Filling functions are asymptotic invariants of finitely presentable groups; the seminal work on the subject is by M.Gromov. They record features of combinatorial homotopy discs (van Kampen diagrams) filling loops in Cayley 2-complexes. Examples are the Dehn (or isoperimetric) function, the filling length function and the intrinsic diameter (or isodiametric) function. We discuss filling functions from geometric, combinatorial and computational points of view, we survey their interrelationships, and we sketch their roles in the studies of nilpotent groups, hyperbolic groups and asymptotic cones. Many open questions are included.
This is a set of notes for a workshop on "The Geometry of the Word Problem" at the Centre de Recerca Matematica, Barcelona in July 2005. It will be part of a Birkhauser-Verlag volume in the "Advanced Courses in Mathematics CRM Barcelona" series.
Intrinsic tame filling functions are quasi-isometry invariants that are refinements of the intrinsic diameter function of a group. The main purpose of this paper is to show that every finite presentation of a group has an intrinsic tame filling function that is equivalent to its intrinsic diameter function. We also introduce some alternative filling functions--based on concepts similar to those used to define intrinsic tame filling functions--that are potential proper refinements of the intrinsic diameter function.
The Dehn function and its higher-dimensional generalizations measure the difficulty of filling a sphere in a space by a ball. In nonpositively curved spaces, one can construct fillings using geodesics, but fillings become more complicated in subsets of nonpositively curved spaces, such as lattices in symmetric spaces. In this paper, we prove sharp filling inequalities for (arithmetic) lattices in higher rank semisimple Lie groups. When $n$ is less than the rank of the associated symmetric space, we show that the $n$-dimensional filling volume function of the lattice grows at the same rate as t…
A new pair of asymptotic invariants for finitely presented groups, called intrinsic and extrinsic tame filling functions, are introduced. These filling functions are quasi-isometry invariants that strengthen the notions of intrinsic and extrinsic diameter functions for finitely presented groups. We show that the existence of a (finite-valued) tame filling function implies that the group is tame combable. Bounds on both intrinsic and extrinsic tame filling functions are discussed for stackable groups, including groups with a finite complete rewriting system, Thompson's group F, and almost conve…
Let $G$ be a group. For any $\mathbb{Z} G$--module $M$ and any integer $d>0$, we define a function $FV_{M}^{d+1}\colon \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N} \cup \{\infty\}$ generalizing the notion of $(d+1)$--dimensional filling function of a group. We prove that this function takes only finite values if $M$ is of type $FP_{d+1}$ and $d>0$, and remark that the asymptotic growth class of this function is an invariant of $M$. In the particular case that $G$ is a group of type $FP_{d+1}$, our main result implies that its $(d+1)$-dimensional homological filling function takes only finite values, addressing a…
Filling length measures the length of the contracting closed loops in a null-homotopy. The filling length function of Gromov for a finitely presented group measures the filling length as a function of length of edge-loops in the Cayley 2-complex. We give a bound on the filling length function in terms of the log of an isoperimetric function multiplied by a (simultaneously realisable) isodiametric function.
The filling volume functions of the n-th quaternionic Heisenberg group grow, up to dimension n, as fast as the ones of the Euclidean space. We identify the growth rate of the filling volume function in dimension n+1, which is strictly faster than the growth rate of the (n+1)-dimensional filling volume function of the Euclidean space.
Filling invariants are measurements of a metric space describing the behaviour of isoperimetric inequalities. In this article we examine filling functions and higher divergence functions. We prove for a class of stratified nilpotent Lie groups that in the low dimensions the filling functions grow as fast as the ones of the Euclidean space and in the high dimensions slower than the filling functions of the Euclidean space. We do this by developing a purely algebraic condition on the Lie algebra of a stratified nilpotent Lie group. Further, we find a sufficient criterion for such groups to have …
We introduce a combinatorial property for finitely generated groups called stackable that implies the existence of an inductive procedure for constructing van Kampen diagrams with respect to a canonical finite presentation. We also define algorithmically stackable groups, for which this procedure is an effective algorithm. This property gives a common model for algorithms arising from both rewriting systems and almost convexity for groups. We also introduce a new pair of asymptotic invariants that are filling inequalities refining the notions of intrinsic and extrinsic diameter inequalities fo…
We use algebraic techniques to study homological filling functions of groups and their subgroups. If $G$ is a group admitting a finite $(n+1)$--dimensional $K(G,1)$ and $H \leq G$ is of type $F_{n+1}$, then the $n^{th}$--homological filling function of $H$ is bounded above by that of $G$. This contrast with known examples where such inequality does not hold under weaker conditions on the ambient group $G$ or the subgroup $H$. We include applications to hyperbolic groups and homotopical filling functions.
