In a pair of recent papers (one to appear and one forthcoming), the author develops a general version of small cancellation theory applicable in higher dimensions, and then applies this theory to the Burnside groups of sufficiently large exponent. The present article gives a brief introduction to the methods and techniques involved in the proofs. Many of the ideas originate with the recent work of A. Yu. Olshanskii and S. V. Ivanov. Some familiarity with their work on the Burnside problem is assumed.
In these notes we detail the geometrical approach of small cancellation theory used by T. Delzant and M. Gromov to provide a new proof of the infiniteness of free Burnside groups and periodic quotients of torsion-free hyperbolic groups.
We develop yet another technique to present the free Burnside group $B(m,n)$ of odd exponent $n$ with $m\ge2$ generators as a group satisfying a certain iterated small cancellation condition. Using the approach, we provide a reasonably accessible proof that $B(m,n)$ is infinite with a moderate bound $n > 2000$ on the odd exponent $n$.
We develop a version of small cancellation theory in the variety of Burnside groups. More precisely, we show that there exists a critical exponent $n_0$ such that for every odd integer $n\geq n_0$, the well-known classical $C'(1/6)$-small cancellation theory, as well as its graphical generalization and its version for free products, produce examples of infinite $n$-periodic groups. Our result gives a powerful tool for producing (uncountable collections of) examples of $n$-periodic groups with prescribed properties. It can be applied without any prior knowledge in the subject of $n$-periodic gr…
We show that there exists a positive number $M_0$ such that for any odd $M\geq M_0$ a random group of exponent $M$ with overwhelming probability is infinite in the few relator model and in the density $d$ model for small $d$.
This note is intended as an introduction to two previous works respectively by Dahmani, Guirardel, Osin, and by Cantat, Lamy. We give two proofs of a Small Cancellation Theorem for groups acting on a simplicial tree. We discuss the application to the group of plane polynomial automorphisms over any ground field.
We explain and generalise a construction due to Gromov to realise geometric small cancellation groups over graphs of groups as fundamental groups of non-positively curved 2-dimensional complexes of groups. We then give conditions so that the hyperbolicity and some finiteness properties of the small cancellation quotient can be deduced from analogous properties for the local groups of the initial graph of groups.
We prove that a group obtained as a quotient of the free product of finitely many cubulable groups by a finite set of relators satisfying the classical $C'(1/6)$--small cancellation condition is cubulable. This yields a new large class of relatively hyperbolic groups that can be cubulated, and constitutes the first instance of a cubulability theorem for relatively hyperbolic groups which does not require any geometric assumption on the peripheral subgroups besides their cubulability. We do this by constructing appropriate wallspace structures for such groups, by combining walls of the free fac…
We construct finitely generated groups of small period growth, i.e. groups where the maximum order of an element of word length $n$ grows very slowly in $n$. This answers a question of Bradford related to the lawlessness growth of groups and is connected to an approximative version of the restricted Burnside problem.
Let $G$ be a group given by the presentation [<a_1,...,a_k,b_1,... b_k\,| a_i=u_i(\bar b), b_i=v_i(\bar a) \hbox{for} 1\le i\le k>,] where $k\ge 2$ and where the $u_i\in F(b_1,..., b_k)$ and $w_i\in F(a_1,..., a_k)$ are random words. Generically such a group is a small cancellation group and it is clear that $(a_1,...,a_k)$ and $(b_1,...,b_k)$ are generating $n$-tuples for $G$. We prove that for generic choices of $u_1,..., u_k$ and $v_1,..., v_k$ the "once-stabilized" tuples $(a_1,..., a_k,1)$ and $(b_1,...,b_k,1)$ are not Nielsen equivalent in $G$. This provides a counter-example for a Wiego…
We give a new proof of the main theorem in the theory of C(6) small cancellation complexes. We prove the fundamental theorem of cubical small cancellation theory for C(9) cubical small cancellation complexes.
