We study 3-dimensional Poincaré duality pro-$p$ groups in the spirit of the work by Robert Bieri and Jonathan Hillmann, and show that if such a pro-$p$ group $G$ has a nontrivial finitely presented subnormal subgroup of infinite index, then either the subgroup is cyclic and normal, or the subgroup is cyclic and the group is polycyclic, or the subgroup is Demushkin and normal in an open subgroup of $G$. Also, we describe the centralizers of finitely generated subgroups of 3-dimensional Poincaré duality pro-$p$ groups.
A theorem of Farb and Handel asserts that for $N\ge 4$, the natural inclusion from $\mathrm{Out}(F_N)$ into its abstract commensurator is an isomorphism. We give a new proof of their result, which enables us to generalize it to the case where $N=3$. More generally, we give sufficient conditions on a subgroup $Γ$ of $\mathrm{Out}(F_N)$ ensuring that its abstract commensurator $\mathrm{Comm}(Γ)$ is isomorphic to its relative commensurator in $\mathrm{Out}(F_N)$. In particular, we prove that the abstract commensurator of the Torelli subgroup $\mathrm{IA}_N$ for all $N\ge 3$, or more generally any…
This paper, which is the last of a series of three papers, studies dynamical properties of elements of $\mathrm{Out}(F_{\tt n})$, the outer automorphism group of a nonabelian free group $F_{\tt n}$. We prove that, for every subgroup $H$ of $\mathrm{Out}(F_{\tt n})$, there exists an element $ϕ\in H$ such that, for every element $g$ of $F_{\tt n}$, the conjugacy class $[g]$ has polynomial growth under iteration of $ϕ$ if and only if $[g]$ has polynomial growth under iteration of every element of $H$.
Let $N \geq 2$ and let $\mathrm{Out}(F_N)$ be the outer automorphism group of a nonabelian free group of rank $N$. Let $\mathrm{IA}_N(\mathbb{Z}/3\mathbb{Z})$ be the finite index subgroup of $\mathrm{Out}(F_N)$ which is the kernel of the natural action of $\mathrm{Out}(F_N)$ on $H_1(F_N,\mathbb{Z}/3\mathbb{Z})$. We show that $\mathrm{IA}_N(\mathbb{Z}/3\mathbb{Z})$ is an $R$-group, that is, for every $ϕ,ψ\in \mathrm{IA}_N(\mathbb{Z}/3\mathbb{Z})$, if there exists $k \in \mathbb{N}^*$ such that $ϕ^k=ψ^k$, then $ϕ=ψ$. This answers a question of Handel and Mosher. We then use the fact that $\mathr…
For any prime $p$ and $S$ a $p$-group isomorphic to a Sylow $p$-subgroup of $\mathrm{G}_2(p^n)$ or $\mathrm{PSU}_4(p^n)$ with $n\in\mathbb{N}$, we determine all saturated fusion systems supported on $S$ up to isomorphism.
Let $H<\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{Z})$ be a finite index normal subgroup which is contained in a principal congruence subgroup, and let $Φ(H)\neq H$ denote a term of the lower central series or the derived series of $H$. In this paper, we prove that the commensurator of $Φ(H)$ in $\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{R})$ is discrete. We thus obtain a natural family of thin subgroups of $\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathbb{R})$ whose commensurators are discrete, establishing some cases of a conjecture of Shalom.
For any discrete, torsion-free subgroup $Γ$ of $\mathrm{Sp}(n,1)$ (resp.\ $\mathrm{F}_4^{-20}$) with no parabolic elements, we prove that $H_{4n-1}(Γ;V)=0$ (resp.\ $H_i(Γ;V)=0$ for $i=13,14,15$) for any $Γ$--module $V$. The main technical advance is a new bound on the $p$--Jacobian of the barycenter map of Besson--Courtois--Gallot. We also apply this estimate to obtain an inequality between the critical exponent and homological dimension of $Γ$, improving on work of M.~Kapovich.
