We prove a version of the countable union theorem for asymptotic dimension and we apply it to groups acting on asymptotically finite dimensional metric spaces. As a consequence we obtain the following finite dimensionality theorems. A) An amalgamated product of asymptotically finite dimensional groups has finite asymptotic dimension: asdim A *_C B < infinity. B) Suppose that G' is an HNN extension of a group G with asdim G < infinity. Then asdim G'< infinity. C) Suppose that Γis Davis' group constructed from a group πwith asdimπ< infinity. Then asdimΓ< infinity.
We construct a group (an HNN extension of a free group) with polynomial isoperimetric function, linear isodiametric function and non-simply connected asymptotic cones.
We construct a finitely presented group with infinitely many non-homeomorphic asymptotic cones. We also show that the existence of cut points in asymptotic cones of finitely presented groups does, in general, depend on the choice of scaling constants and ultrafilters.
We extend Gromov's notion of asymptotic dimension of finitely generated groups to all discrete groups. In particular, we extend the Hurewicz type theorem proven in [B-D2] to general groups. Then we use this extension to prove a formula for the asymptotic dimension of finitely generated solvable groups in terms of their Hirsch length.
We compute the asymptotic dimension of the rationals given with an invariant proper metric. Also, we show that a countable torsion abelian group taken with an invariant proper metric has asymptotic dimension zero.
By recognizing them as fundamental groups of developable complexes of groups we prove that mapping class groups of compact orientable surfaces have finite asymptotic dimension.
This is a survey of the recent work in algorithmic and asymptotic properties of groups. I discuss Dehn functions of groups, complexity of the word problem, Higman embeddings, and constructions of finitely presented groups with extreme properties (monsters).
We prove an asymptotic analog of the classical Hurewicz theorem on mappings which lower dimension. This theorem allows us to find sharp upper bound estimates for the asymptotic dimension of groups acting on finite dimensional metric spaces and allows us to prove a useful extension theorem for asymptotic dimension. As applications we find upper bound estimates for the asymptotic dimension of nilpoltent and polycyclic groups in terms of their Hirsch length. We are also able to improve the known upper bounds on the asymptotic dimension of fundamental groups of complexes of groups, amalgamated fre…
Even though big mapping class groups are not countably generated, certain big mapping class groups can be generated by a coarsely bounded set and have a well defined quasi-isometry type. We show that the big mapping class group of a stable surface of infinite type with a coarsely bounded generating set that contains an essential shift has infinite asymptotic dimension. This is in contrast with the mapping class groups of surfaces of finite type where the asymptotic dimension is always finite. We also give a topological characterization of essential shifts.
Let G be a finitely generated group with a given word metric. The asymptotic density of elements in G that have a particular property P is defined to be the limit, as r goes to infinity, of the proportion of elements in the ball of radius r which have the property P. We obtain a formula to compute the asymptotic density of finite-order elements in any virtually nilpotent group. Further, we show that the spectrum of numbers that occur as such asymptotic densities consists of exactly the rational numbers in [0,1).
We consider Thompson's groups from the perspective of mapping class groups of surfaces of infinite type. This point of view leads us to the braided Thompson groups, which are extensions of Thompson's groups by infinite (spherical) braid groups. We will outline the main features of these groups and some applications to the quantization of Teichmüller spaces. The chapter provides an introduction to the subject with an emphasis on some of the authors results.
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.
The main goal of this paper is a detailed study of asymptotic cones of the mapping class groups. In particular, we prove that every asymptotic cone of a mapping class group has a bi-Lipschitz equivariant embedding into a product of real trees, sending limits of hierarchy paths onto geodesics, and with image a median subspace. One of the applications is that a group with Kazhdan's property (T) can have only finitely many pairwise non-conjugate homomorphisms into a mapping class group. We also give a new proof of the rank conjecture of Brock and Farb (previously proved by Behrstock and Minsky, a…
This article is dedicated to the study of asymptotically rigid mapping class groups of infinitely-punctured surfaces obtained by thickening planar trees. Such groups include the braided Ptolemy-Thompson groups $T^\sharp,T^\ast$ introduced by Funar and Kapoudjian, and the braided Houghton groups $\mathrm{br}H_n$ introduced by Degenhardt. We present an elementary construction of a contractible cube complex, on which these groups act with cube-stabilisers isomorphic to finite extensions of braid groups. As an application, we prove Funar-Kapoudjian's and Degenhardt's conjectures by showing that $T…
We show that every automorphism $α$ of a free group $F_k$ of finite rank $k$ has {\it asymptotically periodic} dynamics on $F_k$ and its boundary $\partial F_k$: there exists a positive power $α^q$ such that every element of the compactum $F_k \cup \partial F_k$ converges to a fixed point under iteration of $α^q$.
