arXiv research

Study shows free group complexes are Cohen-Macaulay of dimension n-1.

We consider a compact orientable hyperbolic 3-manifold with a compressible boundary. Suppose that we are given a sequence of geometrically finite hyperbolic metrics whose conformal boundary structures at infinity diverge to a projective lamination. We prove that if this limit projective lamination is doubly incompressi…

We introduce a class of spaces, called real cubings, and study the stucture of groups acting nicely on these spaces. Just as cubings are a natural generalisation of simplicial trees, real cubings can be regarded as a natural generalisation of real trees. Our main result states that a finitely generated group $G$ acts n…

Finite groups act freely on surfaces but not on 3-manifolds.

The main theorem is that if K is a finite CW complex with finite fundamental group G and universal cover homotopy equivalent to a product of spheres X, then G acts smoothly and freely on X x S^n for any n greater than or equal to the dimension of X. If the G-action on the universal cover of K is homologically trivial t…

Chevalley's theorem and it's converse, the Sheppard-Todd theorem, assert that finite reflection groups are distinguished by the fact that the ring of invariant polynomials is freely generated. We show that in the Euclidean case, a weaker condition suffices to characterize finite reflection groups, namely that a freely-…

We study the geometry of nonrelatively hyperbolic groups. Generalizing a result of Schwartz, any quasi-isometric image of a non-relatively hyperbolic space in a relatively hyperbolic space is contained in a bounded neighborhood of a single peripheral subgroup. This implies that a group being relatively hyperbolic with …

The only finite nonabelian simple group acting on a homology 3-sphere - necessarily non-freely - is the dodecahedral group $\Bbb A_5 \cong {\rm PSL}(2,5)$ (in analogy, the only finite perfect group acting freely on a homology 3-sphere is the binary dodecahedral group $\Bbb A_5^* \cong {\rm SL}(2,5)$). In the present pa…

We use methods from the cohomology of groups to describe the finite groups which can act freely and homologically trivially on closed 3-manifolds which are rational homology spheres.

In this paper we show that the cohomology of a connected CW complex is periodic if and only if it is the base space of an orientable spherical fibration with total space that is homotopically finite dimensional. As applications we characterize those discrete groups that act freely and properly on a cartesian product of…

We obtain a number of finiteness results for groups acting on Gromov-hyperbolic spaces. In particular we show that a torsion-free locally quasiconvex hyperbolic group has only finitely many conjugacy classes of $n$-generated one-ended subgroups. We also show that the rank problem is solvable for the class of torsion-fr…

We use the notion of fixity for representations of finite groups to construct free and smooth actions on products of spheres. In particular we show that a finite p-group (for p>3) will act freely and smoothly on a product of two spheres if and only if it does not contain a rank 3 elementary abelian subgroup. We show th…

We construct locally homogeneous 6-dimensional nearly Kähler manifolds as quotients of homogeneous nearly Kähler manifolds $M$ by freely acting finite subgroups of $Aut_0(M)$. We show that non-trivial such groups do only exists if $M=S^3\times S^3$. In that case we classify all freely acting subgroups of $Aut_0(M)=SU (…

We give a simplified proof of J. A. Wolf's classification of finite groups that can act freely and isometrically on a round sphere of some dimension. We slightly improve the classification by removing some non-obvious redundancy. The groups are the same as the Frobenius complements of finite group theory.

Finite group action on a surface yields a special homology subspace.

We show that every good boundary link with a pair of derivative links on a Seifert surface satisfying a homotopically trivial plus assumption is freely slice. This subsumes all previously known methods for freely slicing good boundary links with two or more components, and provides new freely slice links.

If $G_1$ and $G_2$ are finite groups with periodic Tate cohomology, then $G_1\times G_2$ acts freely and smoothly on some product $S^n \times S^n$.

The regular reduction of a Dirac manifold acted upon freely and properly by a Lie group is generalized to a nonfree action. For this, several facts about $G$-invariant vector fields and one-forms are shown.

New manifold types defined on quotient spaces.

The (4k+2)-dimensional Kervaire manifold is a closed, piecewise linear (PL) manifold with Kervaire invariant 1 and the same homology as the product of two (2k+1)-dimensional spheres. We show that a finite group of odd order acts freely on a Kervaire manifold if and only if it acts freely on the corresponding product of…

Quadratic Killing tensors on Lie groups are always decomposable.

Proves freely 2-periodic knots have two canonical components in their character variety.

Let $M$ be a compact connected pseudo-Riemannian manifold on which a solvable connected Lie group $G$ of isometries acts transitively. We show that $G$ acts almost freely on $M$ and that the metric on $M$ is induced by a bi-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metric on $G$. Furthermore, we show that the identity component of t…

The study shows how to embed cusp-decomposable manifolds quasi-isometrically.

We use moduli spaces of instantons and Chern-Simons invariants of flat connections to prove that the Whitehead doubles of (2,2^n-1) torus knots are independent in the smooth knot concordance group; that is, they freely generate a subgroup of infinite rank.

