We study H^*(P), the mod p cohomology of a finite p--group P, viewed as an Out(P)--module. In particular, we study the conjecture, first considered by Martino and Priddy, that, if e_S in Z/p[Out(P)] is a primitive idempotent associated to an irreducible Z/p[Out(P)]--module S, then the Krull dimension of e_SH^*(P) equals the rank of P. The rank is an upper bound by Quillen's work, and the conjecture can be viewed as the statement that every irreducible Z/p[Out(P)]--module occurs as a composition factor in H^*(P) with similar frequency.
In summary, our results are as follows. A strong form of the conjecture is true when p is odd. The situation is much more complex when p=2, but is reduced to a question about 2--central groups (groups in which all elements of order 2 are central), making it easy to verify the conjecture for many finite 2--groups, including all groups of order 128, and all groups that can be written as the product of groups of order 64 or less.
Featured is the nilpotent filtration of the category of unstable A--modules. Also featured are unstable algebras of cohomology primitives associated to central group extensions.
The Johnson filtration of the automorphism group of a free group is composed of those automorphisms which act trivially on nilpotent quotients of the free group. We compute cohomology classes as follows: (i) we analyze analogous classes for a subgroup of the pure symmetric automorphism group of a free group, and (ii) we analyze features of these classes which are preserved by the Johnson homomorphism. One consequence is that the ranks of the cohomology groups in any fixed dimension between 1 and n-1 increase without bound for terms deep in the Johnson filtraton.
Among other things, we prove that the group of automorphisms fixing every normal subgroup of a nilpotent-by-abelian group is nilpotent-by-metabelian. In particular, the group of automorphisms fixing every normal subgroup of a metabelian group is soluble of derived length at most 3. An example shows that this bound cannot be improved.
An automorphism of a group is said to be normal if it preserves each normal subgroup. In this paper, we determine the normal automorphisms of a free metabelian nilpotent group.
A connected Lie group admitting an expansive automorphism is known to be nilpotent, but all nilpotent Lie groups do not admit expansive automorphism. In this article, we find sufficient conditions for a class of nilpotent Lie groups to admit expansive automorphism.
In this thesis I study the automorphism tower of free nilpotent groups. Our main tool in studying the automorphism tower is to embed every group as a lattice in some Lie group. Using known rigidity results the automorphism group of the discrete group can be embedded into the automorphism group of the Lie group. This allows me to lift the description of the derivation tower of the free nilpotent Lie algebra to obtain information about the automorphism tower of the free nilpotent group. The main result in this thesis states that the automorphism tower of the free nilpotent group $Γ(n,d)$ on $n$ …
In this paper, we initiate the study of palindromic automorphisms of groups that are free in some variety. More specifically, we define palindromic automorphisms of free nilpotent groups and show that the set of such automorphisms is a group. We find a generating set for the group of palindromic automorphisms of free nilpotent groups of step 2 and 3. In particular, we obtain a generating set for the group of central palindromic automorphisms of these groups. In the end, we determine central palindromic automorphisms of free nilpotent groups of step 3 which satisfy the necessary condition of Br…
Dyer and Formanek (1976) proved that if N is a free nilpotent group of class two and of finite rank which is not equal to 1, or to 3, then the automorphism group Aut(N) of N is complete. The main result of the present paper states that the automorphism group of any infinitely generated free nilpotent group of class two is also complete.
We investigate some situation in which automorphisms of a group G are uniquely determined by their restrictions to a proper subgroup H. Much of the paper is devoted to studying under which additional hypotheses this property forces G to be nilpotent if H is. As an application we prove that certain countably infinite locally nilpotent groups have uncountably many (outer) automorphisms.
For a positive integer $n$, with $n \geq 4$, let $R_{n}$ be a free (nilpotent of class 2)-by-abelian and abelian-by-(nilpotent of class 2) Lie algebra of rank $n$. We show that the subgroup of Aut$(R_{n})$ generated by the tame automorphisms and a countably infinite set of explicitly given automorphisms of $R_{n}$ is dense in Aut$(R_{n})$ with respect to the formal power series topology.
We exhibit normal subgroups of a free nilpotent group F of rank two and class three, which have isomorphic finite quotients but are not conjugate under any automorphism of F.