We show that the asymptotic dimension of box spaces behaves (sub)additively with respect to extensions of groups. As a result, we obtain that for an elementary amenable group, the asymptotic dimension of any of its box spaces is bounded above by its Hirsch length. This bound is shown to be an equality for a large subclass of groups including all virtually polycyclic groups.
In this work, we study the asymptotic geometry of the mapping class group and Teichmueller space. We introduce tools for analyzing the geometry of `projection' maps from these spaces to curve complexes of subsurfaces; from this we obtain information concerning the topology of their asymptotic cones. We deduce several applications of this analysis. One of which is that the asymptotic cone of the mapping class group of any surface is tree-graded in the sense of Drutu and Sapir; this tree-grading has several consequences including answering a question of Drutu and Sapir concerning relatively hype…
We introduce a concept of tree-graded metric space and we use it to show quasi-isometry invariance of certain classes of relatively hyperbolic groups, to obtain a characterization of relatively hyperbolic groups in terms of their asymptotic cones, to find geometric properties of Cayley graphs of relatively hyperbolic groups, and to construct the first example of finitely generated group with a continuum of non-$π_1$-equivalent asymptotic cones. Note that by a result of Kramer, Shelah, Tent and Thomas, continuum is the maximal possible number of different asymptotic cones of a finitely generate…
We examine asymptotic dimension and property A for groups acting on complexes. In particular, we prove that the fundamental group of a finite, developable complex of groups will have finite asymptotic dimension provided the geometric realization of the development has finite asymptotic dimension and the vertex groups are finitely generated and have finite asymptotic dimension. We also prove that property A is preserved by this construction provided the geometric realization of the development has finite asymptotic dimension and the vertex groups all have property A. These results naturally ext…
We show how a recent result of Hrushovsky implies that if an asymptotic cone of a finitely generated group is locally compact, then the group is virtually nilpotent.
We show that one relator groups viewed as metric spaces with respect to the word-length metric have finite asymptotic dimension in the sense of Gromov and give an estimate of their asymptotic dimension in terms of the relator length.
It is relatively easy to construct a finitely generated group with infinite asymptotic dimension: the restricted wreath product of $\mathbb{Z}$ by $\mathbb{Z}$ provides an example. In light of this, it becomes interesting to consider the rate of growth of the asymptotic dimension function of a group. Loosely speaking, we measure the dimension on $λ$-scale and let $λ$ increase to infinity to recover the asymptotic dimension. In this paper we consider how the asymptotic dimension function is affected by different constructions involving groups.
We study the general theory of asymptotically CAT(0) groups, explaining why such a group has finitely many conjugacy classes of finite subgroups, is $F_\infty$ and has solvable word problem. We provide techniques to combine asymptotically CAT(0) groups via direct products, amalgams and HNN extensions. The universal cover of the Lie group $PSL(2,\mathbb{R})$ is shown to be an asymptotically CAT(0) metric space. Therefore, co-compact lattices in $\widetilde{PSL(2,\mathbb{R})}$ provide the first examples of asymptotically CAT(0) groups which are neither CAT(0) nor hyperbolic. Another source of ex…
We prove that Abels' group over an arbitrary nondiscrete locally compact field has a quadratic Dehn function. As applications, we exhibit connected Lie groups and polycyclic groups whose asymptotic cones have uncountable abelian fundamental group. We also obtain, from the case of finite characteristic, uncountably many non-quasi-isometric finitely generated solvable groups, as well as peculiar examples of fundamental groups of asymptotic cones.
We find asymptotic lower bounds for the numbers of both Beauville and non-Beauville $2$-generator finite $p$-groups of a fixed order, which turn out to coincide with the best known asymptotic lower bound for the total number of $2$-generator finite $p$-groups of the same order. This shows that both Beauville and non-Beauville groups are abundant within the family of finite $p$-groups.
It is a consequence of the theorem of Stallings on groups with many ends that splittings over finite groups are preserved by quasi-isometries. In this paper we use asymptotic topology to show that group splittings are preserved by quasi-isometries in many cases. Roughly speaking we show that splittings are preserved under quasi-isometries when the vertex groups are fundamental groups of aspherical manifolds (or more generally `coarse PD(n)-groups') and the edge groups are `smaller' than the vertex groups.
In this paper we study asymptotic density of rational sets in free abelian group $\mathbb{Z}^n$ of rank $n$. We show that any rational set $R$ in $\mathbb{Z}^n$ has asymptotic density. If $R$ is given by its semi-simple decomposition we show how to compute its asymptotic density.
We define a local analogue to Gromov's loop division property which is use to give a sufficient condition for an asymptotic cone of a complete geodesic metric space to have uncountable fundamental group. As well, this property is used to understand the local topological structure of asymptotic cones of many groups currently in the literature.
Suppose that a finitely generated group $G$ is hyperbolic relative to a collection of subgroups $\{H_1, ..., H_m\} $. We prove that if each of the subgroups $H_1, ..., H_m$ has finite asymptotic dimension, then asymptotic dimension of $G$ is also finite.