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 $\mathrm{Out}(F_n)$.
Let $\mathrm{Mod}(S)$ be the mapping class group of a compact connected orientable surface $S$, possibly with punctures and boundary components, with negative Euler characteristic. We prove that for any infinite virtually abelian subgroup $H$ of $\mathrm{Mod}(S)$, there is a subgroup $H'$ commensurable with $H$ such that the commensurator of $H$ equals the normalizer of $H'$. As a consequence we give, for each $n \geq 2$, an upper bound for the geometric dimension of $\mathrm{Mod}(S)$ for the family of abelian subgroups of rank bounded by $n$. These results generalize work by Juan-Pineda--Truj…
Let $G_1 \times G_2$ be a subgroup of $\mathrm{SO}_3(\mathbb{R})$ such that the two factors $G_1$ and $G_2$ are non-trivial groups. We show that if $G_1 \times G_2$ is not abelian, then one factor is the (abelian) group of order 2, and the other factor is non-abelian and contains an element of order 2. There exist finite and infinite such non-abelian subgroups.
For $S$ a Sylow $p$-subgroup of the group $\mathrm{G}_2(p)$ for $p$ odd, up to isomorphism of fusion systems, we determine all saturated fusion systems $\mathcal{F}$ on $S$ with $O_p(\mathcal{F})=1$. For $p \ne 7$, all such fusion systems are realized by finite groups whereas for $p=7$ there are $29$ saturated fusion systems of which $27$ are exotic.
Let $\frak{F}$ be a class of finite groups. A subgroup $H$ of a finite group $G$ is said to be $\mathfrak{F_{\mathrm s}}$-quasinormal in $G$ if there exists a normal subgroup $T$ of $G$ such that $HT$ is $s$-permutable in $G$ and $(H\cap T)H_G/H_G$ is contained in the $\frak{F}$-hypercenter $Z_\infty^\mathfrak{F}(G/H_G)$ of $G/H_G$. In this paper, we investigate further the influence of $\mathfrak{F_{\mathrm s}}$-quasinormality of some subgroups on the structure of finite groups. New characterization of some classes of finite groups are obtained.
We study invariant random subgroups (IRSs) of semidirect products $G = A \rtimes Γ$. In particular, we characterize all IRSs of parabolic subgroups of $\mathrm{SL}_d(\mathbb{R})$, and show that all ergodic IRSs of $\mathbb{R}^d \rtimes \mathrm{SL}_d(\mathbb{R})$ are either of the form $\mathbb{R}^d \rtimes K$ for some IRS of $\mathrm{SL}_d(\mathbb{R})$, or are induced from IRSs of $Λ\rtimes \mathrm{SL}(Λ)$, where $Λ< \mathbb{R}^d$ is a lattice.
