The goal of this article is to exhibit two new families of finitely generated simple groups of homeomorphisms of $\mathbf{R}$. These families are strikingly different from existing families owing to the nature of their actions on $\mathbf{R}$, and exhibit surprising algebraic and dynamical features. In particular, one construction provides the first examples of finitely generated simple groups of homeomorphisms of the real line which also admit a minimal action by homeomorphisms on the circle. This provides new examples of finitely generated simple groups with infinite commutator width, and the first such left orderable examples. Another construction provides the first examples of finitely generated simple left orderable groups that admit minimal actions by homeomorphisms on the torus.
We construct examples of finitely generated infinite simple groups of homeomorphisms of the real line. Equivalently, these are examples of finitely generated simple left (or right) orderable groups. This answers a well known open question of Rhemtulla from 1980 concerning the existence of such groups. In fact, our construction provides a family of continuum many isomorphism types of groups with these properties.
A group $G$ is said to be periodic if for any $g\in G$ there exists a positive integer $n$ with $g^n=id$. We prove that a finitely generated periodic group of homeomorphisms on the 2-torus that preserves a measure $μ$ is finite. Moreover if the group consists in homeomorphisms isotopic to the identity, then it is abelian and acts freely on $\mathbb{T}^2$. In the Appendix, we show that every finitely generated 2-group of toral homeomorphisms is finite.
We construct a finitely presented, infinite, simple group that acts by homeomorphisms on the circle, but does not admit a non-trivial action by $C^1$-diffeomorphisms on the circle. The group emerges as a group of piecewise projective homeomorphisms of $S^1=\mathbf{R}\cup \{\infty\}$. However, we show that it does not admit a non-trivial action by piecewise linear homeomorphisms of the circle. Another interesting and new feature of this example is that it produces a non amenable orbit equivalence relation with respect to the Lebesgue measure.
A group $Γ$ is said to be periodic if for any $g$ in $Γ$ there is a positive integer $n$ with $g^n=id$. We first prove that a finitely generated periodic group acting on the 2-sphere $\SS^2$ by $C^1$-diffeomorphisms with a finite orbit, is finite and conjugate to a subgroup of $\mathrm{O}(3,\R)$ and we use it for proving that a finitely generated periodic group of spherical diffeomorphisms with even bounded orders is finite. Finally, we show that a finitely generated periodic group of homeomorphisms of any orientable compact surface other than the 2-sphere or the 2-torus (which is the purpose …
In this article we will describe a finitely presented subgroup of Monod's group of piecewise projective homeomorphisms of R. This in particular provides a new example of a finitely presented group which is nonamenable and yet does not contain a nonabelian free subgroup. It is in fact the first such example which is torsion free. We will also develop a means for representing the elements of the group by labeled tree diagrams in a manner which closely parallels Richard Thompson's group F.
To every dynamical system $(X,φ)$ over a totally disconnected compact space, we associate a left-orderable group $T(φ)$. It is defined as a group of homeomorphisms of the suspension of $(X,φ)$ which preserve every orbit of the suspension flow and act by dyadic piecewise linear homeomorphisms in the flow direction. We show that if the system is minimal, the group is simple, and if it is a subshift then the group is finitely generated. The proofs of these two statements are short and elementary, providing straightforward examples of finitely generated simple left-orderable groups. We show that i…
The set of finitely generated subgroups of the group $PL_+(I)$ of orientation-preserving piecewise-linear homeomorphisms of the unit interval includes many important groups, most notably R.~Thompson's group $F$. In this paper we show that every finitely generated subgroup $G<PL_+(I)$ is either soluble, or contains an embedded copy of Brin's group $B$, a finitely generated, non-soluble group, which verifies a conjecture of the first author from 2009. In the case that $G$ is soluble, we show that the derived length of $G$ is bounded above by the number of breakpoints of any finite set of generat…
We prove that every finitely-generated group of homeomorphisms of the 2-dimensional sphere all of whose elements have a finite order which is a power of 2 and so that there exists a uniform bound for the order of group elements is finite. We prove a similar result for groups of area-preserving homeomorphisms without the hypothesis that the orders of group elements are powers of 2 provided there is an element of even order.
