For a certain class of compact oriented 3-manifolds, M. Goussarov and K. Habiro have conjectured that the information carried by finite-type invariants should be characterized in terms of ``cut-and-paste'' operations defined by the lower central series of the Torelli group of a surface.
In this paper, we observe that this is a variation of a classical problem in group theory, namely the ``dimension subgroup problem.'' This viewpoint allows us to prove, by purely algebraic methods, an analogue of the Goussarov-Habiro conjecture for finite-type invariants with values in a fixed field. We deduce that their original conjecture is true at least in a weaker form.
For fixed subgroups $Fix(ϕ)$ of automorphisms $ϕ$ on hyperbolic 3-manifold groups $π_{1}(M)$, we observed that $\text{rk}(Fix(ϕ))<2\text{rk}(π_{1}(M))$ and the constant 2 in the inequality is sharp; we also classify all possible groups $Fix(ϕ)$.
We give a detailed account of Agol's theorem and his proof concerning two-meridional-generator subgroups of hyperbolic 2-bridge link groups, which is included in the slide of his talk at the Bolyai conference 2001. We also give a generalization of the theorem to two-parabolic-generator subgroups of hyperbolic 3-manifold groups, which gives a refinement of a result due to Boileau-Weidmann.
We survey the problem of separation under conjugacy and malnormality of the abelian peripheral subgroups of an orientable, irreducible $3$-manifold $X$. We shall focus on the relation between this problem and the existence of acylindrical splittings of $π_1(X)$ as an amalgamated product or HNN-extension along the abelian subgroups corresponding to the JSJ-tori.
This paper uses work of Haettel to classify all subgroups of PGL(4,R) isomorphic to (R^3 , +), up to conjugacy. We use this to show there are 4 families of generalized cusps up to projective equivalence in dimension 3.
Around twenty years ago Ghys conjectured that finite subgroups of the diffeomorphism group of a compact smooth manifold M have an abelian normal subgroup of index at most a(M), where a(M) depends only on M. First we construct a family of counterexamples to this conjecture including, for example, the product space $T^2\times S^2$. Following the first appearance of our counterexample on the arXiv Ghys put forward a revised conjecture, which predicts only the existence of a nilpotent normal subgroup of index at most n(M). Our main result is the proof of the revised Ghys conjecture. More generally…
In this paper, we compute the subgroup distortion of all finitely generated subgroups of all finitely generated 3-manifold groups, and the subgroup distortion in this case can only be linear, quadratic, exponential and double exponential. It turns out that the subgroup distortion of a subgroup of a 3-manifold group is closely related to the separability of this subgroup.
In the study of the relation between the mapping class group M of a surface and the theory of finite-type invariants of homology 3-spheres, three subgroups of the mapping class group play a large role. They are the Torelli group, the Johnson subgroup K and a new subgroup L, which contains K, defined by a choice of a Lagrangian subgroup of the homology of the surface. In this work we determine the quotient L/K, in terms of the precise description of M/K given by Johnson and Morita. We also study the lower central series of L and K, using some natural imbeddings of the pure braid group in L and …
Previously the second author has constructed by cobordism methods, an invariant associated to a finite group $G$. This invariant approximates the number of subgroups of a group, giving in some cases the number of abelian and cyclic subgroups. Here we explain the formulas used to obtain this invariant and we present values for some families of groups.
In this paper it is proven that if the group of covering translations of the covering space of a compact, connected, $P^2$-irreducible 3-manifold corresponding to a non-trivial, finitely-generated subgroup of its fundamental group is infinite, then either the covering space is almost compact or the subgroup is infinite cyclic and has normalizer a non-finitely-generated subgroup of the rational numbers. In the first case additional information is obtained which is then used to relate Thurston's hyperbolization and virtual bundle conjectures to some algebraic conjectures about certain 3-manifold…
Let $Γ$ be a lattice in a connected semisimple Lie group $G$ with trivial center and no compact factors. We introduce a volume invariant for representations of $Γ$ into $G$, which generalizes the volume invariant for representations of uniform lattices introduced by Goldman. Then, we show that the maximality of this volume invariant exactly characterizes discrete, faithful representations of $Γ$ into $G$ except for $Γ\subset \mathrm{PSL_2 \mathbb{C}}$ a nonuniform lattice.
The Wall surgery obstruction groups have two interesting geometrically defined subgroups, consisting of the surgery obstructions between closed manifolds, and the inertial elements. We show that the inertia group $I_{n+1}(π,w)$ and the closed manifold subgroup $C_{n+1}(π,w)$ are equal in dimensions $n+1\geq 6$, for any finitely-presented group $π$ and any orientation character $w\colon π\to \cy 2$.