We find new bounds on the conformal dimension of small cancellation groups. These are used to show that a random few relator group has conformal dimension 2+o(1) asymptotically almost surely (a.a.s.). In fact, if the number of relators grows like l^K in the length l of the relators, then a.a.s. such a random group has conformal dimension 2+K+o(1). In Gromov's density model, a random group at density d<1/8 a.a.s. has conformal dimension $\asymp dl / |\log d|$. The upper bound for C'(1/8) groups has two main ingredients: $\ell_p$-cohomology (following Bourdon-Kleiner), and walls in the Cayley co…
We construct torsion-free hyperbolic groups without unique product whose subgroups up to some given finite index are themselves non-unique product groups. This is achieved by generalising a construction of Comerford to graphical small cancellation presentations, showing that for every subgroup $H$ of a graphical small cancellation group there exists a free group $F$ such that $H*F$ admits a graphical small cancellation presentation.
We extend fundamental results of small cancellation theory to groups whose presentations satisfy the generalizations of the classical C(6) and C(7) conditions in graphical small cancellation theory. Using these graphical small cancellation conditions, we construct lacunary hyperbolic groups and groups that coarsely contain prescribed infinite sequences of finite graphs. We prove that groups given by (possibly infinite) graphical C(7) presentations contain non-abelian free subgroups.
By a result of Gersten and Short finite presentations satisfying the usual non-metric small cancellation conditions present biautomatic groups. We show that in the case in which all pieces have length one, a generalization of the C(3)-T(6) condition yields a larger collection of biautomatic groups.
We give a simplified approach to the cubulation of small-cancellation quotients of free products of cubulated groups. We construct fundamental groups of compact nonpositively curved cube complexes that do not virtually split.
We generalize a version of small cancellation theory to the class of acylindrically hyperbolic groups. This class contains many groups which admit some natural action on a hyperbolic space, including non-elementary hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic groups, mapping class groups, and groups of outer automorphisms of free groups. Several applications of this small cancellation theory are given, including to Frattini subgroups and Kazhdan constants, the construction of various \exotic"' quotients, and to approximating acylindrically hyperbolic groups in the topology of marked group presentation…
We prove that infinitely presented graphical $Gr(7)$ small cancellation groups are acylindrically hyperbolic. In particular, infinitely presented classical $C(7)$-groups and, hence, classical $C'(\frac{1}{6})$-groups are acylindrically hyperbolic. We also prove the analogous statements for the larger class of graphical small cancellation presentations over free products. We construct infinitely presented classical $C'(\frac{1}{6})$-groups that provide new examples of divergence functions of groups.
In this paper, we give a simple proof for the small cancellation conditions of the upper presentations of 2-bridge link groups, which holds the key to the proof of the main result of [1]. We also give an alternative proof of the main result of [1] using transfinite induction.
We work in the density model of random groups. We prove that they satisfy an isoperimetric inequality with sharp constant $1-2d$ depending upon the density parameter $d$. This implies in particular a property generalizing the ordinary $C'$ small cancellation condition, which could be termed ``macroscopic small cancellation''. This also sharpens the evaluation of the hyperbolicity constant $δ$. As a consequence we get that the standard presentation of a random group at density $d<1/5$ satisfies the Dehn algorithm and Greendlinger's Lemma, and that it does not for $d>1/5$.
We provide an analogue of Strebel's classification of geodesic triangles in classical $C'(\frac16)$ groups for groups given by Wise's cubical presentations satisfying sufficiently strong metric cubical small cancellation conditions. Using our classification, we prove that, except in specific degenerate cases, such groups are acylindrically hyperbolic.