We study the group of almost-periodic homeomorphisms of the real line. Our main result states that an action of a finitely generated group on the real line without global fixed point is conjugated to an almost-periodic action without almost fixed point. This is equivalent to saying that the action on the real line can be compactified to an action on a 1-dimensional lamination of a compact space, without global fixed point. As an application we give an alternative proof of Witte's theorem: an amenable left orderable group is locally indicable.
Let G be a connected semisimple Lie group with at least one absolutely simple factor S such that R-rank(S) is at least 2, and let $Γ$ be a uniform lattice in G. (a) If $CH$ holds, then $Γ$ has a unique asymptotic cone up to homeomorphism. (b) If $CH$ fails, then $Γ$ has $2^{2^ω}$ asymptotic cones up to homeomorphism.
We show that for a large class $\mathcal{C}$ of finitely generated groups of orientation preserving homeomorphisms of the real line, the following holds: Given a group $G$ of rank $k$ in $\mathcal{C}$, there is a sequence of $k$-markings $(G, S_n), n\in \mathbf{N}$ whose limit in the space of marked groups is the free group of rank $k$ with the standard marking. The class we consider consists of groups that admit actions satisfying mild dynamical conditions and a certain "self-similarity" type hypothesis. Examples include Thompson's group $F$, Higman-Thompson groups, Stein-Thompson groups, var…
We show that the topological groups $Diff_{+}^{1}(I)$ and $Diff_{+}^{1}(\mathbb{S}^1)$ of orientation-preserving $C^1$-diffeomorphisms of the interval and the circle, respectively, admit finitely generated dense subgroups. We also investigate the question of genericity (in the sense of Baire category) of such finite topological generating sets in related groups. We show that the generic pair of elements in the homeomorphism group $Homeo_+(I)$ generate a dense subgroup of $Homeo_+(I)$. By contrast, if $M$ is any compact connected manifold with boundary other than the interval, we observe that a…
We show that, in many situations, a homeomorphism $f$ of a manifold $M$ may be recovered from the (marked) isomorphism class of a finitely generated group of homeomorphisms containing $f$. As an application, we relate the notions of {\em critical regularity} and of {\em differentiable rigidity}, give examples of groups of diffeomorphisms of 1-manifolds with strong differential rigidity, and in so doing give an independent, short proof of a recent result of Kim and Koberda that there exist finitely generated groups of $C^α$ diffeomorphisms of a 1-manifold $M$, not embeddable into $\mathrm{Diff}…
We show that the group of germs at infinity of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms of R admits no action on the line. This gives an example of a left-orderable group of the same cardinality as Homeo+(R) that does not embed in Homeo+(R). As an application of our techniques, we construct a finitely generated group of germs that does not extend to Homeo+(R) and, separately, extend a theorem of E. Militon on homomorphisms between groups of homeomorphisms.
We consider a minimal action of a finitely generated semigroup by homeomorphisms of a circle, and show that the collection of translation numbers of individual elements completely determines the set of generators (up to a common continuous change of coordinates). One of the main tools used in the proof is the synchronization properties of random dynamics of circle homeomorphisms: Antonov's theorem and its corollaries.
