Stabilization of Bounded Cohomology for Classical Groups
Carlos De la Cruz Mengual, Tobias Hartnick
备注：
This is a revised version of (arXiv:2201.03879v1), which has now been split into two parts for better legibility. The material extracted from (arXiv:2201.03879v1) is now contained in (arXiv:2307.12808)
We show that bounded cohomology stabilizes along sequences of classical Lie groups, and along sequences of lattices in them. Our method is based on a criterion from (arXiv:2307.12808) which adapts Quillen's stability method to the setting of bounded cohomology. This criterion is then applied to a family of measured complexes, the so-called Stiefel complexes, associated to any vector space endowed with a non-degenerate sesquilinear form.
We show that continuous bounded group cohomology stabilizes along the sequences of real or complex symplectic Lie groups, and deduce that bounded group cohomology stabilizes along sequences of lattices in them, such as $(\mathrm{Sp}_{2r}(\mathbb{Z}))_{r \geq 1}$ or $(\mathrm{Sp}_{2r}(\mathbb{Z}[i]))_{r \geq 1}$. Our method is based on a general stability criterion which extends Quillen's method to the functional analytic setting of bounded cohomology. This criterion is then applied to a new family of complexes associated to symplectic polar spaces, which we call symplectic Stiefel complexes; s…
We prove that the cup product of $Δ$-decomposable quasimorphisms, Brooks quasimorphisms or Rolli quasimorphisms with any bounded cohomology class of arbitrary positive degree is trivial.
Bounded cohomology of groups was first studied by Gromov in 1982. Since then it has sparked much research in Geometric Group Theory. However, it is notoriously hard to explicitly compute bounded cohomology, even for most basic `non-positively curved' groups. On the other hand, there is a well-known interpretation of ordinary group cohomology in dimension 2 and 3 in terms of group extensions. The aim of this paper is to make this interpretation available for bounded group cohomology. This will involve quasihomomorphisms as defined and studied by Fujiwara and Kapovich.
We study the $\mathrm{Out}(F_n)$-action on the second bounded cohomology $H^2_b(F_n, \mathbb{R})$, focusing on the countable-dimensional dense invariant subspace given by Brooks quasimorphisms. We show that this subspace has no finite-dimensional invariant subspaces, in particular no fixpoints, partially answering a question of Miklós Abért. To this end we introduce a notion of speed of an element $g\in \mathrm{Out}(F_n)$, which measures the asymptotic growth rate of bounded cohomology classes under repeated application of $g$.
We show that in the bounded cohomology of non-abelian free groups the Massey triple product is always trivial when the second factor is represented by the coboundary of a decomposable quasi-morphism. We also show that in the bounded cohomology of a negatively curved compact Riemannian manifold the Massey triple product is always trivial when the second factor is represented by an exact differential form.
We provide new computations in bounded cohomology: A group is boundedly acyclic if its bounded cohomology with trivial real coefficients is zero in all positive degrees. We show that there exists a continuum of finitely generated non-amenable boundedly acyclic groups and construct a finitely presented non-amenable boundedly acyclic group. On the other hand, we construct a continuum of finitely generated groups, whose bounded cohomology has uncountable dimension in all degrees greater than or equal to~$2$, and a concrete finitely presented one. Countable non-amenable groups with these two extre…
Let $M$ be a complete connected Riemannian manifold of finite volume. In this paper we present a new method of constructing classes in bounded cohomology of transformation groups such as $Homeo_0(M,μ)$, $Diff_0(M,vol)$ and $Symp_0(M,ω)$ (in case $M$ is symplectic). As an application we show that, under certain conditions on $π_1(M)$, the $3^{rd}$ bounded cohomology of these groups is infinite dimensional.