We prove the Haagerup property (= Gromov's a-T-menability) for finitely generated groups defined by infinite presentations satisfying the graphical C'(lambda)-small cancellation condition with respect to graphs endowed with a compatible wall structure. We deduce that these groups are coarsely embeddable into a Hilbert space and that the strong Baum-Connes conjecture and, hence, the Baum-Connes conjecture with arbitrary coefficients hold for them. As the main step we show that C'(lambda)-complexes satisfy the linear separation property. Our result provides many new examples and a general techni…
We present four generalized small cancellation conditions for finite presentations and solve the word- and conjugacy problem in each case. Our conditions $W$ and $W^*$ contain the non-metric small cancellation cases C(6), C(4)T(4), C(3)T(6) (see [LS]) but are considerably more general. $W$ also contains as a special case the small cancellation condition $W(6)$ of Juhasz [J2]. If a finite presentation satisfies $W$ or $W^*$ then it has a quadratic isoperimetric inequality and therefore solvable word problem. For the class $W$ this was first observed by Gersten in [G7] which also contains an ide…
We generalize the small cancellation theory over hyperbolic groups developed by Olshanskii to the case of relatively hyperbolic groups. This allows us to construct infinite finitely generated groups with exactly $n$ conjugacy classes for every $n\ge 2$. In particular, we give the affirmative answer to the well--known question of the existence of a finitely generated group $G$ other than $\mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z$ such that all nontrivial elements of $G$ are conjugate.
Given a group acting cellularly and cocompactly on a simply-connected 2-complex, we provide a criterion establishing that all finitely generated subgroups have quasiconvex orbits. This work generalizes the "perimeter method". As an application, we show that high-powered one-relator products $A \ast B / \nclose{r^n}$ are coherent if $A$ and $B$ are coherent.
We study the geometry of infinitely presented groups satisfying the small cancelation condition C'(1/8), and define a standard decomposition (called the criss-cross decomposition) for the elements of such groups. We use it to prove the Rapid Decay property for groups with the stronger small cancelation property C'(1/10). As a consequence, the Metric Approximation Property holds for the reduced C*-algebra and for the Fourier algebra of such groups. Our method further implies that the kernel of the comparison map between the bounded and the usual group cohomology in degree 2 has a basis of power…
A piece of a labelled graph $Γ$ defined by D. Gruber is a labelled path that embeds into $Γ$ in two essentially different ways. We prove that graphical $Gr'(\frac{1}{6})$ small cancellation groups whose associated pieces have uniformly bounded length are relative hyperbolic. In fact, we show that the Cayley graph of such group presentation is asymptotically tree-graded with respect to the collection of all embedded components of the defining graph $Γ$, if and only if the pieces of $Γ$ are uniformly bounded. This implies the relative hyperbolicity by a result of C. Druţu, D. Osin and M. Sapir.
We generalize Gruber--Sisto's construction of the coned--off graph of a small cancellation group to build a partially ordered set $\mathcal{TC}$ of cobounded actions of a given small cancellation group whose smallest element is the action on the Gruber--Sisto coned--off graph. In almost all cases $\mathcal{TC}$ is incredibly rich: it has a largest element if and only if it has exactly 1 element, and given any two distinct comparable actions $[G\curvearrowright X] \preceq [G\curvearrowright Y]$ in this poset, there is an embeddeding $ι:P(ω)\to\mathcal{TC}$ such that $ι(\emptyset)=[G\curvearrowr…
We generalize the graphical small cancellation theory of Gromov to a graphical small cancellation theory over the free product. We extend Gromov's small cancellation theorem to the free product. We explain and generalize Rips-Segev's construction of torsion-free groups without the unique product property by viewing these groups as given by graphical small cancellation presentations over the free product. Our graphical small cancellation theorem then provides first examples of Gromov hyperbolic groups without the unique product property. We construct uncountably many non-isomorphic torsion-free…
We give a proof that groups satisfying the "uniform C'(1/6)" small cancellation condition admit a geometric action on a CAT(-1) space. It follows that random groups at density <1/12 are CAT(-1). The proof consists of a direct construction of a piecewise hyperbolic structure on the presentation complex of such a group, together with folding moves to make the complex negatively curved. The argument was originally suggested by Gromov.
