of subgroups of finite height are stable subgroups or more generally strongly quasiconvex subgroups. Examples of subgroups of finite splitting height include…
Given a discrete group $G$, for any integer $r\geqslant0$ we consider the family of all virtually abelian subgroups of $G$ of rank at most $r$. We give an upper bound for the Bredon cohomological dimension of $G$ for this family for a certain class of groups acting on $\mathrm{CAT}(0)$ spaces. This covers the case of Coxeter groups, Right-angled Artin groups, fundamental groups of special cube complexes and graph products of finite groups. Our construction partially answers a question of J.-F. Lafont.
In this paper we consider classifying spaces of a family of $p$-groups and we prove that mod $p$ cohomology enriched with Bockstein spectral sequences determines their homotopy type among $p$-completed CW-complexes. We end with some applications to group theory.
We compare three definitions of the equivariant cohomological dimension of a group with operators, coming from Takasu, Adamson and Bredon relative group cohomologies, giving examples of strict inequality in all cases where it can occur. We prove and make use of Stallings--Swan type results which characterise the groups of equivariant cohomological dimension one. Some of our examples are relevant to Farber's problem which asks for an algebraic characterisation of the topological complexity of discrete groups. In particular, the topological complexity of a group is not in general given by a rela…
Let $G$ be a finite 2-group of maximal nilpotency class, and let $BG$ be its classifying space. We prove that iterated Massey products in $H^*(BG;\F_2)$ do characterize the homotopy type of $BG$ among 2-complete spaces with the same cohomological structure. As a consequence we get an alternative proof of the modular isomorphism problem for 2-groups of maximal nilpotency class.
We investigate two open questions in a cohomology theory relative to the family of finite subgroups. The problem of whether the F-cohomological dimension is subadditive is reduced to extensions by groups of prime order. We show that every finitely generated regular branch group has infinite rational cohomological dimension. Moreover, we prove that the first Grigorchuk group G is not contained in Kropholler's class HF .
We prove that for any discrete group $G$ with finite $\mathfrak{F}$-cohomological dimension, the Gorenstein cohomological dimension equals the $\mathfrak{F}$-cohomological dimension. This is achieved by constructing a long exact sequence of cohomological functors, analogous to that constructed by Avramov and Martsinkovsky, containing the $\mathfrak{F}$-cohomology and complete $\mathfrak{F}$-cohomology. As a corollary we improve upon a theorem of Degrijse concerning subadditivity of the $\mathfrak{F}$-cohomological dimension under group extensions.
Let $G$ be a finite group and $(K,\mathcal{O},k)$ be a $p$-modular system "large enough". Let $R=\mathcal{O}$ or $k$. There is a bijection between the blocks of the group algebra $RG$ and the central primitive idempotents (the blocks) of the so-called cohomological Mackey algebra $coμ_{R}(G)$. Here, we prove that a so-called permeable derived equivalence between two blocks of group algebras implies the existence of a derived equivalence between the corresponding blocks of cohomological Mackey algebras. In particular, in the context of Broué's abelian defect group conjecture, if two blocks are …
We explain how to exploit Rost's theory of Chow groups with coefficients to carry some computations of cohomological invariants (i.e. characteristic classes for G-torsors in Galois cohomology, for an algebraic group G). In particular, we use the idea of the ``stratification method'' introduced by Vezzosi. We recover a number of known results, with very different proofs. We obtain some new information on spin groups..
Let Mod_g be the mapping class group of a genus g >= 2 surface. The group Mod_g has virtual cohomological dimension 4g-5. In this note we use a theorem of Broaddus and the combinatorics of chord diagrams to prove that H^{4g-5}(Mod_g; Q) = 0.
A remarkable result of Gersten states that the class of hyperbolic groups of cohomological dimension $2$ is closed under taking finitely presented (or more generally $FP_2$) subgroups. We prove the analogous result for relatively hyperbolic groups of Bredon cohomological dimension $2$ with respect to the family of parabolic subgroups. A class of groups where our result applies consists of $C'(1/6)$ small cancellation products. The proof relies on an algebraic approach to relative homological Dehn functions, and a characterization of relative hyperbolicity in the framework of finiteness propert…
Let $k$ be a field of characteristic $p$. We construct a new inflation functor for cohomological Mackey functors for finite groups over $k$. Using this inflation functor, we give an explicit presentation of the graded algebra of self extensions of the simple functor $S_\un^G$, when $p$ is odd and $G$ is an elementary abelian $p$-group.
For groups with a uniform bound on the length of chains of finite subgroups, we study the relationship between the Bredon cohomological dimension for proper actions and the notions of cohomological dimension one obtains by restricting the coefficients of Bredon cohomology to (cohomological) Mackey functors or fixed point functors. We also investigate the closure properties of the class of groups with finite Bredon cohomological dimension for Mackey functors.
In a recent paper A. Merkurjev constructed an exact sequence which includes as one of the terms the group of degree 3 normalized cohomological invariants of a semisimple algebraic group G, greatly extending results of M. Rost for simply connected quasi-simple groups. Furthermore, in the aforementioned paper, Merkurjev uses his exact sequence to determine the groups of invariants for all semisimple adjoint groups of inner type. The goal of this paper is to use Merkurjev's sequence to compute the group of invariants for the remaining split cases, namely groups of types A and D that are neither s…
We investigate strictly developable simple complexes of groups with arbitrary local groups, or equivalently, group actions admitting a strict fundamental domain. We introduce a new method for computing the cohomology of such groups. We also generalise Bestvina's construction to obtain a polyhedral complex equivariantly homotopy equivalent to the standard development of the lowest possible dimension. As applications, for a group acting chamber transitively on a building of type $(W,S)$, we show that its Bredon cohomological dimension is equal to the virtual cohomological dimension of $W$ and gi…
Let G be a group acting isometrically with discrete orbits on a separable complete CAT(0)-space of bounded topological dimension. Under certain conditions, we give upper bounds for the Bredon cohomological dimension of G for the families of finite and virtually cyclic subgroups. As an application, we prove that the mapping class group of any closed, connected, and orientable surface of genus g greater than 1 admits a (9g-8)-dimensional classifying space with virtually cyclic stabilizers. In addition, our results apply to fundamental groups of graphs of groups and groups acting on Euclidean bui…
We prove that for geometrically finite groups cohomological dimension of the direct product of a group with itself equals 2 times the cohomological dimension dimension of the group.