We study the bounded cohomology of certain groups acting on the Cantor set. More specifically, we consider the full group of homeomorphisms of the Cantor set as well as Thompson's group $V$. We prove that both of these groups are boundedly acyclic, that is the bounded cohomology with trivial real coefficients vanishes in positive degrees. Combining this result with the already established $\mathbb{Z}$-acyclicity of Thompson's group $V$, will make $V$ the first example of a finitely generated group, in fact the first example of a group of type $F_\infty$, which is universally boundedly acyclic.…
A group is boundedly acyclic if its bounded cohomology with trivial real coefficients vanishes in all positive degrees. Amenable groups are boundedly acyclic, while the first non-amenable examples were the group of compactly supported homeomorphisms of $\mathbb{R}^n$ (Matsumoto--Morita) and mitotic groups (Löh). We prove that binate (alias pseudo-mitotic) groups are boundedly acyclic, which provides a unifying approach to the aforementioned results. Moreover, we show that binate groups are universally boundedly acyclic. We obtain several new examples of boundedly acyclic groups as well as comp…
We develop an algebro-analytic framework for the systematic study of the continuous bounded cohomology of Lie groups in large degree. As an application, we examine the continuous bounded cohomology of PSL(2,R) with trivial real coefficients in all degrees greater than two. We prove a vanishing result for strongly reducible classes, thus providing further evidence for a conjecture of Monod. On the cochain level, our method yields explicit formulas for cohomological primitives of arbitrary bounded cocycles.
The theory of bounded cohomology of groups has many applications. A key open problem is to compute the full bounded cohomology $H_b^n(F, R)$ of a non-abelian free group $F$ with trivial real coefficients. It is known that $H_b^n(F,R)$ is trivial for $n=1$ and uncountable dimensional for $n=2,3$, but remains unknown for any $n \geq 4$. For $n=4$, one may construct classes by taking the cup product $α\cup β\in H_b^4(F, R)$ between two $2$-classes $α, β\in H^2_b(F, R)$. However, we show that all such cup products are trivial if $α$ and $β$ are classes induced by the quasimorphisms defined by Broo…
We prove the vanishing of the bounded cohomology of lamplighter groups for a wide range of coefficients. This implies the same vanishing for a number of groups with self-similarity properties, such as Thompson's group F. In particular, these groups are boundedly acyclic. Our method is ergodic and applies to large transformation groups where the Mather-Matsumoto-Morita method sometimes fails because not all are acyclic in the usual sense.
We study a class of quasimorphisms of the free group that can be expressed as infinite sums of Brooks quasimorphisms with some nice properties. We then review Heuer's framework of decompositions developed in arXiv:1710.03193, and put these quasimorphisms in that context. This allows us to prove triviality of a number of cup products in the bounded cohomology of the free group with trivial real coefficients. Finally, we introduce free products of decompositions and relate them to Rolli's quasimorphisms of free products. A technical result concerning these, which remains an open question, implie…
We determine the bounded cohomology of the group of homeomorphisms of certain low-dimensional manifolds. In particular, for the group of orientation-preserving homeomorphisms of the circle and of the closed 2-disc, it is isomorphic to the polynomial ring generated by the bounded Euler class. These seem to be the first examples of groups for which the entire bounded cohomology can be described without being trivial. We further prove that, contrary to ordinary cohomology, the diffeomorphisms groups of the circle and of the closed 2-disc have the same bounded cohomology as their homeomorphism gro…
For $M$ a compact Riemannian manifold Brandenbursky and Marcinkowski constructed a transfer map $H_b^*(π_1(M))\to H_b^*(Homeo_{vol,0}(M))$ and used it to show that for certain $M$ the space $\overline{EH}_b^3(Homeo_{vol,0}(M))$ is infinite-dimensional. Kimura adapted the argument to $Diff_{vol}(D^2,\partial D^2)$. We extend both results to the higher degrees $\overline{EH}_b^{2n}$, $n\geq 1$. We also show that for certain $M$ the ordinary cohomology $H^*(Homeo_{vol,0}(M))$ is non-trivial in all degrees. In our computations we view the transfer map as being induced by a coupling of groups.