We observe that automorphism groups of right-angled Artin groups contain nilpotent non-abelian subgroups, namely $H_3(\mathbb{Z})$ the three-dimensional integer Heisenberg group, provided they admit a certain type of element, called an adjacent transvection. This represents a (minor) extension of a result of Charney-Vogtmann.
We prove twisted homological stability with polynomial coefficients for automorphism groups of free nilpotent groups of any given class. These groups interpolate between two extremes for which homological stability was known before, the general linear groups over the integers and the automorphism groups of free groups. The proof presented here uses a general result that applies to arbitrary extensions of groups, and that has other applications as well.
Considering a particular case of a problem posed by Saharon Shelah, we prove that the automorphism group of an infinitely generated free nilpotent group N first-order interprets the full second-order theory of the set rank(N) in the empty language.
We study the word length entropy of automorphisms of residually nilpotent groups, and how the entropy of such group automorphisms relates to the entropy of induced automorphisms on various nilpotent quotients. We show that much like the structure of a nilpotent group is dictated to a large degree by its abelianization, the entropy of an automorphism of a nilpotent group is dictated by its entropy on the abelianization. We give some applications to the study of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms of surfaces. In particular, we show that if $ψ$ is a non--homological pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism of a sur…
We examine the Johnson filtration of the (outer) automorphism group of a finitely generated group. In the case of a free group, we find a surprising result: the first Betti number of the second subgroup in the Johnson filtration is finite. Moreover, the corresponding Alexander invariant is a non-trivial module over the Laurent polynomial ring. In the process, we show that the first resonance variety of the outer Torelli group of a free group is trivial. We also establish a general relationship between the Alexander invariant and its infinitesimal counterpart.
It is well known that the automorphism group of a regular dessin is a two-generator finite group, and the isomorphism classes of regular dessins with automorphism groups isomorphic to a given finite group $G$ are in one-to-one correspondence with the orbits of the action of $\Aut(G)$ on the ordered generating pairs of $G$. If there is only one orbit, then up to isomorphism the regular dessin is uniquely determined by the group $G$ and it is called uniquely regular. In the paper we investigate the classification of uniquely regular dessins with a nilpotent automorphism group. The problem is red…
Baumslag conjectured in the 1970s that the automorphism tower of a finitely generated free nilpotent group must be very short. Let F_{n,c} denote a free nilpotent group of finite rank n at least two and of nilpotency class c at least two. In 1976 Dyer and Formanek proved that the automorphism group of F_{n,2} is even complete (and hence the height of the aumorphism tower of F_{n,2} is two) provided that n is not three; in the case when n=3, the height of the automorphism tower of F_{n,2} is three. The author proved in 2001 that the automorphism group of any infinitely generated free nilpotent …
Let $F\_n$ be the free group on $n$ generators. Consider the group $IA\_n$ of automorphisms of $F\_n$ acting trivially on its abelianization. There are two canonical filtrations on $IA\_n$: the first one is its lower central series $Γ\_*$; the second one is the Andreadakis filtration $\mathcal A\_*$, defined from the action on $F\_n$. The Andreadakis problem consists in understanding the difference between these filtrations. Here, we show that they coincide when restricted to the subgroup of triangular automorphisms, and to the pure braid group.
We derive double coset formulae for the genus and extended genus of a finitely generated nilpotent group G, using the notions of bounded and bounded above automorphisms of $\prod G_S$, which are defined relative to a fixed fracture square for G.