The Tarski number of a non amenable group is the smallest number of pieces needed for a paradoxical decomposition of the group. Non amenable groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms were introduced by Monod, and non amenable finitely presented groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms were introduced by the author in joint work with Justin Moore. These groups do not contain non abelian free subgroups. In this article we prove that the Tarski number of all groups in both families is at most 25. In particular we demonstrate the existence of a paradoxical decomposition with 25 pieces. Ou…
We study the uniformly recurrent subgroups of groups acting by homeomorphisms on a topological space. We prove a general result relating uniformly recurrent subgroups to rigid stabilizers of the action, and deduce a $C^*$-simplicity criterion based on the non-amenability of rigid stabilizers. As an application, we show that Thompson's group $V$ is $C^\ast$-simple, as well as groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms of the real line. This provides examples of finitely presented $C^\ast$-simple groups without free subgroups. We prove that a branch group is either amenable or $C^\ast$-simple…
IMERL, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de la República（乌拉圭共和国大学工程学院）；Institut Camille Jordan, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1（里昂第一大学）；CNRS & Institut Camille Jordan, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1（法国国家科学研究中心与里昂第一大学）
In 2012 Monod introduced examples of groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms which are not amenable and which do not contain free subgroups, and later Lodha and Moore introduced examples of finitely presented groups with the same property. In this article we examine the normal subgroup structure of these groups. Two important cases of our results are the groups $H$ and $G_0$. We show that the group $H$ of piecewise projective homeomorphisms of $\mathbb{R}$ has the property that $H"$ is simple and that every proper quotient of $H$ is metabelian. We establish simplicity of the commutator s…
A left-order on a group $G$ is a total order $<$ on $G$ such that for any $f$, $g$ and $h$ in $G$ we have $f < g \Leftrightarrow hf < hg$. We construct a finitely generated subgroup $G$ of $\operatorname{Homeo} (I^2;δI^2)$, the group of those homeomorphisms of the disc that fix the boundary pointwise, and show $G$ does not admit a left-order. Since any left-order on $\operatorname{Homeo} (I^2;δI^2)$ would restrict to a left-order on $G$ this shows that $\operatorname{Homeo} (I^2;δI^2)$ does not admit a left-order. Since $\operatorname{Homeo} (I;δI)$ admits a left-order it follows that neither …
We introduce the space of relative orders on a group and show that it is compact whenever the group is finitely generated. We use this to show that if $G$ is a finitely generated group acting by order preserving homeomorphism of on the line, then if some stabilizer of a point is proper and co-amenable subgroup, then $G$ surjects onto $\mathbb{Z}$. This is a generalization of a theorem of Morris.
We study symmetric random walks on finitely generated groups of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms of the real line. We establish an oscillation property for the induced Markov chain on the line that implies a weak form of recurrence. Except for a few special cases, which can be treated separately, we prove a property of "global stability at a finite distance": roughly speaking, there exists a compact interval such that any two trajectories get closer and closer whenever one of them returns to the compact interval. The probabilistic techniques employed here lead to interesting results for t…
Let $PL_0(I)$ represent the group of orientation-preserving piecewise-linear homeomorphisms of the unit interval which admit finitely many breaks in slope, under the operation of composition. We find a non-solvable group $W$ and show that $W$ embeds in every non-solvable subgroup of $PL_0(I)$. We find mild conditions under which other non-solvable subgroups ($B$, $(\wr\Z\wr)^{\infty}$, $(\Z\wr)^{\infty}$, and $^{\infty}(\wr\Z)$) embed in subgroups of $PL_0(I)$. We show that all solvable subgroups of $PL_0(I)$ embed in all non-solvable subgroups of $PL_0(I)$. These results continue to apply if …
Given a transitive permutation group, a fundamental object for studying its higher transitivity properties is the permutation action of its isotropy subgroup. We reverse this relationship and introduce a universal construction of infinite permutation groups that takes as input a given system of imprimitivity for its isotropy subgroup. This produces vast families kaleidoscopic groups. We investigate their algebraic properties, such as simplicity and oligomorphy; their homological properties, such as acyclicity or contrariwise large Schur multipliers; their topological properties, such as unique…
We investigate subgroups of the group PLo(I) of piecewise-linear, orientation-preserving homeomorphisms of the unit interval with finitely many breaks in slope, under the operation of composition, and also subgroups of the generalized Thompson groups F_n. We find geometric criteria determining the derived length of any such group, and use this criteria to produce a geometric classification of the solvable and non-solvable subgroups of PLo(I) and of the F_n. We also show that any standard restricted wreath product C wr T (of non-trivial groups) that embeds in PLo(I) or F_n must have T isomorphi…
In his work on the Farrell-Jones Conjecture, Arthur Bartels introduced the concept of a "finitely $\mathcal{F}$-amenable" group action, where $\mathcal{F}$ is a family of subgroups. We show how a finitely $\mathcal{F}$-amenable action of a countable group $G$ on a compact metric space, where the asymptotic dimensions of the elements of $\mathcal{F}$ are bounded from above, gives an upper bound for the asymptotic dimension of $G$ viewed as a metric space with a proper left invariant metric. We generalize this to families $\mathcal{F}$ whose elements are contained in a collection, $\mathfrak{C}$…