We prove that all hierarchically hyperbolic spaces have finite asymptotic dimension and obtain strong bounds on these dimensions. One application of this result is to obtain the sharpest known bound on the asymptotic dimension of the mapping class group of a finite type surface: improving the bound from exponential to at most quadratic in the complexity of the surface. We also apply the main result to various other hierarchically hyperbolic groups and spaces. We also prove a small-cancellation result namely: if $G$ is a hierarchically hyperbolic group, $H\leq G$ is a suitable hyperbolically em…
In this paper we prove that C(4)-T(4)-P, C(3)-T(6)-P and C(6)-P small cancellation groups are translation dis crete in the strongest possible sense and that in these groups for any $g$ and any $n$ there is an algorithm deciding whether or not the equation $ x^n=g$ has a solution. There is also an algorithm for calculating for each $g$ the maximum $n$ such that $g$ is an $n$-th power of some element. We also note that these groups cannot contain isomorphic copies of the gr oup of $p$-adic fractions and so in particular of the group of rational numbers. Besides we show that for C''(4)-T(4) and C…
S. Gersten and H. Short have proved that if a group has a presentation which satisfies the algebraic C(4) and T(4) small-cancellation condition then the group is automatic. Their proof contains a gap which we aim to close. To do that we distinguish between algebraic small-cancellation conditions and geometric small cancellation conditions (which are conditions on the van Kampen diagrams). We show that, under certain additional requirements, geometric C(4) and T(4) small-cancellation conditions imply bi-automaticity. The additional requirements include a restriction on the labels of edges in mi…
We prove the Haagerup property (= Gromov's a-T-menability) for finitely generated groups defined by infinite presentations satisfying the C'(1/6)-small cancellation condition. We deduce that these groups are coarsely embeddable into a Hilbert space and that the strong Baum-Connes conjecture holds for them. The result is a first non-trivial advancement in understanding groups with such properties among infinitely presented non-amenable direct limits of hyperbolic groups. The proof uses the structure of a space with walls introduced by Wise. As the main step we show that C'(1/6)-complexes satisf…
We construct small cancellation labellings for some infinite sequences of finite graphs of bounded degree. We use them to define infinite graphical small cancellation presentations of groups. This technique allows us to provide examples of groups with exotic properties: - We construct the first examples of finitely generated coarsely non-amenable groups (that is, groups without Guoliang Yu's Property A) that are coarsely embeddable into a Hilbert space. Moreover, our groups act properly on CAT(0) cubical complexes. - We construct the first examples of finitely generated groups, with expanders …
We present a metric condition ${\LARGEτ}'$ which describes the geometry of classical small cancellation groups and applies also to other known classes of groups such as two-dimensional Artin groups. We prove that presentations satisfying condition ${\LARGEτ}'$ are diagrammatically reducible in the sense of Sieradski and Gersten. In particular we deduce that the standard presentation of an Artin group is aspherical if and only if it is diagrammatically reducible. We show that, under some extra hypotheses, ${\LARGEτ}'$-groups have quadratic Dehn functions and solvable conjugacy problem. In the s…
In 1911, Burnside asked whether or not there exist groups that have an outer automorphism which preserves conjugacy classes. Two years later he answered his own question by constructing a family of such groups. Using the small group library in MAGMA we determine all of the groups of order n < 512 that possess such an automorphism. Our investigations led to the discovery of four new infinite families of such groups, all of which are 2-groups of coclass 4.
We use the interplay between combinatorial and coarse geometric versions of negative curvature to investigate the geometry of infinitely presented graphical $Gr'(1/6)$ small cancellation groups. In particular, we characterize their 'contracting geodesics', which should be thought of as the geodesics that behave hyperbolically. We show that every degree of contraction can be achieved by a geodesic in a finitely generated group. We construct the first example of a finitely generated group $G$ containing an element $g$ that is strongly contracting with respect to one finite generating set of $G$ …