Let $G$ be a group. The central automorphism group $Aut_c(G)$ of $G$ is the centralizer of $Inn(G)$ the subgroup of $Aut(G)$ of inner automorphisms. There is a one to one map $ σ\mapsto h_σ$ from the set $Aut_c(G)$ onto the set $Hom(G,Z(G))$ of homomorphisms from $G$ onto its center, with $ h_σ(x)=x^{-1} σ(x)$. This map can be used to obtain informations about the size of $Aut_c(G)$, and also about its structure in some special cases. In this paper we see how to use it to obtain informations about the structure of $Aut_c(G)$ in the general case. The notion of the adjoint group of a ring is the…
In this paper, we show that all Coleman automorphisms of a finite group with self-central minimal non-trivial characteristic subgroup are inner; therefore the normalizer property holds for these groups. Using our methods we show that the holomorph and wreath product of finite simple groups, among others, have no non-inner Coleman automorphisms. As a further application of our theorems, we provide partial answers to questions raised by M. Hertweck and W. Kimmerle. Furthermore, we characterize the Coleman automorphisms of extensions of a finite nilpotent group by a cyclic $p$-group. Lastly, we n…
The pro-isomorphic zeta function of a finitely generated nilpotent group $Γ$ is a Dirichlet generating function that enumerates finite-index subgroups whose profinite completion is isomorphic to that of $Γ$. Such zeta functions can be expressed as Euler products of $p$-adic integrals over the $p$-adic points of an algebraic automorphism group associated to $Γ$. In this way they are closely related to classical zeta functions of algebraic groups over local fields. We describe the algebraic automorphism groups for a natural family of class-$2$ nilpotent groups; these groups can be viewed as gene…
First, we study a descending filtration of the ring of Fricke characters of a free group consisting of ideals on which the automorphism group of a free group acts. Then using it, we define a descending filtration of the IA-automorphism group of a free group, and investigate a relation between it and the Andreadakis-Johnson filtration.
Let $A$ be an elementary abelian group of order $p^{k}$ with $k\geq 3$ acting on a finite $p'$-group $G$. The following results are proved. If $γ_{k-2}(C_{G}(a))$ is nilpotent of class at most $c$ for any $a\in A^{#}$, then $γ_{k-2}(G)$ is nilpotent and has $\{c,k,p\}$-bounded nilpotency class. If, for some integer $d$ such that $2^{d}+2\leq k$, the $d$th derived group of $C_{G}(a)$ is nilpotent of class at most $c$ for any $a\in A^{#}$, then the $d$th derived group $G^{(d)}$ is nilpotent and has $\{c,k,p\}$-bounded nilpotency class. Earlier this was known only in the case where $k\leq 4$.
An automorphism of a group G is called an IA-automorphism if it induces the identity automorphism on the abelianized group G/G'. Let IA(G) denote the group of all IA-automorphisms of G. We classify all finitely generated nilpotent groups G of class 2 for which IA(G) is isomorphic to Inn(G). In particular, we classify all finite nilpotent groups of class 2 for which each IA-automorphism is inner. As consequences, we give surprisingly very easy proofs of converse of Schur's theorem and also prove some other related results.
For any right-angled Artin group, we show that its outer automorphism group contains either a finite-index nilpotent subgroup or a nonabelian free subgroup. This is a weak Tits alternative theorem. We find a criterion on the defining graph that determines which case holds. We also consider some examples of solvable subgroups, including one that is not virtually nilpotent and is embedded in a non-obvious way.
A dessin is an embedding of connected bipartite graph into an oriented closed surface. A dessin is regular if its group of colour- and orientation-preserving automorphisms acts transitively on the edges. In the present paper regular dessins with a nilpotent automorphism group are investigated, and attention are paid on those with the highest level of external symmetry. Depending on the algebraic theory of dessins and using group-theoretical methods, we present a classification of nilpotent groups of class two which underly a unique regular dessin.
Let $G$ be a finite group admitting a coprime automorphism $α$. Let $J_G(α)$ denote the set of all commutators $[x,α]$, where $x$ belongs to an $α$-invariant Sylow subgroup of $G$. We show that $[G,α]$ is soluble or nilpotent if and only if any subgroup generated by a pair of elements of coprime orders from the set $J_G(α)$ is soluble or nilpotent, respectively.
Suppose that a finite group $G$ admits a Frobenius group of automorphisms FH of coprime order with cyclic kernel F and complement H such that the fixed point subgroup $C_G(H)$ of the complement is nilpotent of class $c$. It is proved that $G$ has a nilpotent characteristic subgroup of index bounded in terms of $c$, $|C_G(F)|$, and $|FH|$ whose nilpotency class is bounded in terms of $c$ and $|H|$ only. This generalizes the previous theorem of the authors and P. Shumyatsky, where for the case of $C_G(F)=1$ the whole group was proved to be nilpotent of $(c,|H|)$-bounded class. Examples show that…
It was shown by Lubotzky in 2014 that automorphism invariant subsets of finite simple groups which contain identity are always word images. In this article, we study word maps on finite nilpotent groups and show that for arbitrary finite groups, the number of automorphism invariant subsets containing identity which are not word images, referred to as word image impostors, may be arbitrarily larger than the number of actual word images. In the course of it, we construct a $2$-exhaustive set of word maps on nilpotent groups of class $2$ and demonstrate its minimality in some cases.
