We give an example of a subgroup of SL(2,C) which is a strictly ascending HNN extension of a non-abelian finitely generated free group F. In particular, we exhibit a free group F in SL(2,C) of rank 6 which is conjugate to a proper subgroup of itself. This answers positively a question of Drutu and Sapir. The main ingredient in our construction is a specific finite volume (noncompact) hyperbolic 3-manifold M which is a surface bundle over the circle. In particular, most of F comes from the fundamental group of a surface fiber. A key feature of M is that there is an element of its fundamental group with an eigenvalue which is the square root of a rational integer. We also use the Bass-Serre tree of a field with a discrete valuation to show that the group F we construct is actually free.
We show that there exist finitely generated soluble groups which are not LERF but which do not contain strictly ascending HNN extensions of a cyclic group. This solves Problem 16.2 in the Kourovka notebook. We further show that there is a finitely presented soluble group which is not LERF but which does not contain a strictly ascending HNN extension of a polycyclic group.
The main result in this paper is the failure of the finitely generated intersection property (FGIP) of ascending HNN extensions of non-cyclic finite rank free groups. This class of group consists of free-by-cyclic groups and properly ascending HNN extensions of free groups. We also give a sufficient condition for the failure of the FGIP in the context of relative hyperbolicity, we apply this to free-by-cyclic groups of exponential growth.
We find strictly ascending HNN extensions of finite rank free groups possessing a presentation 2-complex which is a non positively curved square complex. On showing these groups are word hyperbolic, we have by results of Wise and Agol that they are linear over the integers. An example is the endomorphism of the free group on a,b with inverses A,B that sends a to aBaab and b to bAbba.
A 1-ended finitely presented group has semistable fundamental group at $\infty$ if it acts geometrically on some (equivalently any) simply connected and locally finite complex $X$ with the property that any two proper rays in $X$ are properly homotopic. If $G$ has semistable fundamental group at $\infty$ then one can unambiguously define the fundamental group at $\infty$ for $G$. The problem, asking if all finitely presented groups have semistable fundamental group at $\infty$ has been studied for over 40 years. If $G$ is an ascending HNN extension of a finitely presented group then indeed, $G…
We study ascending HNN-extensions $G$ of finitely generated free abelian groups: examples of such $G$ include soluble Baumslag-Solitar groups and fundamental groups of orientable prime $3$-manifolds modelled on Sol geometry. In particular, we study the elliptic subgroup $A \leq G$, consisting of all elements that stabilise a point in the Bass-Serre tree of $G$. We consider the density of $A$ with respect to ball counting measures corresponding to finite generating sets of $G$, and we show that $A$ is exponentially negligible in $G$ with respect to such sequences of measures. As a consequence, …
For an ascending HNN-extension $G*_ψ$ of a finitely generated abelian group $G$, we study how a synchronization between the geometry of the group and weak periodicity of a configuration in $\mathcal{A}^{G*_ψ}$ forces global constraints on it, as well as in subshifts containing it. A particular case are Baumslag-Solitar groups $\mathrm{BS}(1,N)$, $N\ge2$, for which our results imply that a $\mathrm{BS}(1,N)$-SFT which contains a configuration with period $a^{N^\ell}$, $\ell\ge 0$, must contain a strongly periodic configuration with monochromatic $\mathbb{Z}$-sections. Then we study proper $n$-c…
We prove that the property of a free group endomorphism being irreducible is a group invariant of the ascending HNN extension it defines. This answers a question posed by Dowdall-Kapovich-Leininger. We further prove that being irreducible and atoroidal is a commensurability invariant. The invariance follows from an algebraic characterization of ascending HNN extensions that determines exactly when their defining endomorphisms are irreducible and atoroidal; specifically, we show that the endomorphism is irreducible and atoroidal if and only if the ascending HNN extension has no infinite index s…
Assume $G$ is a polycyclic group and $ϕ:G\to G$ an endomorphism. Let $G\ast_ϕ$ be the ascending HNN extension of $G$ with respect to $ϕ$; that is, $G\ast_ϕ$ is given by the presentation $$G\ast_ϕ= < G, t \ |\ t^{-1}gt = ϕ(g)\ \{for all}\ g\in G >.$$ Furthermore, let $\hat{G\ast_ϕ}$ be the profinite completion of $G\ast_ϕ$. We prove that, for any finite discrete $\hat{G\ast_ϕ}$-module $A$, the map $H^*(\hat{G\ast_ϕ}, A)\to H^*(G\ast_ϕ,A)$ induced by the canonical map $G\ast_ϕ\to \hat{G\ast_ϕ}$ is an isomorphism.
We prove the following version of Milnor's theorem on solvable groups of exponential growth: A finitely generated solvable group which is not polycyclic contains an ascending HNN extension. Consequently, a finitely generated solvable group is ERF iff it is polycyclic.
