arXiv research

The paper proves no exotic actions of diffeomorphism groups on 1-manifolds.

Perfect mapping class groups of specific surfaces have no proper subgroups.

The paper extends end concepts to arbitrary groups and spaces.

We give a complete characterization of countable primitive groups in several settings including linear groups, subgroups of mapping class groups, groups acting minimally on trees and convergence groups. The latter category includes as a special case Kleinian groups as well as subgroups of word hyperbolic groups. As an …

We present a simple approach to questions of topological orbit equivalence for actions of countable groups on topological and smooth manifolds. For example, for any action of a countable group $Γ$ on a topological manifold where the fixed sets for any element are contained in codimension two submanifolds, every orbit e…

The paper studies cohomology of groups with contracting elements.

We prove that two countable locally finite-by-abelian groups G,H endowed with proper left-invariant metrics are coarsely equivalent if and only if their asymptotic dimensions coincide and the groups are either both finitely-generated or both are infinitely generated. On the other hand, we show that each countable group…

We present an alternative approach to the result of Guentner, Higson, and Weinberger concerning the Baum-Connes conjecture for finitely generated subgroups of SL(2,C). Using finite-dimensional methods, we show that the Baum-Connes assembly map for such groups is an isomorphism.

We classify Veech groups of tame non-compact flat surfaces. In particular we prove that all countable subgroups of $\mathbf{GL}_+(2,\R)$ avoiding the set of mappings of norm less than 1 appear as Veech groups of tame non-compact flat surfaces which are Loch Ness monsters. Conversely, a Veech group of any tame flat surf…

The paper disproves the existence of certain subgroups with nontrivial rational abelianization.

In this note we show that many subgroups of mapping class groups of infinite-type surfaces without boundary have trivial centers, including all normal subgroups. Using similar techniques, we show that every nontrivial normal subgroup of a big mapping class group contains a nonabelian free group. In contrast, we show th…

Finite index subgroups of relatively hyperbolic groups have equal index.

Let $g\geq3$ and $n\geq0$, and let ${\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ be the mapping class group of a surface of genus $g$ with $n$ boundary components. We prove that ${\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ contains a unique subgroup of index $2^{g-1}(2^{g}-1)$ up to conjugation, a unique subgroup of index $2^{g-1}(2^{g}+1)$ up to conjugation, and t…

Study of subgroups in complex hyperbolic lattice triangle groups.

Let $M(N_{h,n})$ denote the mapping class group of a compact nonorientable surface of genus $h\ge 7$ and $n\le 1$ boundary components, and let $T(N_{h,n})$ be the subgroup of $M(N_{h,n})$ generated by all Dehn twists. It is known that $T(N_{h,n})$ is the unique subgroup of $M(N_{h,n})$ of index $2$. We prove that $T(N_…

Finite index subgroups of certain groups cannot act faithfully on the circle.

We demonstrate that three maximal subgroups of infinite index in the rectangular subgroup \( K_{(2,2)} \) of the Thompson group \( F \), each containing Jones's \( 3 \)-colorable subgroup \( \mathcal{F} \), can be characterized as stabilizer subgroups. Additionally, we show that the \( \vec{F} \)-index, an elementary k…

The Hilbert-Smith conjecture states, for any connected topological manifold $M$, any locally compact subgroup of $\mathrm{Homeo}(M)$ is a Lie group. We generalize basic results of Segal-Kosniowski-tomDieck (2.6), James-Segal (2.12), G Bredon (3.7), Jaworowski-Antonyan et al. (5.5), and E Elfving (7.3). The last is our …

Let $M$ be the circle or a compact interval, and let $α=k+τ\ge1$ be a real number such that $k=\lfloor α\rfloor$. We write $\mathrm{Diff}_+^α(M)$ for the group of $C^k$ diffeomorphisms of $M$ whose $k^{th}$ derivatives are Hölder continuous with exponent $τ$. If $α\ge1$, we prove that there exists a finitely generated …

The orbifold group of the Borromean rings with singular angle 90 degrees, $U$, is a universal group, because every closed oriented 3--manifold $M^{3}$ occurs as a quotient space $M^{3} = H^{3}/G$, where $G$ is a finite index subgroup of $U$. Therefore, an interesting, but quite difficult problem, is to classify the fin…

We study Farrell Nil-groups associated to a finite order automorphism of a ring $R$. We show that any such Farrell Nil-group is either trivial, or infinitely generated (as an abelian group). Building on this first result, we then show that any finite group that occurs in such a Farrell Nil-group occurs with infinite mu…

Let Mod(S) be the extended mapping class group of a surface S. For S the twice-punctured torus, we show that there exists an isomorphism of finite index subgroups of Mod(S) which is not the restriction of an inner automorphism. For S a torus with at least three punctures, we show that every injection of a finite index …

The study characterizes subgroups of braid groups and their finite quotients.

