Local indicability and commutator subgroups of Artin groups

Homology of subgroups of right-angled Artin groups

We describe the (co)homology of a certain family of normal subgroups of right-angled Artin groups that contain the commutator subgroup, as modules over the quotient group. We do so in terms of (skew) commutative algebra of squarefree monomial ideals.

A simplification of "Effective quasimorphisms on right-angled Artin groups"

This paper presents a simplification of the main argument in "Effective quasimorphisms on right-angled Artin groups" by Fernós, Forester and Tao. Their article introduces a family of quasimorphisms on a certain class of groups (called RAAG-like) acting on CAT(0) cube complexes. They show that these have uniform defect of $12$ and take the value of at least $1$ on a chosen element. With the Bavard Duality they conclude that hyperbolic elements of RAAG-like groups have stable commutator length of at least $1/24$. Their proof that the quasimorphisms take the value $1$ is quite technical and relie…

Effective quasimorphisms on right-angled Artin groups

We construct new families of quasimorphisms on many groups acting on CAT(0) cube complexes. These quasimorphisms have a uniformly bounded defect of 12, and they "see" all elements that act hyperbolically on the cube complex. We deduce that all such elements have stable commutator length at least 1/24. The group actions for which these results apply include the standard actions of right-angled Artin groups on their associated CAT(0) cube complexes. In particular, every non-trivial element of a right-angled Artin group has stable commutator length at least 1/24. These results make use of some ne…

Computing commutator length is hard

The commutator length $cl_G(g)$ of an element $g \in [G,G]$ in the commutator subgroup of a group $G$ is the least number of commutators needed to express $g$ as their product. If $G$ is a non-abelian free groups, then given an integer $n \in \mathbb{N}$ and an element $g \in [G,G]$ the decision problem which determines if $cl_G(g) \leq n$ is NP-complete. Thus, unless P=NP, there is no algorithm that computes $cl_G(g)$ in polynomial time in terms of $|g|$, the wordlength of $g$. This statement remains true for groups which have a retract to a non-abelian free group, such as non-abelian right-a…

On the loxodromic actions of Artin-Tits groups

Artin-Tits groups act on a certain delta-hyperbolic complex, called the "additional length complex". For an element of the group, acting loxodromically on this complex is a property analogous to the property of being pseudo-Anosov for elements of mapping class groups. By analogy with a well-known conjecture about mapping class groups, we conjecture that "most" elements of Artin-Tits groups act loxodromically. More precisely, in the Cayley graph of a subgroup $G$ of an Artin-Tits group, the proportion of loxodromically acting elements in a ball of large radius should tend to one as the radius t…

Densely ordered braid subgroups

Dehornoy showed that the Artin braid groups $B_n$ are left-orderable. This ordering is discrete, but we show that, for $n >2$ the Dehornoy ordering, when restricted to certain natural subgroups, becomes a dense ordering. Among subgroups which arise are the commutator subgroup and the kernel of the Burau representation (for those $n$ for which the kernel is nontrivial). These results follow from a characterization of least positive elements of any normal subgroup of $B_n$ which is discretely ordered by the Dehornoy ordering.

Presentations of subgroups of the braid group generated by powers of band generators

According to the Tits conjecture proved by Crisp and Paris, [CP], the subgroups of the braid group generated by proper powers of the Artin elements are presented by the commutators of generators which are powers of commuting elements. Hence they are naturally presented as right-angled Artin groups. The case of subgroups generated by powers of the band generators is more involved. We show that the groups are right-angled Artin groups again, if all generators are proper powers with exponent at least 3. We also give a presentation in cases at the other extreme, when all generators occur with expo…

Bicyclic commutator quotients with one non-elementary component

For any number field K with non-elementary 3-class group Cl(3,K) = C(3^e) x C(3), e >= 2, the punctured capitulation type kappa(K) of K in its unramified cyclic cubic extensions Li, 1 <= i <= 4, is an orbit under the action of S3 x S3. By means of Artin's reciprocity law, the arithmetical invariant kappa(K) is translated to the punctured transfer kernel type kappa(G2) of the automorphism group G2 = Gal(F(3,2,K)/K) of the second Hilbert 3-class field of K. A classification of finite 3-groups G with low order and bicyclic commutator quotient G/G' = C(3^e) x C(3), 2 <= e <= 6, according to the al…

Interval groups related to finite Coxeter groups, Part II

We provide a complete description of the presentations of the interval groups related to quasi-Coxeter elements in finite Coxeter groups. In the simply laced cases, we show that each interval group is the quotient of the Artin group associated with the corresponding Carter diagram by the normal closure of a set of twisted cycle commutators, one for each 4-cycle of the diagram. Our techniques also reprove an analogous result for the Artin groups of finite Coxeter groups, which are interval groups corresponding to Coxeter elements. We also analyse the situation in the non-simply laced cases, whe…