Semistability at infinity is an asymptotic property of finitely presented groups that is needed in order to effectively define the fundamental group at infinity for a 1-ended group. It is an open problem whether or not all finitely presented groups have semistable fundamental group at infinity. While many classes of groups are known to contain only semistable at infinity groups, there are only a few combination results for such groups. Our main theorem is such a result. Main Theorem. Suppose $G$ is the fundamental group of a connected reduced graph of groups, where each edge group is infinite …
The computational complexity of the word problem in HNN-extension of groups is studied. HNN-extension is a fundamental construction in combinatorial group theory. It is shown that the word problem for an ascending HNN-extension of a group H is logspace reducible to the so-called compressed word problem for H. The main result of the paper states that the word problem for an HNN-extension of a hyperbolic group H with cyclic associated subgroups can be solved in polynomial time. This result can be easily extended to fundamental groups of graphs of groups with hyperbolic vertex groups and cyclic e…
We study non-ascending HNN extensions acting on their Bass-Serre trees, and characterize C*-simplicity and the unique trace property by means of the kernel and quasi-kernels of the HNN extension in question. We also present a concrete example of an HNN extension that is a new example of a group that is not C*-simple but does have the unique trace property. Additionally, we include certain more general results, mostly based on previous work of various authors, concerning C*-simplicity of groups admitting extreme boundary actions, and in particular, groups acting on trees.
The Lodha-Moore groups provide the first known examples of type F_\infty groups that are non-amenable and contain no non-abelian free subgroups. These groups are related to Thompson's group F in certain ways, for instance they contain it as a subgroup in a natural way. We exhibit decompositions of four Lodha-Moore groups, G, G_y, {_y}G and {_y}G_y, into ascending HNN extensions of isomorphic copies of each other, both in ways reminiscent to such decompositions for F and also in quite different ways. This allows us to prove two new topological results about the Lodha-Moore groups. First, we pro…
We show that certain classes of graphs of free groups contain surface subgroups, including groups with positive $b_2$ obtained by doubling free groups along collections of subgroups, and groups obtained by "random" ascending HNN extensions of free groups. A special case is the HNN extension associated to the endomorphism of a rank 2 free group sending a to ab and b to ba; this example (and the random examples) answer in the negative well-known questions of Sapir. We further show that the unit ball in the Gromov norm (in dimension 2) of a double of a free group along a collection of subgroups i…
We prove that every group ring of a non-abelian locally free group which is the union of an ascending sequence of free groups is primitive. In particular, every group ring of a countable non-abelian locally free group is primitive. In addition, by making use of the result, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for group rings of ascending HNN extensions of free groups to be primitive, which extends the known result for the countable case to the general cardinality case. In order to prove the main theorem, we state some graph-theoretic results and apply them to to Formanek's method.
We prove that ascending HNN extensions of free groups are word-hyperbolic if and only if they have no Baumslag-Solitar subgroups. This extends the theorem of Brinkmann that free-by-cyclic groups are word-hyperbolic if and only if they have no free abelian subgroups of rank 2. The paper is split into two independent parts: 1) We study the dynamics of injective nonsurjective endomorphisms of free groups. We prove a canonical structure theorem that initializes the development of improved relative train tracks for endomorphisms; this structure theorem is of independent interest since it makes many…
Let G be an infinite cyclic extension, 1 -> B -> G -> Z -> 1, of a group B where the action of Z on the set of conjugacy classes of non-trivial elements of B is free. This class of groups includes certain ascending HNN-extensions with abelian or free base groups, certain wreath products by Z and the soluble Baumslag-Solitar groups BS(1,m) with |m|> 1. We construct a model for Evc(G), the classifying space of G for the family of virtually cyclic subgroups of G, and give bounds for the minimum dimension of Evc(G). We construct a 2-dimensional model for Evc(G) where G is a soluble Baumslag-Solita…
We initiate the study of profinite groups of non-negative deficiency. The principal focus of the paper is to show that the existence of a finitely generated normal subgroup of infinite index in a profinite group $G$ of non-negative deficiency gives rather strong consequences for the structure of $G$. To make this precise we introduce the notion of $p$-deficiency ($p$ a prime) for a profinite group $G$. This concept is more useful in the study of profinite groups then the notion of deficiency. We prove that if the $p$-deficiency of $G$ is positive and $N$ is a finitely generated normal subgroup…
Consider a group G and an epimorphism u_0:G\to\Z inducing a splitting of G as a semidirect product ker(u_0)\rtimes_φ\Z with ker(u_0) a finitely generated free group and φ\in Out(ker(u_0)) representable by an expanding irreducible train track map. Building on our earlier work [Dynamics on free-by-cyclic groups, arXiv:1301.7739], in which we we realized G as π_1(X) for an Eilenberg-Maclane 2-complex X equipped with a semiflow ψ, and inspired by McMullen's Teichmüller polynomial for fibered hyperbolic 3-manifolds, we construct a polynomial invariant \m for (X,ψ) and investigate its properties. Sp…
