While Dehn functions, D(n), of finitely presented groups are very well studied in the literature, mean Dehn functions are much less considered. M. Gromov introduced the notion of mean Dehn function of a group, $D_{mean}(n)$, suggesting that in many cases it should grow much more slowly than the Dehn function itself. Using only elementary counting methods, this paper presents some computations pointing into this direction. Particularizing them to the case of any finite presentation of a finitely generated abelian group (for which it is well known that $D(n)\sim n^2$ except in the 1-dimensional case), we show that the three variations $D_{osmean}(n)$, $D_{smean}(n)$ and $D_{mean}(n)$ all are bounded above by $Kn(\ln n)^2$, where the constant $K$ depends only on the presentation (and the geodesic combing) chosen. This improves an earlier bound given by Kukina and Roman'kov.
In this paper, we compute an upper bound for the Dehn function of a finitely presented metabelian group. In addition, we prove that the same upper bound works for the relative Dehn function of a finitely generated metabelian group. We also show that every wreath product of a free abelian group of finite rank with a finitely generated abelian group can be embedded into a metabelian group with exponential Dehn function.
We show the connection between the relative Dehn function of a finitely generated metabelian group and the distortion function of a corresponding subgroup in the wreath product of two free abelian groups of finite rank. Further, we show that if a finitely generated metabelian group $G$ is an extension of an abelian group by $\mathbb Z$ the relative Dehn function of $G$ is polynomially bounded. Therefore, if $G$ is finitely presented, the Dehn function is bounded above by the exponential function up to equivalence.
We prove that Abels' group over an arbitrary nondiscrete locally compact field has a quadratic Dehn function. As applications, we exhibit connected Lie groups and polycyclic groups whose asymptotic cones have uncountable abelian fundamental group. We also obtain, from the case of finite characteristic, uncountably many non-quasi-isometric finitely generated solvable groups, as well as peculiar examples of fundamental groups of asymptotic cones.
It is proved for Abelian groups that the Reidemeister coincidence number of two endomorphisms $ϕ$ and $ψ$ is equal to the number of coincidence points of $\whϕ$ and $\whψ$ on the unitary dual, if the Reidemeister number is finite. An affirmative answer to the bitwisted Dehn conjugacy problem for almost polycyclic groups is obtained. Finally we explain why the Reidemeister numbers are always infinite for injective endomorphisms of Baumslag-Solitar groups.
Gromov proposed an averaged version of the Dehn function and claimed that in many cases it should be subasymptotic to the Dehn function. Using results on random walks in nilpotent groups, we confirm this claim for most nilpotent groups. In particular, if a nilpotent group satisfies the isoperimetric inequality $δ(l)<Cl^α$ for $α>2$ then it satisfies the averaged isoperimetric inequality $δ^{\text{avg}}(l)<C'l^{α/2}$. In the case of non-abelian free nilpotent groups, the bounds we give are asymptotically sharp.
