A finitely generated group $Γ$ is called strongly scale-invariant if there exists an injective endomorphism $φ: Γ\to Γ$ with the image $φ(Γ)$ of finite index in $Γ$ and the subgroup $\displaystyle \bigcap_{n>0}φ^n(Γ)$ finite. The only known examples of such groups are virtually nilpotent, or equivalently, all examples have polynomial growth. A question by Nekrashevych and Pete asks whether these groups are the only possibilities for such endomorphisms, motivated by the positive answer due to Gromov in the special case of expanding group morphisms.
In this paper, we study this question for the class of virtually polycyclic groups, i.e. the virtually solvable groups for which every subgroup is finitely generated. Using the $\mathbb{Q}$-algebraic hull, which allows us to extend the injective endomorphisms of certain virtually polycyclic groups to a linear algebraic group, we show that the existence of such an endomorphism implies that the group is virtually nilpotent. Moreover, we fully characterize which virtually nilpotent groups have a morphism satisfying the condition above, related to the existence of a positive grading on the corresponding radicable nilpotent group. As another application of the methods, we generalize a result of Fel'shtyn and Lee about which maps on infra-solvmanifolds can have finite Reidemeister number for all iterates.
Let $G$ be a polycyclic, metabelian or soluble of type (FP)$_{\infty}$ group such that the class $Rat(G)$ of all rational subsets of $G$ is a boolean algebra. Then $G$ is virtually abelian. Every soluble biautomatic group is virtually abelian.
A classical result by K.B. Lee states that every group morphism between almost crystallographic groups is induced by an affine map on the nilpotent Lie group whereon these groups by definition act. It is the main technique for studying morphisms between virtually nilpotent groups, having important applications in fixed point theory, for example as a tool to compute Nielsen numbers for self-maps on infra-nilmanifolds. In this paper we generalize this result to morphisms between virtually polycyclic groups, which are known to act crystallographically by affine transformations on a nilpotent Lie …
We show that any soluble group $G$ of type Bredon-$\FP_{\infty}$ with respect to the family of all virtually cyclic subgroups such that centralizers of infinite order elements are of type $\FP_{\infty}$ must be virtually cyclic. To prove this, we first reduce the problem to the case of polycyclic groups and then we show that a polycyclic-by-finite group with finitely many conjugacy classes of maximal virtually cyclic subgroups is virtually cyclic. Finally we discuss refinements of this result: we only impose the property Bredon-$\FP_n$ for some $n \leq 3$ and restrict to abelian-by-nilpotent, …
We consider a group-theoretic analogue of the classic subset sum problem. It is known that every virtually nilpotent group has polynomial time decidable subset sum problem. In this paper we use subgroup distortion to show that every polycyclic non-virtually-nilpotent group has NP-complete subset sum problem.
We study properly discontinuous and cocompact actions of a discrete subgroup $Γ$ of an algebraic group $G$ on a contractible algebraic manifold $X$. We suppose that this action comes from an algebraic action of $G$ on $X$ such that a maximal reductive subgroup of $G$ fixes a point. When the real rank of any simple subgroup of $G$ is at most one or the dimension of $X$ is at most three, we show that $Γ$ is virtually polycyclic. When $Γ$ is virtually polycyclic, we show that $Γ$ is virtually polycyclic. When $Γ$ is virtually polycyclic, we show that the action reduces to a NIL-affine crystallogr…
The residual closure of a subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is the intersection of all virtually normal subgroups of $G$ containing $H$. We show that if $G$ is generated by finitely many cosets of $H$ and if $H$ is commensurated, then the residual closure of $H$ in $G$ is virtually normal. This implies that separable commensurated subgroups of finitely generated groups are virtually normal. A stream of applications to separable subgroups, polycyclic groups, residually finite groups, groups acting on trees, lattices in products of trees and just-infinite groups then flows from this main result.
It is shown that the knapsack problem (introduced by Myasnikov, Nikolaev, and Ushakov) is undecidable in a direct product of sufficiently many copies of the discrete Heisenberg group (which is nilpotent of class 2). Moreover, for the discrete Heisenberg group itself, the knapsack problem is decidable. Hence, decidability of the knapsack problem is not preserved under direct products. It is also shown that for every co-context-free group, the knapsack problem is decidable. For the subset sum problem (also introduced by Myasnikov, Nikolaev, and Ushakov) we show that it belongs to the class NL (n…
Polycyclic groups are natural generalizations of cyclic groups but with more complicated algorithmic properties. They are finitely presented and the word, conjugacy, and isomorphism decision problems are all solvable in these groups. Moreover, the non-virtually nilpotent ones exhibit an exponential growth rate. These properties make them suitable for use in group-based cryptography, which was proposed in 2004 by Eick and Kahrobaei. Since then, many cryptosystems have been created that employ polycyclic groups. These include key exchanges such as non-commutative ElGamal, authentication schemes …
Any virtually free group $H$ containing no non-trivial finite normal subgroup (e.g., the infinite dihedral group) is a retract of any finitely generated group containing $H$ as a verbally closed subgroup.
This thesis concerns the study of the Bredon cohomological and geometric dimensions of a discrete group $G$ with respect to a family $\mathfrak{F}$ of subgroups of $G$. With that purpose, we focus on building finite-dimensional models for $\operatorname{E}_{\mathfrak{F}} \left( G \right)$. The cases of the family $\mathfrak{Fin}$ of finite subgroups of a group and the family $\mathfrak{VC}$ of virtually cyclic subgroups of a group have been widely studied and many tools have been developed to relate the classifying spaces for $\mathfrak{VC}$ with those for $\mathfrak{Fin}$. Given a discrete gr…
It is known that a group shift on a polycyclic group is necessarily of finite type. We show that, for trivial reasons, if a group does not satisfy the maximal condition on subgroups, then it admits non-SFT abelian group shifts. In particular, we show that if group is elementarily amenable or satisfies the Tits alternative, then it is virtually polycyclic if and only if all its group shifts are of finite type. Our theorems are minor elaborations of results of Schmidt and Osin.