If a finite p-group G acts continuously on a compact topological manifold M then, with some bound C depending on M alone, G has a subgroup H of index at most C such that the H-action on M has at most C stabilizer subgroups. This result plays a crucial role in the proof of a deep conjecture of Ghys.
In this paper, we give a complete characterization on which finitely generated subgroups of finitely generated $3$-manifold groups are separable. Our characterization generalizes Liu's spirality character on $π_1$-injective immersed surface subgroups of closed $3$-manifold groups. A consequence of our characterization is that, for any compact, orientable, irreducible and $\partial$-irreducible $3$-manifold $M$ with nontrivial torus decomposition, $π_1(M)$ is LERF if and only if for any two adjacent pieces in the torus decomposition of $M$, at least one of them has a boundary component with gen…
By a classical result of Jordan, each finite subgroup G of a complex linear group GL_n(C) has an abelian subgroup whose index in G is bounded by a constant depending only on n. We consider the problem if this remains true for finite subgroups G of the diffeomorphism group of a smooth manifold, and show that it is true for all compact 3-manifolds as well as for Euclidean spaces of dimension n < 7. The question remains open at present e.g. for odd-dimensional spheres of dimension greater or equal to five, and for Euclidean spaces of dimension greater or equal to seven.
We completely describe the finitely generated pro-$p$ subgroups of the profinite completion of the fundamental group of an arbitrary $3$-manifold. We also prove a pro-$p$ analogue of the main theorem of Bass--Serre theory for finitely generated pro-$p$ groups.
Let $M$ be a compact connected orientable Seifert manifold with hyperbolic orbifold $B_M$, and $f_π: π_1(M)\rightarrowπ_1(M)$ be an automorphism induced by an orientation-reversing homeomorphism $f$ of $M$. We give a bound on the rank of the fixed subgroup of $f_π$, namely, $\rank\fix(f_π)<2\rank π_1(M)$, which is similar to the inequalities on surface groups and hyperbolic 3-manifold groups.
For a group $G$, let $\mathcal{F}_{n}$ be the family of all the subgroups of $G$ containing a subgroup isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}^{r}$ for some $r=0,1,2,\dots ,n$ of finite index. Joecken, Lafont and Sánchez Saldaña computed the $\mathcal{F}_1$-dimension of 3-manifold groups. The goal of this article is to compute the $\mathcal{F}_n$-geometric dimension of 3-manifold groups for all $n\geq 2$.
For a 3-manifold M, the twist group Twist(M) is the subgroup of the mapping class group Mod(M) generated by twists about embedded 2-spheres. We study the Nielsen realization problem for subgroups of Twist(M). We prove that a nontrivial subgroup G<Twist(M) is realized by diffeomorphisms if and only if G is cyclic and M is a connected sum of lens spaces. We also apply our methods to the Burnside problem for 3-manifolds and show that Diff(M) does not contain an infinite torsion group when M is reducible and not a connected sum of lens spaces.
We show that for certain arithmetic groups, geometrically finite subgroups are the intersection of finite index subgroups containing them. Examples are the Bianchi groups and the Seifert-Weber dodecahedral space. In particular, for manifolds commensurable with these groups, immersed incompressible surfaces lift to embeddings in a finite sheeted covering.
We determine all the normal subgroups of the group of C^r diffeomorphisms of R^n, r = 1,2,...,infinity, except when r=n+1 or n=4, and also of the group of homeomorphisms of R^n (r=0). We also study the group A_0 of diffeomorphisms of an open manifold M that are isotopic to the identity. If M is the interior of a compact manifold with nonempty boundary, then the quotient of A_0 by the normal subgroup of diffeomorphisms that coincide with the identity near to a given end e of M is simple.
Plante-Thurston proved that every nilpotent subgroup of $\Diff^2(S^1)$ is abelian. One of our main results is a sharp converse: $\Diff^1(S^1)$ contains every finitely-generated, torsion-free nilpotent group.
