The quotient of a biautomatic group by a subgroup of the center is shown to be biautomatic. The main tool used is the Neumann-Shapiro triangulation of $S^{n-1}$, associated to a biautomatic structure on ${\Bbb Z}^n$. As an application, direct factors of biautomatic groups are shown to be biautomatic.
Let $E$ be a virtually central extension of the group $G$ by a finitely generated abelian group $A$. We show that $E$ carries a biautomatic structure if and only if $G$ has a biautomatic structure $L$ for which the cohomology class of the extension is represented by an $L$-regular cocycle. Moreover, a cohomology class is $L$-regular if some multiple of it is or if its restriction to some finite index subgroup is. We also show that the entire second cohomology of a Fuchsian group is regular, so any virtually central extension is biautomatic. In particular, if the fundamental group of a Seifert …
We show that the isomorphism problem is solvable in the class of central extensions of word-hyperbolic groups, and that the isomorphism problem for biautomatic groups reduces to that for biautomatic groups with finite centre. We describe an algorithm that, given an arbitrary finite presentation of an automatic group $Γ$, will construct explicit finite models for the skeleta of $K(Γ,1)$ and hence compute the integral homology and cohomology of $Γ$.
The following discourse is inspired by the works on hyperbolic groups of Epstein, and Neumann/Reeves. Epstein showed that geometrically finite hyperbolic groups are biautomatic. Neumann/Reeves showed that virtually central extensions of word hyperbolic groups are biautomatic. We prove the following generalisation: Theorem. Let H be a geometrically finite hyperbolic group. Let sigma in H^2(H) and suppose that sigma restricted to P is zero for any parabolic subgroup P of H. Then the extension of H by sigma is biautomatic. We also prove another generalisation of the result of Epstein. Theorem. Le…
Thurston has claimed (unpublished) that central extensions of word hyperbolic groups by finitely generated abelian groups are automatic. We show that they are in fact biautomatic. Further, we show that every 2-dimensional cohomology class on a word hyperbolic group can be represented by a bounded 2-cocycle. This lends weight to the claim of Gromov that for a word hyperbolic group, the cohomology in every dimension is bounded.
We prove that Artin groups from a class containing all large-type Artin groups are systolic. This provides a concise yet precise description of their geometry. Immediate consequences are new results concerning large-type Artin groups: biautomaticity; existence of $EZ$-boundaries; the Novikov conjecture; descriptions of finitely presented subgroups, of virtually solvable subgroups, and of centralizers for infinite order elements; the Burghelea conjecture; existence of low-dimensional models for classifying spaces for some families of subgroups.
We prove a conjecture of Boston that if $p\geq 5$, all $p$-central quotients of the free group on two generators and of the free product of two cyclic groups of order $p$ are Beauville groups. In the case of the free product, we also determine Beauville structures in $p$-central quotients when $p=3$. As a consequence, we give an explicit infinite family of Beauville $3$-groups, which is different from the only one that was known up to date.
Given a finitely presented group $G$, we wish to explore the conditions under which automorphisms of quotients $G/N$ can be lifted to automorphisms of $G$. We discover that in the case where $N$ is a central subgroup of $G$, the question of lifting can be reduced to solving a certain matrix equation. We then use the techniques developed to show that $Inn(G)$ is not characteristic in $Aut(G)$, where $G$ is a metacyclic group of order $p^n$, $p\neq 2$.
In 1904, Issai Schur proved the following result. If $G$ is an arbitrary group such that $G/\Z(G)$ is finite, where $\Z(G)$ denotes the center of the group $G$, then the commutator subgroup of $G$ is finite. A partial converse of this result was proved by B. H. Neumann in 1951. He proved that if $G$ is a finitely generated group with finite commutator subgroup, then $G/\Z(G)$ is finite. In this short note, we exhibit few arguments of Neumann, which provide further generalizations of converse of the above mentioned result of Schur. We classify all finite groups $G$ such that $|G/\Z(G)| = |γ_2(G…
A p-group G is p-central if the central quotient has exponent p. We prove that for a subset of finite p-central p-groups, the order of the group G divides the order of Aut(G).
For odd primes we prove some structure theorems for finite $p$-groups $G$, such that $G''\neq 1$ and $|G'/G''|=p^3$. Building on results of Blackburn and Hall, it is shown that $\lcs G3$ is a maximal subgroup of $G'$, the group $G$ has a central decomposition into two simpler subgroups, and, moreover, $G'$ has one of two isomorphism types.