Suppose that a metacyclic Frobenius group $FH$, with kernel $F$ and complement $H$, acts by automorphisms on a finite group $G$, in such a way that $C_G(F)$ is trivial and $C_G(H)$ is nilpotent. It is known that $G$ is nilpotent and its nilpotency class can be bounded in terms of $|H|$ and the nilpotency class of $C_G(H)$. Until now, it was not clear whether the bound could be made independent of the order of $H$. In this article, we construct a family $\mathfrak{G}$ of finite nilpotent groups, of unbounded nilpotency class. Each group in $\mathfrak{G}$ admits a metacyclic Frobenius group of a…
The main result of the paper is the following theorem. Let $q$ be a prime and $A$ an elementary abelian group of order $q^3$. Suppose that $A$ acts coprimely on a profinite group $G$ and assume that $C_G(a)$ is locally nilpotent for each $a\in A^{\#}$. Then the group $G$ is locally nilpotent.
In this paper we study a key exchange protocol similar to Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol using abelian subgroups of the automorphism group of a non-abelian nilpotent group. We also generalize group no.92 of Hall-Senior table \cite{halltable}, for arbitrary prime $p$ and show that for those groups, the group of central automorphisms commute. We use these for the key exchange we are studying.
New nilpotent series are produced that refine the usual nilpotent series of a group. These refinements can be arbitrarily longer than the series they refine and therefore clarify in greater detail the structure of automorphisms of nilpotent groups. Examples, properties, and an application to group-isomorphism testing are provided.
We classify finite-dimensional nilpotent Lie algebras with $2$-dimensional central commutator ideals admitting a Lie group of automorphisms isomorphic to $SO_2(\mathbb R)$. This enables one to enlarge the class of nilpotent Lie algebras of type {n,2}.
A homogeneous nilpotent Lie group has a scaling automorphism determined by a grading of its Lie algebra. Many proofs of upper bounds for the Dehn function of such a group depend on being able to fill curves with discs compatible with this grading; the area of such discs changes predictably under the scaling automorphism. In this paper, we present combinatorial methods for finding such bounds. Using this method, we give new proofs of some results on Dehn functions of nilpotent groups, prove theorems on central powers and certain quotients of nilpotent groups, and construct the first example of …
We obtain sufficient criteria for endomorphisms of torsion-free nilpotent groups of finite rank to be automorphisms, by considering the induced maps on the torsion-free abelianisation and the centre. Whilst these results are known in the finitely generated case removing this assumption introduces several difficulties.
We characterize co-Hopfian finitely generated torsion free nilpotent groups in terms of their Lie algebra automorphisms, and construct many examples of such groups.
Let $FH$ be a supersolvable Frobenius group with kernel $F$ and complement $H$. Suppose that a finite group $G$ admits $FH$ as a group of automorphisms in such a manner that $C_G(F)=1$ and $C_{G}(H)$ is nilpotent of class $c$. We show that $G$ is nilpotent of $(c,\left|FH\right|)$-bounded class.