When a 3-manifold admits an openbook decomposition, we get a Heegaard splitting by thickening a page. This splitting surface has a special multi curves coming from the binding. In this paper, we consider the subgroup of the Goeritz group of this Heegaard splitting, which is the mapping class group of the 3-manifold preserving the given Heegaard splitting, consisting of elements preserving the binding. This subgroup turned out to be the quotient of the subgroup of the orientation preserving mapping class group consisting of elements commuting with the monodromy by the subgroup generated by the …
We prove the convex combination theorem for hyperbolic n-manifolds. Applications are given both in high dimensions and in 3 dimensions. One consequence is that given two geometrically finite subgroups of a discrete group of isometries of hyperbolic n-space, satisfying a natural condition on their parabolic subgroups, there are finite index subgroups which generate a subgroup that is an amalgamated free product. Constructions of infinite volume hyperbolic n-manifolds are described by gluing lower dimensional manifolds. It is shown that every slope on a cusp of a hyperbolic 3-manifold is a multi…
We show that two knots have matching Vassiliev invariants of order less than n if and only if they are equivalent modulo the nth group of the lower central series of some pure braid group, thus characterizing Vassiliev's knot invariants in terms of the structure of the braid groups. We also prove some results about knots modulo the nth derived subgroups of the pure braid groups, and about knots modulo braid subgroups in general.
Mapping class groups of Haken 3-manifolds enjoy many of the homological finiteness properties of mapping class groups of 2-manifolds of finite type. For example, H(M) has a torsionfree subgroup of finite index, which is geometrically finite (i. e. is the fundamental group of a finite aspherical complex). This was proven by J. Harer for 2-manifolds and by the second author for Haken 3-manifolds. In this paper we prove that H(M) acts properly discontinuously on a contractible simplicial complex, with compact quotient. This implies that every torsionfree subgroup of finite index in H(M) is geomet…
Let X be a hyperbolic surface and H the fundamental group of a hyperbolic 3-manifold that fibers over the circle with fiber X. Using the Birman exact sequence, H embeds in the mapping class group Mod(Y) of the surface Y obtained by removing a point from X. We prove that a subgroup G in H is convex cocompact in Mod(Y) if and only if G is finitely generated and purely pseudo-Anosov. We also prove a generalization of this theorem with H replaced by an arbitrary Gromov hyperbolic extension of the fundamental group of X, and an additional hypothesis of quasi-convexity of G in H. Along the way, we o…
Let N be a closed, oriented 3-manifold. A folklore conjecture states that $S^{1} \times N$ admits a symplectic structure if and only if $N$ admits a fibration over the circle. We will prove this conjecture in the case when N is irreducible and its fundamental group satisfies appropriate subgroup separability conditions. This statement includes 3-manifolds with vanishing Thurston norm, graph manifolds and 3-manifolds with surface subgroup separability (a condition satisfied conjecturally by all hyperbolic 3-manifolds). Our result covers, in particular, the case of 0-framed surgeries along knots…
We provide an algorithm to solve the word problem in all fundamental groups of closed 3-manifolds; in particular, we show that these groups are autostackable. This provides a common framework for a solution to the word problem in any closed 3-manifold group using finite state automata. We also introduce the notion of a group which is autostackable respecting a subgroup, and show that a fundamental group of a graph of groups whose vertex groups are autostackable respecting any edge group is autostackable. A group that is strongly coset automatic over an autostackable subgroup, using a prefix-cl…
We show that any closed hyperbolic $3$-manifold $M$ has a co-final tower of covers $M_i \to M$ of degrees $n_i$ such that any subgroup of $π_1(M_i)$ generated by $k_i$ elements is free, where $k_i \ge n_i^C$ and $C = C(M) > 0$. Together with this result we show that $\log k_i \geq C_1 sys_1(M_i)$, where $sys_1(M_i)$ denotes the systole of $M_i$, thus providing a large set of new examples for a conjecture of Gromov. In the second theorem $C_1> 0$ is an absolute constant. We also consider a generalization of these results to non-compact finite volume hyperbolic $3$-manifolds.
In this paper, we give a proof of the result of Brandenbursky and Kȩdra which says that the commutator subgroup of the infinite braid group admits stably unbounded norms. Moreover, we observe the norms which we constructed are equivalent to the biinvariant word norm studied by Brandenbursky and Kȩdra.
In this paper, we study strongly quasiconvex subgroups in a finitely generated $3$--manifold group $π_1(M)$. We prove that if $M$ is a compact, orientable $3$--manifold that does not have a summand supporting the Sol geometry in its sphere-disc decomposition then a finitely generated subgroup $H \le π_1(M)$ has finite height if and only if $H$ is strongly quasiconvex. On the other hand, if $M$ has a summand supporting the Sol geometry in its sphere-disc decomposition then $π_1(M)$ contains finitely generated, finite height subgroups which are not strongly quasiconvex. We also characterize stro…
We study actions of discrete subgroups $Γ$ of semi-simple Lie groups $G$ on associated oriented flag manifolds. These are quotients $G/P$, where the subgroup $P$ lies between a parabolic subgroup and its identity component. For Anosov subgroups $Γ\subset G$, we identify domains in oriented flag manifolds by removing a set obtained from the limit set of $Γ$, and give a combinatorial description of proper discontinuity and cocompactness of these domains. This generalizes analogous results of Kapovich-Leeb-Porti to the oriented setting. We give first examples of cocompact domains of discontinuity…
We show that any finitely generated non-elementary Kleinian group has a co-final family of finite index normal subgroups with respect to which it has Property $τ$. As a consequence, any closed hyperbolic 3-manifold has a co-final family of finite index normal subgroups for which the infimal Heegaard gradient is positive.