Let $G$ be an affine algebraic group with a reductive identity component $G^{0}$ acting regularly on an affine Krull scheme $X = {Spec} (R)$ over an algebraically closed field. Let $T$ be an algebraic subtorus of $G$ and suppose that ${Q}(R)^{T}= {Q}(R^{T})$ of quotient fields. We will show: If $G$ is the centralizer of $T$ in $G$, then the pseudo-reflections of the action of $G$ on $R^{T}$ can be lifted to those on $R$.
Let $G$ be a central product of two groups $H$ and $K$. We study second cohomology group of $G$, having coefficients in a divisible abelian group $D$ with trivial $G$-action, in terms of the second cohomology groups of certain quotients of $H$ and $K$. In particular, for $D = \mathbb{C}^{*}$, some of our results provide a refinement of results from [Some groups with non-trivial multiplicators, Math. Z. {\bf 120 } (1971), 307-308] and [On the Schur multiplicator of a central quotient of a direct product of groups, J. Pure Appl. Algebra {\bf 3} (1973), 73-82].
For $n \geq 2$ let $Δ$ be a Dynkin diagram of rank $n$ and let $I = {1, >..., n}$ be the set of labels of $Δ$. A group $G$ admits a weak Phan system of type $Δ$ over $\mathbb{C}$ if $G$ is generated by subgroups $U_i$, $i \in I$, which are central quotients of simply connected compact semisimple Lie groups of rank one, and contains subgroups $U_{i,j} = \gen{U_i ,U_j}$, $i \neq j \in I$, which are central quotients of simply connected compact semisimple Lie groups of rank two such that $U_i$ and $U_j$ are rank one subgroups of $U_{i,j}$ corresponding to a choice of a maximal torus and a fundame…
The concepts of the scale and tidy subgroups for an automorphism of a totally disconnected locally compact group were defined in seminal work by George A. Willis in the 1990s, and recently generalized to the case of endomorphisms (G. A. Willis, Math. Ann. 361 (2015), 403--442). We show that central facts concerning the scale, tidy subgroups, quotients, and contraction groups of automorphisms extend to the case of endomorphisms. In particular, we obtain results concerning the domain of attraction around an invariant closed subgroup.
In this paper we prove that $2^{20+1}.U_6(2)$, known as the centralizer of an involution in the group $2E_6(2)$ is a quotient of a Coxeter group. We obtain a presentation of $2^{20+1}.U_6(2)$ as a $Q_{222}$-group, which now resolve a long pending question.
A residually nilpotent group is \emph{$k$-parafree} if all of its lower central series quotients match those of a free group of rank $k$. Magnus proved that $k$-parafree groups of rank $k$ are themselves free. In this note we mimic this theory with finite extensions of free groups, with an emphasis on free products of the cyclic group $C_p$, for $p$ an odd prime. We show that for $n \leq p$ Magnus' characterization holds for the $n$-fold free product $C_p^{*n}$ within the class of finite-extensions of free groups. Specifically, if $n \leq p$ and $G$ is a finitely generated, virtually free, res…
The article deals with profinite groups in which the centralizers are pronilpotent (CN-groups). It is shown that such groups are virtually pronilpotent. More precisely, let G be a profinite CN-group, and let F be the maximal normal pronilpotent subgroup of G. It is shown that F is open and the structure of the finite quotient G/F is described in detail.
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…
We show that any group $G$ with a non-$FSZ_m$ quotient by a central cyclic subgroup also provides a non-$FSZ_m$ group of order $m|G|$ obtained as a central product of $G$ with a cyclic group. We then construct, for every prime $p>3$ and $j\in\mathbb{N}$, an $FSZ_{p^j}$ group $F$ such that there is a central cyclic subgroup $A$ with $F/A$ not $FSZ_{p^j}$. We apply these results to regular wreath products to construct an $FSZ$ $p$-group which is not $FSZ^+$ for any prime $p>3$. These give the first known examples of $FSZ$ groups that are not $FSZ^+$. We are also able to prove a few partial resul…
The solvable Farb growth of a group quantifies how well-approximated the group is by its finite solvable quotients. In this note we present a new characterization of polycyclic groups which are virtually nilpotent. That is, we show that a group has solvable Farb growth which is at most polynomial in $\log(n)$ if and only if the group is polycyclic and virtually nilpotent. We also give new results concerning approximating oriented surface groups by nilpotent quotients. As a consequence of this, we prove that a natural number $C$ exists so that any nontrivial element of the $Ck$th term of the lo…
The article deals with profinite groups in which the centralizers are abelian (CA-groups), that is, with profinite commutativity-transitive groups. It is shown that such groups are virtually pronilpotent. More precisely, let G be a profinite CA-group. It is shown that G has a normal open subgroup N which is either abelian or pro-p. Further, a rather detailed information about the finite quotient G/N is obtained.