We will give a general criterion - the existence of an $F$-obstruction - for showing that a subgroup of $\mathrm{PL}_+ I$ does not embed into Thompson's group $F$. An immediate consequence is that Cleary's "golden ratio" group $F_τ$ does not embed into $F$. Our results also yield a new proof that Stein's groups $F_{p,q}$ do not embed into $F$, a result first established by Lodha using his theory of coherent actions. We develop the basic theory of $F$-obstructions and show that they exhibit certain rigidity phenomena of independent interest. In the course of establishing the main result of the …
We study embeddings of $\mathrm{PSL}_2(p^a)$ into exceptional groups $G(p^b)$ for $G=F_4,E_6,{}^2\!E_6,E_7$, and $p$ a prime with $a,b$ positive integers. With a few possible exceptions, we prove that any almost simple group with socle $\mathrm{PSL}_2(p^a)$, that is maximal inside an almost simple exceptional group of Lie type $F_4$, $E_6$, ${}^2\!E_6$ and $E_7$, is the fixed points under the Frobenius map of a corresponding maximal closed subgroup of type $A_1$ inside the algebraic group. Together with a recent result of Burness and Testerman for $p$ the Coxeter number plus one, this proves t…
We parametrize the set of irreducible characters of the Sylow $p$-subgroups of the Chevalley groups $\mathrm{D}_6(q)$ and $\mathrm{E}_6(q)$, for an arbitrary power $q$ of any prime $p$. In particular, we establish that the parametrization is uniform for $p \ge 3$ in type $\mathrm{D}_6$ and for $p \ge 5$ in type $\mathrm{E}_6$, while the prime $2$ in type $\mathrm{D}_6$ and the primes $2,$ $3$ in type $\mathrm{E}_6$ yield character degrees of the form $q^m/p^i$ which force a departure from the generic situations. Also for the first time in our analysis we see a family of irreducible characters …
Let $G$ be a simple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field $k$, where $\mathrm{char}\, k$ is either 0 or a good prime for $G$. We consider the modality $\mathrm{mod}(B : \mathfrak u)$ of the action of a Borel subgroup $B$ of $G$ on the Lie algebra $\mathfrak u$ of the unipotent radical of $B$, and report on computer calculations used to show that $\mathrm{mod}(B:\mathfrak u) = 20$, when $G$ is of type $\mathrm E_8$. This completes the determination of the values for $\mathrm{mod}(B:\mathfrak u)$ for $G$ of exceptional type.
We develop a theory of Ennola duality for subgroups of finite groups of Lie type, relating subgroups of twisted and untwisted groups of the same type. Roughly speaking, one finds that subgroups $H$ of $\mathrm{GU}_d(q)$ correspond to subgroups of $\mathrm{GL}_d(-q)$, where $-q$ is interpreted modulo $|H|$. Analogous results for types other than $\mathrm A$ are established, including for exceptional types where the maximal subgroups are known, although the result for type $\mathrm D$ is still conjectural. Let $M$ denote the Gram matrix of a non-zero orthogonal form for a real, irreducible repre…
Let $Γ< \mathrm{GL}_n(F)$ be a countable non-amenable linear group with a simple, center free Zariski closure, $\mathrm{Sub}(Γ)$ the space of all subgroups of $Γ$ with the, compact, metric, Chabauty topology. An invariant random subgroup (IRS) of $Γ$ is a conjugation invariant Borel probability measure on $\mathrm{Sub}(Γ)$. An $\mathrm{IRS}$ is called nontrivial if it does not have an atom in the trivial group, i.e. if it is nontrivial almost surely. We denote by $\mathrm{IRS}^{0}(Γ)$ the collection of all nontrivial $\mathrm{IRS}$ on $Γ$. We show that there exits a free subgroup $F < Γ$ and a…
In [Ann. Math. 190 (2019), 657-661], James Hyde presented the first example of non-left-orderable, finitely generated subgroup of $\mathrm{Homeo}(D,\partial D)$, the group of homeomorphisms of the disk fixing the boundary. This implies that the group $\mathrm{Homeo}(D,\partial D)$ itself is not left-orderable. We revisit the construction, and present a slightly different proof of purely dynamical flavor, avoiding direct references to properties of left-orders. Our approach allows to solve the analogue problem for actions on the circle.