We generalize Bonahon's characterization of geometrically infinite torsion-free discrete subgroups of PSL(2, $\mathbb{C}$) to geometrically infinite discrete isometry subgroups in the case of rank 1 symmetric spaces, and, under the assumption of bounded torsion, to the case of negatively pinched Hadamard manifolds. Every such geometrically infinite isometry subgroup $Γ$ has a set of nonconical limit points with cardinality of continuum.
We exhibit a closed aspherical 5-manifold of nonpositive curvature that fibers over a circle whose fundamental group is hyperbolic relative to abelian subgroups such that the fiber is a closed aspherical 4-manifold whose fundamental group is not hyperbolic relative to abelian subgroups.
A random group contains many subgroups which are isomorphic to the fundamental group of a compact hyperbolic 3-manifold with totally geodesic boundary. These subgroups can be taken to be quasi-isometrically embedded. This is true both in the few relators model, and the density model of random groups (at any density less than a half).
Suppose that all hyperbolic groups are residually finite. The following statements follow: In relatively hyperbolic groups with peripheral structures consisting of finitely generated nilpotent subgroups, quasiconvex subgroups are separable; Geometrically finite subgroups of non-uniform lattices in rank one symmetric spaces are separable; Kleinian groups are subgroup separable. We also show that LERF for finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds would follow from LERF for closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds. The method is to reduce, via combination and filling theorems, the separability of a quasiconvex s…
Abelian covers of hyperbolic $3$-manifolds are ubiquitous. We prove the local mixing theorem of the frame flow for abelian covers of closed hyperbolic $3$-manifolds. We obtain a classification theorem for measures invariant under the horospherical subgroup. We also describe applications to the prime geodesic theorem as well as to other counting and equidistribution problems. Our results are proved for any abelian cover of a homogeneous space $Γ_0\backslash G$ where $G$ is a rank one simple Lie group and $Γ_0<G$ is a convex cocompact Zariski dense subgroup.
We establish new strong lower bounds on the (subnormal) subgroup growth of a large class of groups. This includes the fundamental groups of all finite-volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds and all (free non-abelian)-by-cyclic groups. The lower bound is nearly exponential, which should be compared with the fastest possible subgroup growth of any finitely generated group. This is achieved by free non-abelian groups and is slightly faster than exponential. As a consequence, we obtain good estimates on the number of covering spaces of a hyperbolic 3-manifold with given covering degree. We also obtain slig…
We prove that, for any two finite volume hyperbolic $3$-manifolds, the amalgamation of their fundamental groups along any nontrivial geometrically finite subgroup is not LERF. This generalizes the author's previous work on nonLERFness of amalgamations of hyperbolic $3$-manifold groups along abelian subgroups. A consequence of this result is that closed arithmetic hyperbolic $4$-manifolds have nonLERF fundamental groups. Along with the author's previous work, we get that, for any arithmetic hyperbolic manifold with dimension at least $4$, with possible exceptions in $7$-dimensional manifolds de…
In this paper, we generalize Bonahon's characterization of geometrically infinite torsion-free discrete subgroups of PSL(2, $\mathbb{C}$) to geometrically infinite discrete subgroups $Γ$ of isometries of negatively pinched Hadamard manifolds $X$. We then generalize a theorem of Bishop to prove that every discrete geometrically infinite isometry subgroup $Γ$ has a set of nonconical limit points with the cardinality of the continuum.