We prove that, for any positive integer $c$, the quotient group $γ_{c}(M_{3})/γ_{c+1}(M_{3})$ of the lower central series of the McCool group $M_{3}$ is isomorphic to two copies of the quotient group $γ_{c}(F_{3})/γ_{c+1}(F_{3})$ of the lower central series of a free group $F_{3}$ of rank $3$ as $\mathbb{Z}$-modules. Furthermore, we give a necessary and sufficient condition whether the associated graded Lie algebra ${\rm gr}(M_{3})$ of $M_3$ is naturally embedded into the Johnson Lie algebra ${\cal L}({\rm IA}(F_{3}))$ of the IA-automorphisms of $F_{3}$.
We give a description of Duchamp and Krob's extension of Magnus' approach to the lower central series of the free group to right-angled Artin groups. We also describe how Lalonde's extension of Lyndon words to the partially-commutative settings gives a simple algorithm to find a basis for consecutive quotients of the lower central series of a RAAG.
Given a free group $Γ$ of finite rank $n$ and a prime number $p,$ denote by $Γ_k^\bullet$ the $k^\text{th}$ layer of the Stallings ($\bullet=S$) or Zassenhaus ($\bullet=Z$) $p$-central series, by $\mathcal{N}_{k}^\bullet$ the quotient $Γ/Γ_{k+1}^\bullet$ and by $\mathcal{L}_{k}^\bullet$ the quotient $Γ_k^\bullet /Γ_{k+1}^\bullet.$ In this paper we prove that there is a non-central extension of groups $ 0 \longrightarrow Hom(\mathcal{N}^\bullet_1, \mathcal{L}^\bullet_{k+1}) \longrightarrow Aut\;\mathcal{N}^\bullet_{k+1} \longrightarrow Aut \;\mathcal{N}^\bullet_k \longrightarrow 1, $ which spli…
Our main result is that the image of the quantum representation of a central extension of the mapping class group of the genus $g\geq 3$ closed orientable surface at a prime $p\geq 5$ is a Zariski dense discrete subgroup of some higher rank algebraic semi-simple Lie group $\mathbb G_p$ defined over $\Q$. As an application we find that, for any prime $p\geq 5$ a central extension of the genus $g$ mapping class group surjects onto the finite groups $\mathbb G_p(\Z/q\Z)$, for all but finitely many primes $q$. This method provides infinitely many finite quotients of a given mapping class group out…
Let $G$ be a locally finite group and $F(G)$ the Hirsch--Plotkin radical of $G$. Denote by $S$ the full inverse image of the generalized Fitting subgroup of $G/F(G)$ in $G$. Assume that there is a number $k$ such that the length of every chain of nested centralizers in $G$ does not exceed $k$. The Borovik--Khukhro conjecture states, in particular, that under this assumption the quotient $G/S$ contains an abelian subgroup of index bounded in terms of $k$. We disprove this statement and prove some its weaker analog.