We prove the following theorem: Let $π$ be the fundamental group of a finite graph of groups with finitely generated vertex groups $G_v$ having asdim $G_v\le n$ for all vertices $v$. Then asdim$π\le n+1$. This gives the best possible estimate for the asymptotic dimension of an HNN extension and the amalgamated product.
We review the Burghelea conjecture, which constitutes a full computation of the periodic cyclic homology of complex group rings, and its relation to the algebraic Baum-Connes conjecture. The Burghelea conjecture implies the Bass conjecture. We state two conjectures about groups of finite asymptotic dimension, which together imply the Burghelea conjecture for such groups. We prove both conjectures for many classes of groups. It is known that the Burghelea conjecture does not hold for all groups, although no finitely presentable counter-example was known. We construct a finitely presentable (eve…
We undertake a systematic study of asymptotically hereditarily aspherical (AHA) groups - the class of groups introduced by Tadeusz Januszkiewicz and the second author as a tool for exhibiting exotic properties of systolic groups. We provide many new examples of AHA groups, also in high dimensions. We relate AHA property with the topology at infinity of a group, and deduce in this way some new properties of (weakly) systolic groups. We also exhibit an interesting property of boundary at infinity for few classes of AHA groups.
It is known that splittings of finitely presented groups over 2-ended groups can be characterized geometrically. We show that this characterization does not extend to all finitely generated groups. Answering a question of Kleiner we show that the Cayley graph of the lamplighter group is coarsely separated by quasi-circles.
If $A_Γ$ ($W_Γ$) is the Artin (Coxeter) group with defining graph $Γ$ we denote by $Sim(Γ)$ the number of vertices of the largest clique in $Γ$. We show that $asdimA_Γ\leq Sim(Γ)$, if $Sim(Γ)=2$. We conjecture that the inequality holds for every Artin group. We prove that if for all free of infinity Artin (Coxeter) groups the conjecture holds, then it holds for all Artin (Coxeter) groups. As a corollary, we show that $asdimW_Γ\leq Sim(Γ)$ for all Coxeter groups, which is the best known upper bound for the asymptotic dimension of Coxeter Groups. As a further corollary, we show that the asymptot…
We describe the (minimal) tree-graded structure of asymptotic cones of non-geometric graph manifold groups, and as a consequence we show that all said asymptotic cones are bilipschitz equivalent. Combining this with geometrization and other known results we obtain that all asymptotic cones of a given 3-manifold group are bilipschitz equivalent.
In this work we study two problems about Assouad-Nagata dimension: 1) Is there a metric space of non zero Assouad-Nagata dimension such that all of its asymptotic cones are of Assouad-Nagata dimension zero? (Dydak and Higes) 2) Suppose $G$ is a locally finite group with a proper left invariant metric $d_G$. If $\dim_{AN}(G, d_G)>0$, is $\dim_{AN} (G, d_G)$ infinite? (Brodskiy, Dydak and Lang) The first question is answered positively not only for general metric spaces but also for discrete groups with proper left invariant metrics. The second question has a negative solution. We show that for …
We show that for any metric space $M$ satisfying certain natural conditions, there is a finitely generated group $G$, an ultrafilter $ω$, and an isometric embedding $ι$ of $M$ to the asymptotic cone ${\rm Cone}_ω(G)$ such that the induced homomorphism $ι^ \ast :π_1(M)\to π_1({\rm Cone}_ω(G))$ is injective. In particular, we prove that any countable group can be embedded into a fundamental group of an asymptotic cone of a finitely generated group.
An element $g$ of a group $G$ is a test element if every endomorphism of $G$ that fixes $g$ is an automorphism. Let $G$ be a free group of finite rank, an orientable surface group of genus $n \geq 2$, or a non-orientable surface group of genus $n \geq 3$. Let $\mathcal{T}$ be the set of test elements of $G$. We prove that $\mathcal{T}$ is a net. From this result we derive that $\mathcal{T}$ has positive asymptotic density in $G$. This answers a question of Kapovich, Rivin, Schupp, and Shpilrain. Furthermore, we prove that $\mathcal{T}$ is dense in the profinite topology on $G$.
We introduce cone bilipschitz equivalences between metric spaces. These are maps, more general than quasi-isometries, that induce a bilipschitz homeomorphism between asymptotic cones. Non-trivial examples appear in the context of Lie groups, and we thus prove that the study of asymptotic cones of connected Lie groups can be reduced to that of solvable Lie groups of a special form. We also focus on asymptotic cones of nilpotent groups.
We present relations between growth, growth of diameters and the rate of vanishing of the spectral gap in Schreier graphs of automaton groups. In particular, we introduce a series of examples, called Hanoi Towers groups since they model the well known Hanoi Towers Problem, that illustrate some of the possible types of behavior.