Quotients of the Artin braid groups and crystallographic groups

Let n be greater than or equal to 3. We study the quotient group B\_n/[P n,P\_n] of the Artin braid group B\_n by the commutator subgroup of its pure Artin braid group P\_n. We show that B\_n/[P n,P\_n] is a crystallographic group, and in the case n=3, we analyse explicitly some of its subgroups. We also prove that B\_n/[P n,P\_n] possesses torsion, and we show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the conjugacy classes of the finite-order elements of B\_n/[P n,P\_n] with the conjugacy classes of the elements of odd order of the symmetric group S\_n, and that the isomorphism class …

The lower central and derived series of the braid groups of the sphere and the punctured sphere

Our aim is to determine the lower central series (LCS) and derived series (DS) for the braid groups of the sphere and of the finitely-punctured sphere. We show that for all n (resp. all n\geq 5), the LCS (resp. DS) of the n-string braid group B\_n(S^2) is constant from the commutator subgroup onwards, and that Γ\_2(B\_4(S^2)) is a semi-direct product of the quaternion group by a free group of rank 2. For n=4, we determine the DS of B\_4(S^2), as well as its quotients. For n \geq 1, the class of m-string braid groups B\_m(S^2) \ {x\_1,...,x\_n} of the n-punctured sphere includes the Artin braid…

Gaps in scl for Amalgamated Free Products and RAAGs

We develop a new criterion to tell if a group $G$ has the maximal gap of $1/2$ in stable commutator length (scl). For amalgamated free products $G = A \star_C B$ we show that every element $g$ in the commutator subgroup of $G$ which does not conjugate into $A$ or $B$ satisfies $scl(g) \geq 1/2$, provided that $C$ embeds as a left relatively convex subgroup in both $A$ and $B$. We deduce from this that every non-trivial element $g$ in the commutator subgroup of a right-angled Artin group $G$ satisfies $scl(g) \geq 1/2$. This bound is sharp and is inherited by all fundamental groups of special c…

Interval groups related to finite Coxeter groups I

We derive presentations of the interval groups related to all quasi-Coxeter elements in the Coxeter group of type $D_n$. Type $D_n$ is the only infinite family of finite Coxeter groups that admits proper quasi-Coxeter elements. The presentations we obtain are over a set of generators in bijection with what we call a Carter generating set, and the relations are those defined by the related Carter diagram together with a twisted or a cycle commutator relator, depending on whether the quasi-Coxeter element is a Coxeter element or not. The proof is based on the description of two combinatorial tec…

群的图积中的笛卡尔子群

Cartesian subgroups in graph products of groups

该研究推广了直角Coxeter群与Artin群的换位子群构造，借助多面体积理论给出群图积的笛卡尔子群关系数及亏格的上下界，还提出计算其小型表现的算法。

曲面辫群的Coxeter型商

Coxeter-type quotients of surface braid groups

本文研究了曲面辫群在元素 $σ_1^q$ 正规闭包下的 Coxeter 型商群，以及闭可定向曲面或圆盘上结合纯辫群换位子群的 Coxeter 型商群。

Quasi-Kähler Bestvina-Brady groups

A finite simple graph \G determines a right-angled Artin group G_\G, with one generator for each vertex v, and with one commutator relation vw=wv for each pair of vertices joined by an edge. The Bestvina-Brady group N_\G is the kernel of the projection G_\G \to \Z, which sends each generator v to 1. We establish precisely which graphs \G give rise to quasi-Kähler (respectively, Kähler) groups N_\G. This yields examples of quasi-projective groups which are not commensurable (up to finite kernels) to the fundamental group of any aspherical, quasi-projective variety.

可除立方复形与RAAGs的有限阶自同构的固定子群

Divisible cube complexes and finite-order automorphisms of RAAGs

研究了RAAGs有限阶自同构的固定子群的几何特征，发现这些子群是可除立方复形的基群，并指出表面群和右角Coxeter群的交换子群是此类固定子群的例子。

The inclusion of configuration spaces of surfaces in Cartesian products, its induced homomorphism, and the virtual cohomological dimension of the braid groups of S^2 and RP^2

Let M be a surface, perhaps with boundary, and either compact, or with a finite number of points removed from the interior of the surface. We consider the inclusion i: F\_n(M) --\textgreater{} M^n of the nth configuration space F\_n(M) of M into the n-fold Cartesian product of M, as well as the induced homomorphism i\_\#: P\_n(M) --\textgreater{} (π\_1(M))^n, where P\_n(M) is the n-string pure braid group of M. Both i and i\_\# were studied initially by J.Birman who conjectured that Ker(i\_\#) is equal to the normal closure of the Artin pure braid group P\_n in P\_n(M). The conjecture was late…

通用虚拟编织群

Universal virtual braid groups

本文引入了通用虚拟编织群UV_n(c)，提供了一种统一的代数框架，用于虚拟编织结构，证明其具有残余有限性、线性、解字和共轭问题等性质，并分类了子群分离性和Howson性质。