We show that conjugacy of reversible cellular automata is undecidable, whether the conjugacy is to be performed by another reversible cellular automaton or by a general homeomorphism. This gives rise to a new family of finitely-generated groups with undecidable conjugacy problems, whose descriptions arguably do not involve any type of computation. For many automorphism groups of subshifts, as well as the group of asynchronous transducers and the homeomorphism group of the Cantor set, our result implies the existence of two elements such that every finitely-generated subgroup containing both ha…
We investigate subgroups of the group PLo(I) of piecewise-linear, orientation preserving homeomorphisms of the unit interval with finitely many breaks in slope, and also subgroups of Thompson's group F. We find geometric criteria determining the derived length of any such group, and use this criteria to classify the solvable and non-solvable subgroups of PLo(I) and of F. Let H be a subgroup of PL_o(I) or F. We find that H is solvable if and only if H is isomorphic to a group in a well described class R of groups. We also find that H is non-solvable if and only if we can embed a copy of a speci…
Ghys and Sergiescu proved in the $80$s that Thompson's group $T$, and hence $F$, admits actions by $C^{\infty}$ diffeomorphisms of the circle . They proved that the standard actions of these groups are topologically conjugate to a group of $C^\infty$ diffeomorphisms. Monod defined a family of groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms, and Lodha-Moore defined finitely presentable groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms. These groups are of particular interest because they are nonamenable and contain no free subgroup. In contrast to the result of Ghys-Sergiescu, we prove that the group…
We introduce and study the notion of a chain group of homeomorphisms of a one-manifold, which is a certain generalization of Thompson's group $F$. The resulting class of groups exhibits a combination of uniformity and diversity. On the one hand, a chain group either has a simple commutator subgroup or the action of the group has a wandering interval. In the latter case, the chain group admits a canonical quotient which is also a chain group, and which has a simple commutator subgroup. On the other hand, every finitely generated subgroup of $\operatorname{Homeo}^+(I)$ can be realized as a subgr…
Let K be a Cantor set embedded in the real line R. Following Funar and Neretin, we define the diffeomorphism group of K as the group of homeomorphisms of K which locally look like a diffeomorphism between two intervals of R. Higman-Thompson's groups Vn appear as subgroups of such groups. In this article, we prove some properties of this group. First, we study the Burnside problem in this group and we prove that any finitely generated subgroup consisting of finite order elements is finite. This property was already proved by Rover in the case of the groups Vn. We also prove that any finitely ge…
The Lodha-Moore group $G$ first arose as a finitely presented counterexample to von Neumann's conjecture. The group $G$ acts on the unit interval via piecewise projective homemorphisms. A result of Lodha shows that $G$ in fact has type $F_{\infty}$. Here we will describe $G$ as a group that is "locally determined" by an inverse semigroup $S_{2}$, in the sense of the author's joint work with Hughes. The semigroup $S_{2}$ is generated by three linear fractional transformations $A$, $B$, and $C_{2}$, where $A$ and $B$ are elliptical transformations of the hyperbolic plane and $C_{2}$ is a hyperbo…
Wright showed that, if a 1-ended simply connected locally compact ANR Y with pro-monomorphic fundamental group at infinity admits a proper Z-action, then that fundamental group at infinity can be represented by an inverse sequence of finitely generated free groups. Geoghegan and Guilbault strengthened that result, proving that Y also satisfies the crucial "semistability" condition. Here we get a stronger theorem with weaker hypotheses. We drop the pro-monomorphic hypothesis and simply assume that the Z-action is generated by what we call a "coaxial" homeomorphism. In the pro-monomorphic case e…
The paper consists of two parts. In the first one we show that a relatively hyperbolic group $G$ splits as a star graph of groups whose central vertex group is finitely generated and the other vertex groups are maximal parabolic subgroups. As a corollary we obtain that every group which admits 3-discontinuous and 2-cocompact action by homeomorphisms on a compactum is finitely generated with respect to a system of parabolic subgroups. The second part essentially uses the methods of topological entourages developed in the first part. Using also Floyd metrics we obtain finer properties of finitel…
We study properties of continuous finite group actions on topological manifolds that hold true, for any finite group action, after possibly passing to a subgroup of index bounded above by a constant depending only on the manifold. These include the Jordan property, the almost fixed point property, as well as bounds on the discrete symmetry group. Most of our results apply to manifolds satisfying some restriction such as having nonzero Euler characteristic or having the integral homology of a sphere. For an arbitrary topological manifold $X$ such that $H_*(X;{\mathbf Z})$ is finitely generated,…
We construct families of finitely presented groups exhibiting new divergence behavior; we obtain divergence functions of the form $r^α$ for a dense set of exponents $α\in [2,\infty)$ and $r^n\log(r)$ for integers $n \geq 2$. The same construction also yields examples of finitely presented groups which contain Morse elements that are not contracting.