Given a countable group $G$ splitting as a free product $G=G_1\ast\dots\ast G_k\ast F_N$, we establish classification results for subgroups of the group $Out(G,\mathcal{F})$ of all outer automorphisms of $G$ that preserve the conjugacy classes of each $G_i$. We show that every finitely generated subgroup $H\subseteq Out(G,\mathcal{F})$ either contains a relatively fully irreducible automorphism, or else it virtually preserves the conjugacy class of a proper free factor relative to the decomposition (the finite generation hypothesis on $H$ can be dropped for $G=F_N$, or more generally when $G$ …
In this paper we produce many examples of thin subgroups of special linear groups that are isomorphic to the fundamental groups of non-arithmetic hyperbolic manifolds. Specifically, we show that the non-arithmetic lattices in $\mathrm{SO}(n,1)$ constructed by Gromov and Piatetski-Shapiro can be embedded into $\mathrm{SL}_{n+1}(\mathbb{R})$ so that their images are thin subgroups
Let ${\mathfrak{X}}$ be a class of finite groups closed under taking subgroups, homomorphic images, and extensions. Denote by ${\mathrm{k}}_{\mathfrak{X}}(G)$ the number of conjugacy classes ${\mathfrak{X}}$-maximal subgroups of a finite group $G$. The natural problem to describe up to conjugacy ${\mathfrak{X}}$-maximal subgroups of a given finite group is complicated by the fact that it is not inductive. In particular, generally speaking, the image of an ${\mathfrak{X}}$-maximal subgroup is not ${\mathfrak{X}}$-maximal in the image of a homomorphism. Nevertheless, there are group homomorphism…
Let $\boldsymbol{G}$ be an algebraic group of exceptional Lie type in characteristic $p$, $G=\boldsymbol{G}^σ$ its fixed-point subgroup under the action of a Steinberg endomorphism $σ$, and $\overline{G}$ an almost simple group with socle $G$. A maximal subgroup $M<\overline{G}$ is called non-generic if it is almost simple and its socle is not isomorphic to a group of Lie type in characteristic $p$. A finite subgroup $H$ of $\boldsymbol{G}$ is Lie primitive if it does not lie in any proper closed positive-dimensional subgroup of $\boldsymbol{G}$; it is Lie imprimitive if it lies in a positive-…
In this paper we study the groups all whose maximal or all Sylow subgroups are $K$-$\mathfrak{F}$-subnormal in their product the with generalizations of the Fitting subgroup $\mathrm{F}^*(G)$ and $\mathrm{\tilde F}(G)$. We prove that a hereditary formation $\mathfrak{F}$ contains every group all whose Sylow subgroups are $K$-$\mathfrak{F}$-subnormal in their product with $\mathrm{F}^*(G)$ if and only if $\mathfrak{F}$ is the class of all $σ$-nilpotent groups for some partition $σ$ of the set of all primes. We obtain a new characterization of the $σ$-nilpotent hypercenter, i.e. the $\mathfrak{F…
We explore hybrid subgroups of certain non-arithmetic lattices in $\mathrm{PU}(2,1)$. We show that all of Mostow's lattices are virtually hybrids; moreover, we show that some of these non-arithmetic lattices are hybrids of two non-commensurable arithmetic lattices in $\mathrm{PU}(1,1)$.
Let $G$ be a Garside group endowed with the generating set $\mathcal{S}$ of non-trivial simple elements, and let $H$ be a parabolic subgroup of $G$. We determine a transversal $T$ of $H$ in $G$ such that each $θ\in T$ is of minimal length in its right-coset, $H θ$, for the word length with respect to $\mathcal{S}$. We show that there exists a regular language $L$ on $\mathcal{S} \cup \mathcal{S}^{-1}$ and a bijection $\mathrm{ev} : L \to T$ satisfying $\mathrm{lg} (U) = \mathrm{lg}_\mathcal{S}( \mathrm{ev}(U))$ for all $U \in L$. From this we deduce that the coset growth series of $H$ in $G$ i…
We develop in this work a method to parametrize the set $\mathrm{Irr}(U)$ of irreducible characters of a Sylow $p$-subgroup $U$ of a finite Chevalley group $G(p^f)$ which is valid for arbitrary primes $p$, in particular when $p$ is a very bad prime for $G$. As an application, we parametrize $\mathrm{Irr}(U)$ when $G=\mathrm{F}_4(2^f)$.
We present a proof of the following claim. Suppose that $n$ is an integer such that $n>1$ and that $k$ is any field. Suppose that $g$ is an element of $\mathrm{SL}(n,k)$ of infinite order. Then the set $\{h\in\mathrm{SL}(n,k)\mid <g,h>$ is a free group of rank two$\}$ is a Zariski dense subset of $\mathrm{SL}(n,\bar{k})$ where $\bar{k}$ is an algebraic closure of $k$.