In this article we study the space of left- and bi-invariant orderings on a torsion-free nilpotent group $G$. We will show that generally the set of such orderings is equipped with a faithful action of the automorphism group of $G$. We prove a result which allows us to establish the same conclusion when $G$ is assumed to be merely residually torsion-free nilpotent. In particular, we obtain faithful actions of mapping class groups of surfaces. We will draw connections between the structure of orderings on residually torsion-free nilpotent, hyperbolic groups and their Gromov boundaries, and we s…
Let S be a finite generating set of a torsion-free, nilpotent group G. We show that every automorphism of the Cayley graph Cay(G;S) is affine. (That is, every automorphism of the graph is obtained by composing a group automorphism with multiplication by an element of the group.) More generally, we show that if Cay(G;S) and Cay(G';S') are connected Cayley graphs of finite valency on two nilpotent groups G and G', then every isomorphism from Cay(G;S) to Cay(G';S') factors through to a well-defined affine map from G/N to G'/N', where N and N' are the torsion subgroups of G and G', respectively. F…
We say a group $G$ has property $R_\infty$ if the number $R(φ)$ of twisted conjugacy classes is infinite for every automorphism $φ$ of $G$. For such groups, the $R_\infty$-nilpotency degree is the least integer $c$ such that $G/γ_{c+1}(G)$ has property $R_\infty$. In this work, we compute the $R_\infty$-nilpotency degree of all Generalized Solvable Baumslag-Solitar groups $Γ_n$. Moreover, we compute the lower central series of $Γ_n$, write the nilpotent quotients $Γ_{n,c}=Γ_n/γ_{c+1}(Γ_n)$ as semidirect products of finitely generated abelian groups and classify which integer invertible matrice…
A generalized Baumslag-Solitar group (GBS group) is a finitely generated group $G$ which acts on a tree with all edge and vertex stabilizers infinite cyclic. We show that Out(G) either contains non-abelian free groups or is virtually nilpotent of class at most 2. It has torsion only at finitely many primes. One may decide algorithmically whether Out(G) is virtually nilpotent or not. If it is, one may decide whether it is virtually abelian, or finitely generated. The isomorphism problem is solvable among GBS groups with Out(G) virtually nilpotent. If $G$ is unimodular (virtually $F_n \times Z$)…
We investigate the Reidemeister spectrum of direct products of nilpotent groups. More specifically, we prove that the Reidemeister spectra of the individual factors yield complete information for the Reidemeister spectrum of the direct product if all groups are finitely generated torsion-free nilpotent and have a directly indecomposable rational Malcev completion. We show this by determining the complete automorphism group of the direct product.
Following Plotkin we say that the automorphism $x$ of the group $G$ is a nil-automorphism if, for every $g\in G$, there exists $n=n(g)$ such that $[g,_n x]=1$. If the integer $n$ can be chosen independently of $g$, then $x$ is said to be unipotent. Nil and unipotent automorphisms can be regarded as a natural extension of the concept of Engel element, since a nil-automorphism $x$ is just a left-Engel element in $G < x >$. In this paper we consider nil-automorphisms of groups with residual properties namely locally-graded groups, residually-finite groups and profinite groups. The first result we…
We determine normal forms of the multiplication of four-dimensional anti-commutative algebras over a field $\mathbb K$ of characteristic zero having an analogous family of flags of subalgebras as the four-dimensional non-Lie binary Lie algebras, and hence can be considered as the closest relatives of binary Lie algebras. These algebras are extensions of $\mathbb K$ by the 3-dimensional nilpotent Lie algebra and at the same time extensions of a two-dimensional Lie algebra by a two-dimensional abelian algebra. We describe their groups of automorphisms as extensions of a subgroup of the group of …
Let $N$ be a finitely generated nilpotent group. Algorithm is constructed such, that for every automorphism $ϕ\in Aut(N)$ defines the Reidemeister number $R(ϕ).$ It is proved that any free nilpotent group of rank $r = 2$ or $r = 3$ and class $c \geq 4r,$ or rank $r \geq 4$ and class $c \geq 2r,$ belongs to the class $R_{\infty}.$
Let $q$ be a prime and $A$ an elementary abelian $q$-group acting as a coprime group of automorphisms on a profinite group $G$. We show that if $A$ is of order $q^2$ and some power of each element in $C_G(a)$ is Engel in $G$ for any $a\in A^{\#}$, then $G$ is locally virtually nilpotent. Assuming that $A$ is of order $q^3$ we prove that if some power of each element in $C_G(a)$ is Engel in $C_G(a)$ for any $a\in A^{\#}$, then $G$ is locally virtually nilpotent. Some analogues consequences of quantitative nature for finite groups are also obtained.
Let G be a free group in a variety of groups, but G is not absolutely free. We prove that the group of automorphisms Aut(G) is linear iff G is a virtually nilpotent group.