We define cusp-decomposable manifolds and prove smooth rigidity within this class of manifolds. These manifolds generally do not admit a nonpositively curved metric but can be decomposed into pieces that are diffeomorphic to finite volume, locally symmetric, negatively curved manifolds with cusps. We prove that the gro…

We show, using Wise's equitable sets criterion, that every tubular free by cyclic group acts freely on a CAT(0) cube complex. We also show that these groups have a finite index subgroup satisfying the strongest Tits alternative, which means that every subgroup either surjects a non abelian free group or is torsion free…

Computations based on explicit 4-periodic resolutions are given for the cohomology of the finite groups G known to act freely on S^3, as well as the cohomology rings of the associated 3-manifolds (spherical space forms) M = S^3/G. Chain approximations to the diagonal are constructed, and explicit contracting homotopies…

We prove that many simply connected symplectic four-manifolds dissolve after connected sum with only one copy of $S^{2}\times S^{2}$. For any finite group G that acts freely on the three-sphere we construct closed smooth four-manifolds with fundamental group G which do not admit metrics of positive scalar curvature, bu…

Groups acting on product trees are boundary rigid.

A combination of Bestvina--Brady Morse theory and an acyclic reflection group trick produces a torsion-free finitely presented Q-Poincaré duality group which is not the fundamental group of an aspherical closed ANR Q-homology manifold. The acyclic construction suggests asking which Q-Poincaré duality groups act freely …

New theorem bounds group quotient size to subgroups index.

In this paper we explore coarse properties of cusp-decomposable manifolds first defined by Nguyên Phan. We describe the large scale geometry of the universal cover of a cusp-decomposable manifold and of quasi-isometries between two such universal covers. This description will provide us the tools to prove quasi-isometr…

In hypercube approach to correlation functions in Chern-Simons theory (knot polynomials) the central role is played by the numbers of cycles, in which the link diagram is decomposed under different resolutions. Certain functions of these numbers are further interpreted as dimensions of graded spaces, associated with hy…

We prove an acylindrical accessibility theorem for finitely generated groups acting on $\mathbf R$-trees. Namely, we show that if $G$ is a freely indecomposable non-cyclic $k$-generated group acting minimally and $M$-acylindrically on an $\mathbf R$-tree $X$ then for any $ε>0$ there is a finite subtree $Y_ε\subseteq X$…

Characterizes symmetric Killing tensors on specific Lie groups.

A free action of the direct product of two copies of the symmetric group on 3 elements on the cartesian product of two copies of the 3-sphere is constructed. This nonlinear action is constructed using surgery. The action provides a counterexample to a conjecture of Lewis made in 1968.

We give a completely explicit formula for all harmonic maps of finite uniton number from a Riemann surface to the unitary group U(n) in any dimension, and so all harmonic maps from the 2-sphere, in terms of freely chosen meromorphic functions on the surface and their derivatives, using only combinations of projections …

R. S. Kulkarni showed that a finite group acting pseudofreely, but not freely, preserving orientation, on an even-dimensional sphere (or suitable sphere-like space) is either a periodic group acting semifreely with two fixed points, a dihedral group acting with three singular orbits, or one of the polyhedral groups, oc…

A tubular group is a group that acts on a tree with $\mathbb{Z}^2$ vertex stabilizers and $\mathbb{Z}$ edge stabilizers. This paper develops further a criterion of Wise and determines when a tubular group acts freely on a finite dimensional CAT(0) cube complex. As a consequence we offer a unified explanation of the fai…

Using tropical geometry, Mikhalkin has proved that every smooth complex hypersurface in $\mathbb{CP}^{n+1}$ decomposes into pairs of pants: a pair of pants is a real compact $2n$-manifold with cornered boundary obtained by removing an open regular neighborhood of $n+2$ generic hyperplanes from $\mathbb{CP}^n$. As is we…

Let $G=G_1\ast\dots\ast G_k\ast F$ be a countable group which splits as a free product, where all groups $G_i$ are freely indecomposable and not isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}$, and $F$ is a finitely generated free group. If for all $i\in\{1,\dots,k\}$, both $G_i$ and its outer automorphism group $\text{Out}(G_i)$ satisfy t…

We give a simple proof of the finite presentation of Sela's limit groups by using free actions on R^n-trees. We first prove that Sela's limit groups do have a free action on an R^n-tree. We then prove that a finitely generated group having a free action on an R^n-tree can be obtained from free abelian groups and surfac…

Let $p$ be an odd regular prime, and let $G_p$ denote the extraspecial $p$--group of order $p^{3}$ and exponent $p$. We show that $G_p$ acts freely and smoothly on $S^{2p-1} \times S^{2p-1}$. For $p=3$ we explicitly construct a free smooth action of a Lie group $\widetilde{G}_3$ containing $G_3$ on $S^{5} \times S^{5}$…

The notion of a (stably) decomposable fiber bundle is introduced. In low dimensions, for torus fiber bundles over a circle the notion translates into a property of elements of the special linear group of integral matrices. We give a complete characterization of the stably decomposable torus fiber bundle of fiber-dimens…

Classifies knots that bound equivariant surfaces with free symmetries.

New field invariant refines real spectrum and relates to absolute Galois group.

We examine a condition on a simply connected 2-complex X ensuring that groups acting properly on X are coherent. This extends earlier work on 2-complexes with negative sectional curvature which covers the case that G acts freely. Our extension of these results involves a generalization of the notion of sectional curvat…