Let $G$ be a linear Lie group that acts on it's Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ by the adjoint action: $\mathrm{Ad}(g)X=gXg^{-1}$. An element $X\in \mathfrak {g}$ is called $\mathrm{Ad}_G$-real if $-X = \mathrm{Ad}(g)X $ for some $g\in G$. An $\mathrm{Ad}_G$-real element $X$ is called strongly $\mathrm{Ad}_G $-real if $-X = \mathrm{Ad}(τ) X $ for some involution $τ\in G$. Let $K=\mathbb{R}$, $\mathbb{C}$ or $\mathbb{H}$. Let $\mathrm{U}_n(K)$ be the group of unipotent upper-triangular matrices over $K$. Let $\mathfrak{u}_n (K)$ be the Lie algebra of $\mathrm{U}_n(K)$ that consists of $n \times n$ u…
The outer automorphism group Out(F_2g) of a free group on 2g generators naturally contains the mapping class group of a punctured surface as a subgroup. We define a subsurface projection of the sphere complex of the connected sum of n copies of S^1 x S^2 into the arc complex of the surface and use this to show that this subgroup is a Lipschitz retract of Out(F_2g). We also use subsurface projections to give a simple proof of a result of Handel and Mosher [HM10] stating that stabilizers of conjugacy classes of free splittings and corank 1 free factors in a free group Fn are Lipschitz retracts o…
A group $G$ is said to be totally $2$-closed if in each of its faithful permutation representations, say on a set $Ω$, $G$ is the largest subgroup of $\mathrm{Sym}(Ω)$ which leaves invariant each of the $G$-orbits for the induced action on $Ω\times Ω$. We prove that there are precisely $47$ finite totally $2$-closed groups with trivial Fitting subgroup. Each of these groups is a direct product of pairwise non-isomorphic sporadic simple groups, with the direct factors coming from the Janko groups $\mathrm{J}_1, \mathrm{J}_3$ and $\mathrm{J}_4$, together with $\mathrm{Ly}, \mathrm{Th}$ and the M…
We develop practical techniques to compute with arithmetic groups $H\leq \mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb{Q})$ for $n>2$. Our approach relies on constructing a principal congruence subgroup in $H$. Problems solved include testing membership in $H$, analyzing the subnormal structure of $H$, and the orbit-stabilizer problem for $H$. Effective computation with subgroups of $\mathrm{GL}(n,\mathbb{Z}_m)$ is vital to this work. All algorithms have been implemented in GAP.
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 …
For a positive integer $g$, let $\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(R)$ denote the group of $2g \times 2g$ symplectic matrices over a ring $R$. Assume $g \ge 2$. For a prime number $\ell$, we give a self-contained proof that any closed subgroup of $\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(\mathbb{Z}_\ell)$ which surjects onto $\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(\mathbb{Z}/\ell\mathbb{Z})$ must in fact equal all of $\mathrm{Sp}_{2g}(\mathbb{Z}_\ell)$. The result and the method of proof are both motivated by group-theoretic considerations that arise in the study of Galois representations associated to abelian varieties.
Let $\Bbb P$ be the set of all primes. A subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is called {\it $\mathbb P$-subnormal} in $G$, if either $H=G$, or there exists a chain of subgroups $H=H_0\le H_1\le \ldots \le H_n=G, \ |H_{i}:H_{i-1}|\in \Bbb P, \ \forall i.$ A group $G$ is called {\it widely supersoluble}, $\mathrm{w}$-supersoluble for short, if every Sylow subgroup of $G$ is $\mathbb P$-subnormal in $G$. A group $G=AB$ with $\mathbb P$-subnormal $\mathrm{w}$-supersoluble subgroups $A$ and $B$ is studied. The structure of its $\mathrm{w}$-supersoluble residual is obtained. In particular, it coincides with…