We bound the index of a subgroup in iterated Kodaira fibrations.

We prove that every right-angled Artin group embeds into the $C^{\infty}$ diffeomorphism group of the real line. As a corollary, we show every limit group, and more generally every countable residually RAAG group, embeds into the $C^{\infty}$ diffeomorphism group of the real line.

We prove that the mapping class group of a closed oriented surface of genus $ρ\ge 3$ has no proper subgroup of index $\le 4 ρ+4$.

We study the finitely generated Hausdorff spectrum of spinal automorphism groups acting on rooted trees. Given any $α\in [0,1]$, we construct a branch group $G_α$ such that $G_α$ has a finitely generated subgroup $H$ where $H$ has Hausdorff dimension $α$ in $G$. Using results by Barnea, Shalev and Klopsch we further de…

We derive a generating series for the number of free subgroups of finite index in $Δ^+ = \mathbb{Z}_p*\mathbb{Z}_q$ by using a connection between free subgroups of $Δ^+$ and certain hypermaps (also known as ribbon graphs or "fat" graphs), and show that this generating series is transcendental. We provide non-linear rec…

The study provides obstructions and unusual subgroup properties in mapping class groups.

Let $N$ be at least 4. We prove that every injective homomorphism from the Torelli subgroup into $Out(F_N)$ differs from the inclusion by a conjugation in $Out(F_N)$. This applies more generally to the following subgroups: every finite-index subgroup of $Out(F_N)$ (recovering a theorem of Farb and Handel); every subgro…

A generalized Baumslag-Solitar (GBS) group is a finitely generated group acting on a tree with infinite cyclic edge and vertex stabilizers. We show how to determine effectively the rank (minimal cardinality of a generating set) of a GBS group; as a consequence, one can compute the rank of the mapping torus of a finite …

We associate cube complexes called completions to each subgroup of a right-angled Coxeter group (RACG). A completion characterizes many properties of the subgroup such as whether it is quasiconvex, normal, finite-index or torsion-free. We use completions to show that reflection subgroups are quasiconvex, as are one-end…

Groups can be embedded in larger, simpler groups with special properties.

We show that the modular group has an infinite family of finite index subgroups, each of which has the same trace set as the modular group itself. Various congruence subgroups of the modular group, and the Bianchi groups, are also shown to have this property. In the case of the modular group, we construct examples of s…

New framework shows $C^*$-simplicity for groups without certain subalgebras.

We show that every countable subgroup $G<\rm GL_+(2,\mathbb{R})$ without contracting elements is the Veech group of a tame translation surface $S$ of infinite genus, for infinitely many different topological types of $S$. Moreover, we prove that as long as every end has genus, there are no restrictions on the topologic…

New theorem bounds group quotient size to subgroups index.

Right-angled Artin groups have unique quasi-isometry classes when measure equivalent.

In this paper we derive a generating series for the number of cellular complexes known as pavings or three-dimensional maps, on $n$ darts, thus solving an analogue of Tutte's problem in dimension three. The generating series we derive also counts free subgroups of index $n$ in $Δ^+ = \mathbb{Z}_2*\mathbb{Z}_2*\mathbb{Z…

We study the quotient of the mapping class group $\operatorname{Mod}_g^n$ of a surface of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures, by the subgroup $\operatorname{Mod}_g^n[p]$ generated by the $p$-th powers of Dehn twists. Our first main result is that $\operatorname{Mod}_g^1 /\operatorname{Mod}_g^1[p]$ contains an infinite normal…

Analytic torsion defined for non-compact Lie groups and discrete subgroups.

We show that if a group is not virtually cyclic and is hyperbolic relative to a family of proper subgroups, then it has a hyperbolically embedded subgroup which contains a finitely generated non-abelian free group as a finite index subgroup.

This note proves equivariant de Rham cohomology for quotient spaces.

We introduce a geometric invariant, called finite decomposition complexity (FDC), to study topological rigidity of manifolds. We prove for instance that if the fundamental group of a compact aspherical manifold M has FDC, and if N is homotopy equivalent to M, then M x R^n is homeomorphic to N x R^n, for n large enough.…

We investigate the homology of finite index subgroups G_i of a given finitely presented group G. Specifically, we examine d_p(G_i), which is the dimension of the first homology of G_i, with mod p coefficients. We say that a collection of finite index subgroups {G_i} has linear growth of mod p homology if the infimum of…

Exact sequence results show infinite index quasiconvex subgroups in certain groups.

New subgroups of mapping class groups constructed for infinite-type surfaces.

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 positiv…