McCarthy's Theorem for the mapping class group of a closed hyperbolic surface states that for any two mapping classes $σ,τ\in \mathrm{Mod}(S)$ there is some power $N$ such that the group $\langle σ^N,τ^N\rangle$ is either free of rank two or abelian, and gives a geometric criterion for the dichotomy. The analogous statement is false in linear groups, and unresolved for outer automorphisms of a free group. Several analogs are known for exponentially growing outer automorphisms satisfying various technical hypothesis. In this article we prove an analogous statement when $σ$ and $τ$ are linearly …
In the 1970s, Birman-Craggs-Johnson used Rochlin's invariant for homology 3-spheres to construct a remarkable surjective homomorphism sigma:I_{g,1}->B_3, where I_{g,1} is the Torelli group and B_3 is a certain F_2-vector space of Boolean (square-free) polynomials. By pulling back cohomology classes and evaluating them on abelian cycles, we construct 16g^4 + O(g^3) dimensions worth of nontrivial elements of H^2(I_{g,1}, F_2) which cannot be detected rationally. These classes in fact restrict to nontrivial classes in the cohomology of the subgroup K_{g,1} < I_{g,1} generated by Dehn twists about…
A group is known as `large' if some finite index subgroup admits a surjective homomorphism onto a non-abelian free group. The main theorem of the paper is as follows. Let G be a finitely generated, large group and let g_1,...,g_r be a collection of elements of G. Then G/<<g_1^n,...,g_r^n>> is also large, for infinitely many integers n. Furthermore, when G is free, this holds for all but finitely many n. These results have the following application to Dehn surgery. Let M be a compact orientable 3-manifold with boundary a torus. Suppose that the 3-manifold obtained by Dehn filling some slope on …
For a finitely presented group, the word problem asks for an algorithm which declares whether or not words on the generators represent the identity. The Dehn function is a complexity measure of a direct attack on the word problem by applying the defining relations. Dison & Riley showed that a "hydra phenomenon" gives rise to novel groups with extremely fast growing (Ackermannian) Dehn functions. Here we show that nevertheless, there are efficient (polynomial time) solutions to the word problems of these groups. Our main innovation is a means of computing efficiently with enormous integers whic…
Let $G$ be a non-abelian group and $Z(G)$ be the center of $G$. Associate a graph $Γ_G$ (called non-commuting graph of $G$) with $G$ as follows: take $G\setminus Z(G)$ as the vertices of $Γ_G$ and join two distinct vertices $x$ and $y$, whenever $xy\neq yx$. Here, we prove that "the commutativity pattern of a finite non-abelian $p$-group determine its order among the class of groups"; this means that if $P$ is a finite non-abelian $p$-group such that $Γ_P\cong Γ_H$ for some group $H$, then $|P|=|H|$.
Let G be a p-adic Lie group and Ad be the adjoint representation of G on its Lie algebra. It was claimed in the literature that the kernel K of Ad always has an abelian open normal subgroup. We show by means of a counterexample that this assertion is false; it can even happen that K=G but G has no abelian subnormal subgroup except for the trivial group. The arguments are based on auxiliary results on subgroups of free products with central amalgamation.
This note aims at providing evidence for the section conjecture of anabelian geometry by establishing its behaviour under Weil restriction of scalars. In particular, the etale fundamental group of the Weil restriction is determined by means of a Shapiro Lemma for non-abelian group cohomology.
Here we present a working framework to establish finite abelian groups in python. The primary aim is to allow new A-level students to work with examples of finite abelian groups using open source software. We include the code used in the implementation of the framework. We also prove some useful results regarding finite abelian groups which are used to establish the functions and help show how number theoretic results can blend with computational power when studying algebra. The groups established are based modular multiplication and addition. We include direct products of cyclic groups meanin…
We deal with some pcf investigations mostly motivated by abelian group theory problems and deal their applications to test problems (we expect reasonably wide applications). We prove almost always the existence of aleph_omega-free abelian groups with trivial dual, i.e. no non-trivial homomorphisms to the integers. This relies on investigation of pcf; more specifically, for this we prove that "almost always" there are F subseteq lambda^kappa which are quite free and has black boxes. The "almost always" means that there are strong restrictions on cardinal arithmetic if the universe fails this, t…
A subgroup $H$ of a topological abelian group $X$ is said to be characterized by a sequence $\mathbf v =(v_n)$ of characters of $X$ if $H=\{x\in X:v_n(x)\to 0\ \text{in}\ \mathbb T\}$. We study the basic properties of characterized subgroups in the general setting, extending results known in the compact case. For a better description, we isolate various types of characterized subgroups. Moreover, we introduce the relevant class of autochacaracterized groups (namely, the groups that are characterized subgroups of themselves by means of a sequence of non-null characters); in the case of locally …
Let A be a locally compact abelian group, and H a locally compact group acting on A. Let G=HA be the semidirect product. We prove that the pair (G,A) has Kazhdan's Property T if and only if the only countably approximable H-invariant mean on the Borel subsets of the Pontryagin dual of A, supported at the neighbourhood of the trivial character, is the Dirac measure.