Groups that can be approximated by finite groups have been the center of much research. This has led to the investigations of the subgroups of metric ultraproducts of finite groups. This paper attempts to study the dual problem: what are the quotients of ultraproducts of finite groups? Since an ultraproduct is an abstract quotient of the direct product, this also led to a more general question: what are the abstract quotients of profinite groups? Certain cases were already well-studied. For example, if we have a pro-solvable group, then it is well-known that any finite abstract quotients are s…
For a positive integer $n$, with $n \geq 2$, let $M_n$ be a free metabelian group of rank $n$. For $c \in \mathbb{N}$, let $γ_c(M_n)$ be the $c$-th term of the lower central series of $M_n$. For $c \geq 2$, let ${\rm I}_{c}{\rm A}(M_n)$ be the subgroup of ${\rm Aut}(M_{n})$ consisting of all automorphisms inducing the identity mapping on $M_n/γ_c(M_n)$. In this paper, we study the quotient groups ${\cal L}^{c}({\rm IA}(M_{n})) = {\rm I}_{c}{\rm A}(M_n)/{\rm I}_{c+1}{\rm A}(M_n)$ for all $n$ and $c$. For $c \geq 2$, we show $γ_{c}({\rm IA}(M_{2})) = {\rm I}_{c+1}{\rm A}(M_{2}))$. For $n = 3$, w…
It is well known that when $G$ is the fundamental group of a closed surface of negative Euler characteristic, it has the $R_{\infty}$ property. In this work we compute the least integer $c$, {\it called the $R_{\infty}$-nilpotency degree of $G$}, such that the group $G/ γ_{c+1}(G)$ has the $R_{\infty}$ property, where $γ_r(G)$ is the $r$-th term of the lower central series of $G$. We show that $c=4$ for $G$ the fundamental group of any orientable closed surface $S_g$ of genus $g>1$. For the fundamental group of the non-orientable surface $N_g$ (the connected sum of $g$ projective planes) this …
For any $n\geqslant 4$ let $\tilde B_n=B_n/Z(B_n)$ be the quotient of the braid group $B_n$ through its center. We prove that any free ergodic probability measure preserving (pmp) action $\tilde B_n\curvearrowright (X,μ)$ is W$^*$-superrigid in the following sense: if $L^{\infty}(X)\rtimes\tilde B_n\cong L^{\infty}(Y)\rtimesΛ$, for an arbitrary free ergodic pmp action $Λ\curvearrowright (Y,ν)$, then the actions $\tilde B_n\curvearrowright X,Λ\curvearrowright Y$ are stably (or, virtually) conjugate. Moreover, we prove that the same holds if $\tilde B_n$ is replaced with a finite index subgroup …
For a Baumslag-Solitar group $G$ we calculate the intersection $γ_w(G)$ of all terms of the lower central sequence of $G$.Using this we are able to show that $[γ_w(G),G]=γ_w(G)$ thus answering a question of Bardakov and Neschadim. Finally we show that the quotient groups $γ_c(G)/γ_{c+1}(G)$ of the lower central series of $G$ are finite.
The quotients $G_k/G_{k+1}$ of the lower central series of a finitely presented group $G$ are an important invariant of this group. In this work we investigate the ranks of these quotients in the case of a certain class of conjugation-free groups, which are groups generated by $x_1,...,x_n$, and having only cyclic relations: $$ x_{i_t} x_{i_{t-1}} ... x_{i_1} = x_{i_{t-1}} ... x_{i_1} x_{i_t} = ... = x_{i_1} x_{i_t} ... x_{i_2}.$$ Using tools from group theory and from the theory of line arrangements we explicitly find these ranks, which depend only at the number and length of these cyclic rel…
For a prime number $p$ and a free profinite group $S$, let $S^{(n,p)}$ be the $n$th term of its lower $p$-central filtration, and $S^{[n,p]}$ the corresponding quotient. Using tools from the combinatorics of words, we construct a canonical basis of the cohomology group $H^2(S^{[n,p]},\mathbb{Z}/p)$, which we call the Lyndon basis, and use it to obtain structural results on this group. We show a duality between the Lyndon basis and canonical generators of $S^{(n,p)}/S^{(n+1,p)}$. We prove that the cohomology group satisfies shuffle relations, which for small values of $n$ fully describe it.
For prime power $q=p^d$ and a field $F$ containing a root of unity of order $q$ we show that the Galois cohomology ring $H^*(G_F,\dbZ/q)$ is determined by a quotient $G_F^{[3]}$ of the absolute Galois group $G_F$ related to its descending $q$-central sequence. Conversely, we show that $G_F^{[3]}$ is determined by the lower cohomology of $G_F$. This is used to give new examples of pro-$p$ groups which do not occur as absolute Galois groups of fields.
We describe an algebraic proof of the well-known topological fact that $π_1(SO(n)) \cong Z/2Z$. The fundamental group of $SO(n)$ appears in our approach as the center of a certain finite group defined by generators and relations. The latter is a factor group of the braid group $B_n$, obtained by imposing one additional relation and turns out to be a nontrivial central extension by $Z/2Z$ of the corresponding group of rotational symmetries of the hyperoctahedron in dimension $n$.
Following Steinberg, we construct an adjoint quotient for the Vinberg semi-group and a section to this quotient. Then, after Ngô, we show the existence of a regular centralizer on it and use it to compute the affine Springer fibers for groups.