We use intersections with horizontal manifolds to show that high-dimensional cycles in the Heisenberg group can be approximated efficiently by simplicial cycles. This lets us calculate all of the higher-order Dehn functions of the Heisenberg groups, thus proving a conjecture of Gromov.
We bound the higher-order Dehn functions and other filling invariants of certain Carnot groups using approximation techniques. These groups include the higher-dimensional Heisenberg groups, jet groups, and central products of two-step nilpotent groups. Some consequences of this work are a construction of groups with arbitrarily large nilpotency class that have euclidean n-dimensional filling volume functions, and a proof of part of a conjecture of Gromov on the higher-order filling functions of the higher-dimensional Heisenberg groups.
We provide partial results towards a conjectural generalization of a theorem of Lubotzky-Mozes-Raghunathan for arithmetic groups (over number fields or function fields) that implies, in low dimensions, both polynomial isoperimetric inequalities and finiteness properties. As a tool in our proof, we establish polynomial isoperimetric inequalities and finiteness properties for certain solvable groups that appear as subgroups of parabolic groups in semisimple groups, thus generalizing a theorem of Bux. We also develop a precise version of reduction theory for arithmetic groups whose proof is, for …
We construct "pushing maps" on the cube complexes that model right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs) in order to study filling problems in certain subsets of these cube complexes. We use radial pushing to obtain upper bounds on higher divergence functions, finding that the k-dimensional divergence of a RAAG is bounded by r^{2k+2}. These divergence functions, previously defined for Hadamard manifolds to measure isoperimetric properties "at infinity," are defined here as a family of quasi-isometry invariants of groups; thus, these results give new information about the QI classification of RAAGs. By p…
We demonstrate under appropriate finiteness conditions that a coarse embedding induces an inequality of homological Dehn functions. Applications of the main results include a characterization of what finitely presentable groups may admit a coarse embedding into a hyperbolic group of geometric dimension $2$, characterizations of finitely presentable subgroups of groups with quadratic Dehn function with geometric dimension $2$, and to coarse embeddings of nilpotent groups into other nilpotent groups of the same growth and into hyperbolic groups.
We study the Dehn function at infinity in the mapping class group, finding a polynomial upper bound of degree four. This is the same upper bound that holds for arbitrary right-angled Artin groups.
The homological and homotopical Dehn functions are different ways of measuring the difficulty of filling a closed curve inside a group or a space. The homological Dehn function measures fillings of cycles by chains, while the homotopical Dehn function measures fillings of curves by disks. Since the two definitions involve different sorts of boundaries and fillings, there is no a priori relationship between the two functions, but prior to this work there were no known examples of finitely-presented groups for which the two functions differ. This paper gives the first such examples, constructed …
The diameter of a disc filling a loop in the universal covering of a Riemannian manifold may be measured extrinsically using the distance function on the ambient space or intrinsically using the induced length metric on the disc. Correspondingly, the diameter of a van Kampen diagram filling a word that represents the identity in a finitely presented group can either be measured intrinsically its 1-skeleton or extrinsically in the Cayley graph of the group. We construct the first examples of closed manifolds and finitely presented groups for which this choice -- intrinsic versus extrinsic -- gi…
Let $M$ be a closed orientable manifold. We introduce two numerical invariants, called filling volumes, on the mapping class group $\mathrm{MCG}(M)$ of $M$, which are defined in terms of filling norms on the space of singular boundaries on $M$, both with real and with integral coefficients. We show that filling volumes are length functions on $\mathrm{MCG}(M)$, we prove that the real filling volume of a mapping class $f$ is equal to the simplicial volume of the corresponding mapping torus $E_f$, while the integral filling volume of $f$ is not smaller than the stable integral simplicial volume …
We prove a Filling Theorem for the Heisenberg Groups $H^{2n+1}$: For a given $k$-cycle $a$ we construct a $(k+1)$-chain $b$ (the filling) with boundary $\partial b=a$ and controlled volume. For this filling $b$ we prove a uniform bound on the distance of points in $b$ to its boundary $a$. Using this we compute the higher divergence functions for the Heisenberg Groups $H^{2n+1}$. Further we generalise these results to the Jet-Groups $J^m(\mathbb R^n)$ for dimension less or equal $n$ .