We prove that every polycyclic group of nonlinear growth admits a strongly aperiodic SFT and has an undecidable domino problem. This answers a question of [4] and generalizes the result of [2].
We establish a connection between the generalized conjugacy problem for a $G$-by-$\mathbb{Z}$ group, $GCP(G \rtimes \mathbb{Z})$, and two algorithmic problems for $G$: the generalized Brinkmann's conjugacy problem, $GBrCP(G)$, and the generalized twisted conjugacy problem, $GTCP(G)$. We explore this connection for generalizations of different kinds: relative to finitely generated subgroups, to theirs cosets, or to recognizable, rational, context-free or algebraic subsets of the group. Using this result, we are able to prove that $GBrCP(G)$ is decidable (with respect to cosets) when $G$ is a vi…
Consider a group G and a family $\mathcal{A}$ of subgroups of G. We say that vertex finiteness holds for splittings of G over $\mathcal{A}$ if, up to isomorphism, there are only finitely many possibilities for vertex stabilizers of minimal G-trees with edge stabilizers in $\mathcal{A}$. We show vertex finiteness when G is a toral relatively hyperbolic group and $\mathcal{A}$ is the family of abelian subgroups. We also show vertex finiteness when G is hyperbolic relative to virtually polycyclic subgroups and $\mathcal{A}$ is the family of virtually cyclic subgroups; if moreover G is one-ended, …
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…
We study the finite generation of homotopy groups of closed manifolds and finite CW-complexes by relating it to the cohomology of their fundamental groups. Our main theorems are as follows: when $X$ is a finite CW-complex of dimension $n$ and $π_1(X)$ is virtually a Poincaré duality group of dimension $\geq n-1$, then $π_i(X)$ is not finitely generated for some $i$ unless $X$ is homotopy equivalent to the Eilenberg--MacLane space $K(π_1(X),1)$; when $M$ is an $n$-dimensional closed manifold and $π_1(M)$ is virtually a Poincaré duality group of dimension $\ge n-1$, then for some $i\leq [n/2]$, …
Let $G$ be a totally disconnected, locally compact group and let $H$ be a virtually flat (for example, polycyclic) group of automorphisms of $G$. We study the structure of, and relationships between, various subgroups of $G$ defined by the dynamics of $H$. In particular, we consider the following four subgroups: the intersection of all tidy subgroups for $H$ on $G$ (in the case that $H$ is flat); the intersection of all $H$-invariant open subgroups of $G$; the smallest closed $H$-invariant subgroup $D$ such that no $H$-orbit on $G/D$ accumulates at the trivial coset; and the group generated by…
We show that the group cohomology of torsion-free virtually polycyclic groups and the continuous cohomology of simply connected solvable Lie groups can be computed by the rational cohomology of algebraic groups. Our results are generalizations of certian results on the cohomology of solvmanifolds and infra-solvmanifolds. Moreover as an application of our results, we give a simple proof of the surprising cohomology vanishing theorem given by Dekimpe-Igodt.
Given a graph of groups $\mathcal{G} = (Γ, \{G_v\}, \{G_e\})$ with certain conditions on vertex groups and $G$ acts acylindrically on its Bass-Serre tree $T$. Let $H$ be a finitely generated subgroup of $G$. We prove the following statements equivalence: $H$ has finite height, $(G, T, H)$ is a $A/QI$--triple, $H$ is strongly quasiconvex and virtually free in $G$. We also give a condition to determine whether strong quasiconvexity in a group is preserved under amalgams.
We show that inductive limits of virtually nilpotent groups have strongly quasidiagonal C*-algebras, extending results of the first author on solvable virtually nilpotent groups. We use this result to show that the decomposition rank of the group C*-algebra of a finitely generated virtually nilpotent group $G$ is bounded by $2\cdot h(G)!-1$, where $h(G)$ is the Hirsch length of $G.$ This extends and sharpens results of the first and third authors on finitely generated nilpotent groups. It then follows that if a C*-algebra generated by an irreducible representation of a virtually nilpotent grou…
In a number of recent works, it has been established that many virtually free groups, almost all fundamental groups of surfaces and all groups which are nontrivial free products of groups satisfying a non-trivial law are algebraically closed in any group in which they are verbally closed. In this work we establish that any group which is a non-trivial free product is algebraically closed in any group in which it is verbally closed.
In this article we construct asynchronous and sometimes synchronous automatic structures for amalgamated products and HNN extensions of groups that are strongly asynchronously (or synchronously) coset automatic with respect to the associated automatic subgroups, subject to further geometric conditions. These results are proved in the general context of fundamental groups of graphs of groups. The hypotheses of our closure results are satisfied in a variety of examples such as Artin groups of sufficiently large type, Coxeter groups, virtually abelian groups, and groups that are hyperbolic relati…
It was recently proven that all free and many virtually free verbally closed subgroups are algebraically closed in any group. We establish sufficient conditions for a group that is an extension of a free non-abelian group by a group satisfying a non-trivial law to be algebraically closed in any group in which it is verbally closed. We apply these conditions to prove that the fundamental groups of all closed surfaces (except the Klein bottle) and almost all free products of groups satisfying a non-trivial law are algebraically closed in any group in which they are verbally closed.
A group is said to be strongly amenable if each of its proximal topological actions has a fixed point. We show that a finitely generated group is strongly amenable if and only if it is virtually nilpotent. More generally, a countable discrete group is strongly amenable if and only if none of its quotients have the infinite conjugacy class property.