Bestvina and Mess [BM] proved a remarkable formula for torsion free hyperbolic groups $$ \dim_L\partialΓ=cd_LΓ-1 $$ connecting the cohomological dimension of a group $Γ$ with the cohomological dimension of its boundary $\partialΓ$. In [Be] Bestvina introduced a notion of $\sZ$-structure on a discrete group and noticed that his formula holds true for all torsion free groups with $\sZ$-structure. Bestvina's notion of $\sZ$-structure can be extended to groups containing torsion by replacing the covering space action in the definition by the geometric action. Though the Bestvina-Mess formula trivi…
We prove the following three closely related results. The first is that every finite simple group has a profinite presentation with 2 generators and at most 18 relations. The second is that if G is a finite simple group, F a field and M an FG-module, then the dimension of the second cohomology group of G with coefficients in M is at most 17.5 times the dimension of M. The third result is that we may replace 17.5 by 18.5 as long as M is faithful irreducible G-module. These last two results answer conjectures of Holt.
We determine the mod p cohomological invariants for several affine group schemes G in chararacteristic p. These are invariants of G-torsors with values in etale motivic cohomology, or equivalently in Kato's version of Galois cohomology based on differential forms. In particular, we find the mod 2 cohomological invariants for the symmetric groups and the orthogonal groups in characteristic 2, which Serre computed in characteristic not 2. We also determine all operations on the mod p etale motivic cohomology of fields, extending Vial's computations of the operations on the mod p Milnor K-theory …
We make explicit some conditions on a semi-abelian category D such that, for any abelian group A in D and any object Y in D, the cohomology group homomorphisms with coefficients in A, induced by the inclusion of the abelian objects of D at the level of the slice category D/Y, are actually isomorphisms. These conditions hold in particular when D is the category Gp of groups, and this allows us to give a new insight on the Eilenberg-Mac Lane cohomology of groups. They hold also when D is the category K-Lie of Lie-algebras.
Let $k$ be a field of characteristic $p>0$. Call a finite group $G$ a poco group over $k$ if any finitely generated cohomological Mackey functor for $G$ over $k$ has polynomial growth. The main result of this paper is that $G$ is a poco group over $k$ if and only if the Sylow $p$-subgroups of $G$ are cyclic, when $p>2$, or have sectional rank at most 2, when $p=2$. A major step in the proof is the case where $G$ is an elementary abelian $p$-group. In particular, when $p=2$, all the extension groups between simple functors can be determined completely, using a presentation of the graded algebra…
The number of the relations of a Kahler group is bounded below by the number of the generators and some geometric invariants of the corresponding compact Kahler manifold, like the irregularity, the Albanese dimension and the Albanese genera. Appropriate functions of the aforementioned geometric invariants are shown to be lower bounds for the Betti numbers of the Kahler group within the range, determined by the Albanese dimension.
Balmer and Dell'Ambrogio introduced the pseudo-functor $P$ from the bicategory of $k$-linear Mackey $2$-motives to the bicategory of $k$-linear cohomological Mackey $2$-motives over a commutative ring $k$. They showed that $P$ maps the general Mackey $2$-motives to the cohomological Mackey $2$-motives by using the ring homomorphism from the crossed Burnside ring of a finite group $G$ over $k$ to the center $ ZkG$ of group algebra $kG$ ([BD21, Theorem 5.3]). We study the behavior of motivic decomposition of cohomological Mackey $2$-motives as images by $P$ of motivic decomposition of Mackey $2$…
Let $G$ be a group that admits a cocompact classifying space for proper actions $X$. We derive a formula for the Bredon cohomological dimension for proper actions of $G$ in terms of the relative cohomology with compact support of certain pairs of subcomplexes of $X$. We use this formula to compute the Bredon cohomological dimension for proper actions of fundamental groups of non-positively curved simple complexes of finite groups. As an application we show that if a virtually torsion-free group acts properly and chamber transitively on a building, its virtual cohomological dimension coincides …
We show that the cohomological Laplacian in degree 1 in the group cohomology of $\operatorname{SL}_3(\mathbb{Z})$ is a sum of hermitian squares in the algebra $\mathbb{M}_n(\mathbb{R}G)$. We provide an estimate of the spectral gap for this Laplacian for every unitary representation.
We develop a new method, based on non-vanishing of second cohomology groups, for proving the failure of lifting properties for full C$^*$-algebras of countable groups with (relative) property (T). We derive that the full C$^*$-algebras of the groups $\mathbb Z^2\rtimes\text{SL}_2(\mathbb Z)$ and $\text{SL}_n(\mathbb Z)$, for $n\geq 3$, do not have the local lifting property (LLP). We also prove that the full C$^*$-algebras of a large class of groups $Γ$ with property (T), including those such that $\text{H}^2(Γ,\mathbb R)\not=0$ or $\text{H}^2(Γ,\mathbb ZΓ)\not=0$, do not have the lifting prop…