We study two--generated subgroups $\langle f,g\rangle<\mathrm{Homeo}^+(I)$ such that $\langle f^2,g^2\rangle$ is isomorphic to Thompson's group $F$, and such that the supports of $f$ and $g$ form a chain of two intervals. We show that this class contains uncountably many isomorphism types. These include examples with nonabelian free subgroups, examples which do not admit faithful actions by $C^2$ diffeomorphisms on $1$--manifolds, examples which do not admit faithful actions by $PL$ homeomorphisms on an interval, and examples which are not finitely presented. We thus answer questions due to M.…
We generalise the constructions of Brady and Lodha to give infinite families of hyperbolic groups, each having a finitely presented subgroup that is not of type $F_3$. By calculating the Euler characteristic of the hyperbolic groups constructed, we prove that infinitely many of them are pairwise non isomorphic. We further show that the first of these constructions cannot be generalised to dimensions higher than $3$.
We construct families of $CAT(0)$ groups containing finitely presented groups whose divergence functions are of the form $r^α$ for a dense set of exponents $α\in [2,\infty)$ and $r^q\log(r)$ for integers $q \geq 2$. The same construction also yields examples of $CAT(0)$ groups containing contracting elements which are not contracting in certain finitely presented subgroups.
A finitely generated commutative monoid is uniquely presented if it has only a minimal presentation. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for finitely generated, combinatorially finite, cancellative, commutative monoids to be uniquely presented. We use the concept of gluing to construct commutative monoids with this property. Finally for some relevant families of numerical semigroups we describe the elements that are uniquely presented.
We study the set of homomorphisms from a fixed finitely generated group into a family of groups which are `uniformly acylindrically hyperbolic'. Our main results reduce this study to sets of homomorphisms which do not diverge in an appropriate sense. As an application, we prove that any relatively hyperbolic group with equationally noetherian peripheral subgroups is itself equationally noetherian.
Consider the mapping class group $\Mod_{g,p}$ of a surface $Σ_{g,p}$ of genus $g$ with $p$ punctures, and a finite collection $\{f_1,...,f_k\}$ of mapping classes, each of which is either a Dehn twist about a simple closed curve or a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism supported on a connected subsurface. In this paper we prove that for all sufficiently large $N$, the mapping classes $\{f_1^N,...,f_k^N\}$ generate a right-angled Artin group. The right-angled Artin group which they generate can be determined from the combinatorial topology of the mapping classes themselves. When $\{f_1,...,f_k\}$ are a…
We show that every finitely generated Artin-Tits group admits a finite Garside family, by introducing the notion of a low element in a Coxeter group and proving that the family of all low elements in a Coxeter system (W, S) with S finite includes S and is finite and closed under suffix and join with respect to the right weak order.
For every finitely generated free group we construct an explicit left order extending the lexicographic order on the free monoid generated by the positive letters. The order is defined by a left, free action on the orbit of 0 of a free group of piecewise linear homeomorphisms of the line. The membership in the positive cone is decidable in linear time in the length of the input word. The positive cone forms a context-free language closed under word reversal.
A group is said to have the $R_\infty$ property if every automorphism has an infinite number of twisted conjugacy classes. We study the question whether $G$ has the $R_\infty$ property when $G$ is a finitely generated torsion-free nilpotent group. As a consequence, we show that for every positive integer $n\ge 5$, there is a compact nilmanifold of dimension $n$ on which every homeomorphism is isotopic to a fixed point free homeomorphism. As a by-product, we give a purely group theoretic proof that the free group on two generators has the $R_\infty$ property. The $R_{\infty}$ property for virtu…