In the first paper of this series (arxiv.org/abs/1210.2961) we studied the asymptotic behavior of Betti numbers, twisted torsion and other spectral invariants for sequences of lattices in Lie groups G. A key element of our work was the study of invariant random subgroups (IRSs) of G. Any sequence of lattices has a subsequence converging to an IRS, and when G has higher rank, the Nevo-Stuck-Zimmer theorem classifies all IRSs of G. Using the classification, one can deduce asymptotic statments about spectral invariants of lattices. When G has real rank one, the space of IRSs is more complicated. …
Let $X$ be a proper geodesic Gromov hyperbolic metric space and let $G$ be a cocompact group of isometries of $X$ admitting a uniform lattice. Let $d$ be the Hausdorff dimension of the Gromov boundary $\partial X$. We define the critical exponent $δ(μ)$ of any discrete invariant random subgroup $μ$ of the locally compact group $G$ and show that $δ(μ) > \frac{d}{2}$ in general and that $δ(μ) = d$ if $μ$ is of divergence type. Whenever $G$ is a rank-one simple Lie group with Kazhdan's property $(T)$ it follows that an ergodic invariant random subgroup of divergence type is a lattice. One of our …
The main theorem of this paper generalizes recent results in Dehn surgery to the case of handlebody attachment. We consider attaching handlebodies and solid tori to the boundary of an irreducible, boundary-irreducible, atoroidal and acylindrical 3-manifold. We show that for a large class of homeomorphisms attaching these handlebodies, the fundamental group of the resulting manifold contains the fundamental group of a closed surface of genus at least two.
We prove:(1) the existence, for every integer n > 3, of a noncompact smooth n-dimensional topological manifold whose diffeomorphism group contains an isomorphic copy of every finitely presented group; (2) a finiteness theorem on finite simple subgroups of diffeomorphism groups of compact smooth topological manifolds.
Let G=SO(n,1) and Gamma a geometrically finite Zariski dense subgroup of G which is contained in an arithmetic subgroup of G. Denoting by Gamma(q) the principal congruence subgroup of Gamma of level q, and fixing a positive number λ_0 strictly smaller than (n-1)^2/4, we show that, as q tends to infinity along primes, the number of Laplacian eigenvalues of the congruence cover Gamma(q)\ H^n smaller than lambda_0 is at most of order [Gamma:Gamma(q)]^c for some c=c(λ_0)>0.
We prove that the profinite completion of the fundamental group of a compact 3-manifold $M$ satisfies a Tits alternative: if a closed subgroup $H$ does not contain a free pro-$p$ subgroup for any $p$, then $H$ is virtually soluble, and furthermore of a very particular form. In particular, the profinite completion of the fundamental group of a closed, hyperbolic 3-manifold does not contain a subgroup isomorphic to $\hat{\mathbb{Z}}^2$. This gives a profinite characterization of hyperbolicity among irreducible 3-manifolds. We also characterize Seifert fibred 3-manifolds as precisely those for wh…
By refining an idea of Farrell, we present a sufficient condition in terms of the Jiang subgroup for the vanishing of signature and Hirzebruch's $χ_y$-genus on compact smooth and Kähler manifolds respectively. Along this line we show that the $χ_y$-genus of a non-positively curved compact Kähler manifold vanishes when the center of its fundamental group is non-trivial, which partially answers a question of Farrell. Moreover, in the latter case all the Chern numbers vanish whenever its complex dimension is no more than $4$, which also provides some evidence to a conjecture proposed by the autho…
We prove that for any closed smooth $4$-manifold $X$ there exists a constant $C$ with the property that each finite subgroup $G<Diff(X)$ has a subgroup $N$ which is abelian or nilpotent of class $2$, and which satisfies $[G:N]\leq C$. We give sufficient conditions on $X$ for $Diff(X)$ to be Jordan, meaning that there exists a constant $C$ such that any finite subgroup $G<Diff(X)$ has an abelian subgroup $A$ satisfying $[G:A]\leq C$. Some of these conditions are homotopical, such as having nonzero Euler characteristic or nonzero signature, others are geometric, such as the absence of embedded t…
We define \emph{piecewise rank 1} manifolds, which are aspherical manifolds that generally do not admit a nonpositively curved metric but can be decomposed into pieces that are diffeomorphic to finite volume, irreducible, locally symmetric, nonpositively curved manifolds with $π_1$-injective cusps. We prove smooth (self) rigidity for this class of manifolds in the case where the gluing preserves the cusps' homogeneous structure. We compute the group of self homotopy equivalences of such a manifold and show that it can contain a normal free abelian subgroup and thus, can be infinite. Elements o…
Let $Γ$ be a Zariski dense Anosov subgroup of a connected semisimple real algebraic group $G$. For a maximal horospherical subgroup $N$ of $G$, we show that the space of all non-trivial $NM$-invariant ergodic and $A$-quasi-invariant Radon measures on $Γ\backslash G$, up to proportionality, is homeomorphic to ${\mathbb R}^{\text{rank}\,G-1}$, where $A$ is a maximal real split torus and $M$ is a maximal compact subgroup which normalizes $N$. One of the main ingredients is to establish the $NM$-ergodicity of all Burger-Roblin measures.
