A number of properties of spherical Artin groups extend to Garside groups, defined as the groups of fractions of monoids where least common multiples exist, there is no nontrivial unit, and some additional finiteness conditions are satisfied \cite{Dgk}. Here we investigate a wider class of groups of fractions, called {\it thin}, which are those associated with monoids where minimal common multiples exist, but they are not necessarily unique. Also, we allow units in the involved monoids. The main results are that all thin groups of fractions satisfy a quadratic isoperimetric inequality, and that, under some additional hypotheses, they admit an automatic structure.
A non-cyclic finite $p$-group $G$ is said to be thin if every normal subgroup of $G$ lies between two consecutive terms of the lower central series and $|γ_i(G):γ_{i+1}(G)|\le p^2$ for all $i\geq 1$. In this paper, we determine Beauville structures in metabelian thin $p$-groups.
This paper answers a question raised by Grothendieck in 1970 on the "Grothendieck closure" of an integral linear group and proves a conjecture of the first author made in 1980. This is done by a detailed study of the congruence topology of arithmetic groups, obtaining along the way, an arithmetic analogue of a classical result of Chevalley for complex algebraic groups. As an application we also deduce a group theoretic characterization of thin subgroups of arithmetic groups.
In this article, we investigate the existence and schurity problem of association schemes whose thin residues are isomorphic to an elementary abelian $p$-group of rank $2$.
We show that any finitely generated group $F$ with infinitely many ends is not a group of fractions of any finitely generated proper subsemigroup $P$, that is $F$ cannot be expressed as a product $P P^{-1}$. In particular this solves a conjecture of Navas in the positive. As a corollary we obtain a new proof of the fact that finitely generated free groups do not admit isolated left-invariant orderings.
To solve two problems of Bergman stated in 1981, we construct a group $G$ such that $G$ contains a free noncyclic subgroup (hence, $G$ satisfies no group identity) and $G$, as a group, is generated by its subsemigroup that satisfies a nontrivial semigroup identity.
These notes were prepared for the MSRI hot topics workshop on superstrong approximation (2012). We give a brief overview of the developments in the theory, especially the fundamental expansion theorem. Applications to diophantine problems on orbits of integer matrix groups, the affine sieve, group theory, gonality of curves and Heegaard genus of hyperbolic three manifolds, are given. We also discuss the ubiquity of thin matrix groups in various contexts, and in particular that of monodromy groups.
We improve and shorten the argument given in(Journal of Algebra, vol.~210 (1998) pp~291--297). Inparticular, the fact that Artin braid groups are torsion free now follows from Garsideś results almost immediately.
Using a variant of an unpublished argument due to Agol, we show that an irreducible right-angled Coxeter group on ${n \geq 3}$ vertices embeds as a thin subgroup of a uniform arithmetic lattice in an indefinite orthogonal group $\mathrm{O}(p, q)$ for some $p, q \geq 1$ satisfying $p+q=n$.
Given a family $F$ of subsets of a group $G$ we describe the structure of its thin-completion $τ^*(F)$, which is the smallest thin-complete family that contains $I$. A family $F$ of subsets of $G$ is called thin-complete if each $F$-thin subset of $G$ belongs to $F$. A subset $A$ of $G$ is called $F$-thin if for any distinct points $x,y$ of $G$ the intersection $xA\cap yA$ belongs to the family $F$. We prove that the thin-completion of an ideal in an ideal. If $G$ is a countable non-torsion group, then the thin-completion $τ^*(F_G)$ of the ideal $F_G$ of finite subsets of $G$ is coanalytic but…
We consider a certain hybridization construction which produces a subgroup of ${\rm PU}(n,1)$ from a pair of lattices in ${\rm PU}(n-1,1)$. Among the Picard modular groups ${\rm PU}(2,1,\mathcal{O}_d)$, we show that the hybrid of pairs of Fuchsian subgroups ${\rm PU}(1,1,\mathcal{O}_d)$ is a lattice when $d=1$ and $d=7$, and a geometrically infinite thin subgroup when $d=3$, that is an infinite-index subgroup with the same Zariski-closure as the full lattice.
Let K be a skew field and (G,<) an ordered group. We show that the skew field generated by the group ring K[G] inside the Malcev-Neumann series ring K((G;<)) contains noncommutative free group algebras.
There is a compactification of the space of representations of a finitely generated group into the groups of isometries of all spaces with $Δ$-thin triangles. The ideal points are actions on $\mathbb R$-trees. It is a geometric reformulation and extension of the Culler-Morgan-Shalen theory concerning limits of representations into $\operatorname{SL}(2,{\mathbb C})$ and more generally $\operatorname{O}(n, 1)$. This paper was written and circulated in the early 90's, but never published.
The Fibonacci groups $F(n)$ are known to exhibit significantly different behaviour depending on the parity of $n$. We extend known results for $F(n)$ for odd $n$ to the family of Fractional Fibonacci groups $F^{k/l}(n)$. We show that for odd $n$ the group $F^{k/l}(n)$ is not the fundamental group of an orientable hyperbolic 3-orbifold of finite volume. We obtain results concerning the existence of torsion in the groups $F^{k/l}(n)$ (where $n$ is odd) paying particular attention to the groups $F^k(n)$ and $F^{k/l}(3)$, and observe consequences concerning asphericity of relative presentations of…
We provide a generalization of continued fractions to the Heisenberg group. We prove an explicit estimate on the rate of convergence of the infinite continued fraction and several surprising analogs of classical formulas about continued fractions. We then discuss dynamical properties of the associated Gauss map, comparing them with base-$b$ expansions on the Heisenberg group and continued fractions on the complex plane.
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
We exhibit an infinite family of discrete subgroups of ${Sp}_4(\mathbb R)$ which have a number of remarkable properties. Our results are established by showing that each group plays ping-pong on an appropriate set of cones. The groups arise as the monodromy of hypergeometric differential equations with parameters $\left(\tfrac{N-3}{2N},\tfrac{N-1}{2N}, \tfrac{N+1}{2N}, \tfrac{N+3}{2N}\right)$ at infinity and maximal unipotent monodromy at zero, for any integer $N\geq 4$. Additionally, we relate the cones used for ping-pong in $\mathbb R^4$ with crooked surfaces, which we then use to exhibit do…