A finite simplicial graph Γdetermines a right-angled Artin group G_Γ, with generators corresponding to the vertices of Γ, and with a relation vw=wv for each pair of adjacent vertices. We compute the lower central series quotients, the Chen quotients, and the (first) resonance variety of G_Γ, directly from the graph Γ.
For every odd prime $p$ and every integer $n\geq 12$ there is a Heisenberg group of order $p^{5n/4+O(1)}$ that has $p^{n^2/24+O(n)}$ pairwise nonisomorphic quotients of order $p^{n}$. Yet, these quotients are virtually indistinguishable. They have isomorphic character tables, every conjugacy class of a non-central element has the same size, and every element has order at most $p$. They are also directly and centrally indecomposable and of the same indecomposability type. The recognized portions of their automorphism groups are isomorphic, represented isomorphically on their abelianizations, an…
We prove that the braid group $B_4$ on 4 strings, as well as its central quotient $B_4/< z>$, have the property RD of Haagerup-Jolissaint. It follows that the automorphism group $\Aut(F_2)$ of the free group $F_2$ on 2 generators has property RD. We also prove that the braid group $B_4$ is a group of intermediate rank (of dimension 3). Namely, we show that both $B_4$ and its central quotient have exponential mesoscopic rank, i.e., that they contain exponentially many large flat balls which are not included in flats.
We consider amenability constants of the central Fourier algebra $ZA(G)$ of a finite group $G$. This is a dual object to $ZL^1(G)$ in the sense of hypergroup algebras, and as such shares similar amenability theory. We will provide several classes of groups where $AM(ZA(G)) = AM(ZL^1(G))$, and discuss $AM(ZA(G))$ when $G$ has two conjugacy class sizes. We also produce a new counterexample that shows that unlike $AM(ZL^1(G))$, $AM(ZA(G))$ does not respect quotient groups, however the class of groups that does has $\frac{7}{4}$ as the sharp amenability constant bound.
We explore finitely generated groups by studying the nilpotent towers and the various Lie algebras attached to such groups. Our main goal is to relate an isomorphism extension problem in the Postnikov tower to the existence of certain commuting diagrams. This recasts a result of G. Rybnikov in a more general framework and leads to an application to hyperplane arrangements, whereby we show that all the nilpotent quotients of a decomposable arrangement group are combinatorially determined.
In this paper, we define the vanishing-off subgroup of a nonabelian group. We study the structure of the quotient of this subgroup and a central series obtained from this subgroup.
We generalise the concept of a Steinberg cross-section to non-connected Kac-Moody group. As in the connected case, which was treated by G. Brüchert, a quotient map w.r.t the conjugacy action exists only on a certain submonoid of the Kac-Moody group. Non-connected Kac-Moody groups appear naturally as semidirect product of \C^* with a central extension of loop groups LG, where the underlying simple group G is no longer simply connected and might even be non-connected. In contrast to the connected case, the understanding of central extensions of non-connected loop groups is a rather complicated i…
Let $n, k \geq 3$. In this paper, we analyse the quotient group $B\_n/Γ\_k(P\_n)$ of the Artin braid group $B\_n$ by the subgroup $Γ\_k(P\_n)$ belonging to the lower central series of the Artin pure braid group $P\_n$. We prove that it is an almost-crystallographic group. We then focus more specifically on the case $k=3$. If $n \geq 5$, and if $τ\in N$ is such that $gcd(τ, 6) = 1$, we show that $B\_n/Γ\_3 (P\_n)$ possesses torsion $τ$ if and only if $S\_n$ does, and we prove that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the conjugacy classes of elements of order $τ$ in $B\_n/Γ\_3 (P\_n)$ w…
The Bogomolov multiplier $B_0(G)$ of a finite group $G$ is defined as the subgroup of the Schur multiplier consisting of the cohomology classes vanishing after restriction to all abelian subgroups of $G$. In this paper we give a positive answer to an open problem posed by Kang and Kunyavskiĭ in \cite{KK}. Namely, we prove that if $G$ is either a unitriangular group over $\f$, a quotient of its lower central series, a subgroup of its lower central series, or a central product of two unitriangular groups, then $B_0(G)=0$.
Let us say that a discrete countable group is stable if it has an ergodic, free, probability-measure-preserving and stable action. Let G be a discrete countable group with a central subgroup C. We present a sufficient condition and a necessary condition for G to be stable. We show that if the pair (G, C) does not have property (T), then G is stable. We also show that if the pair (G, C) has property (T) and G is stable, then the quotient group G/C is stable.