arXiv research

Study on infinite-type surfaces shows stable commutator length is continuous and defines open subgroups.

We give new upper bounds on the stable commutator lengths of Dehn twists in mapping class groups and new lower bounds on the stable commutator lengths of Dehn twists in hyperelliptic mapping class groups. In particular, we show that the stable commutator lengths of Dehn twists about a nonseparating and a separating cur…

This paper establishes the existence of a gap for the stable length spectrum on a hyperbolic manifold. If M is a hyperbolic n-manifold, for every positive e there is a positive d depending only on n and on e such that an element of pi_1(M) with stable commutator length less than d is represented by a geodesic with leng…

Survey on invariant quasimorphisms and their relation to stable commutator length.

Right-angled Artin groups have elements with stable commutator length at least 1/20.

New findings on stable commutator lengths in recursively presented groups.

New bounds on twist commutators for separating curves on surfaces.

For any group, there is a natural (pseudo-)norm on the vector space B1 of real (group) 1-boundaries, called the stable commutator length norm. This norm is closely related to, and can be thought of as a relative version of, the Gromov (pseudo)-norm on (ordinary) homology. We show that for a free group, the unit ball of…

An arbitrary homomorphism between groups is nonincreasing for stable commutator length, and there are infinitely many (injective) homomorphisms between free groups which strictly decrease the stable commutator length of some elements. However, we show in this paper that a random homomorphism between free groups is almo…

We show that stable commutator length is rational on free products of free Abelian groups amalgamated over $\mathbb{Z}^k$, a class of groups containing the fundamental groups of all torus knot complements. We consider a geometric model for these groups and parameterize all surfaces with specified boundary mapping to th…

Uniform spectral gap found for stable commutator length in hyperbolic 2-orbifolds.

We give a new upper bound on the stable commutator length of Dehn twists in hyperelliptic mapping class groups, and determine the stable commutator length of some elements. We also calculate values and the defects of homogeneous quasimorphisms derived from ω-signatures, and show that they are linearly independent in th…

New proof shows rationality of scl for non-filling curves.

We give an algorithm to compute stable commutator length in free products of cyclic groups which is polynomial time in the length of the input, the number of factors, and the orders of the finite factors. We also describe some experimental and theoretical applications of this algorithm.

Study simplicial volume and stable commutator length for one-relator groups.

New quasimorphisms show right-angled Artin groups have elements with high commutator length.

New quasimorphisms show stable commutator lengths are not equivalent.

It is proved that the stable commutator length of a Dehn twist in the mapping class group is positive and the tenth power of a Dehn twist about a nonseparating simple closed curve is a product of two commutators. As an application a new proof of the fact that the growth rate of a Dehn twist is linear is given.

The study shows that several properties are not profinite invariants.

New projection complex shows some surface homeomorphisms have positive commutator length.

We give examples of finitely presented groups containing elements with irrational (in fact, transcendental) stable commutator length, thus answering in the negative a question of M. Gromov. Our examples come from 1-dimensional dynamics, and are related to the generalized Thompson groups studied by M. Stein, I. Liousse …

Study on stable commutator length in RAAGs and Coxeter groups, proving spectral gaps and hardness results.

We give examples of foliations that answer two questions posed by Mitsumatsu and Vogt about the genus minimising properties of closed leaves of 2-dimensional foliations on 4-manifolds. By studying stable commutator lengths in certain stable mapping class groups, we also answer an asymptotic version of another question …

New homeomorphism found in Klein bottle group.

Let $Γ$ be a finite index subgroup of the mapping class group $MCG(Σ)$ of a closed orientable surface $Σ$, possibly with punctures. We give a precise condition (in terms of the Nielsen-Thurston decomposition) when an element $g\inΓ$ has positive stable commutator length. In addition, we show that in these situations th…

We define a quasihomomorphism from braid groups to the concordance group of knots and examine its properties and consequences of its existence. In particular, we provide a relation between the stable four ball genus in the concordance group and the stable commutator length in braid groups, and produce examples of infin…

We show that the stable commutator length vanishes for certain groups defined as infinite unions of smaller groups. The argument uses a group-theoretic analogue of the Mazur swindle, and goes back to the works of Anderson, Fisher, and Mather on homeomorphism groups.

The study examines spaces of non-extendable quasimorphisms for group pairs.

The paper studies surface bundles and Dehn twists, providing new bounds and factorizations.

Scl in groups acting on trees is rational and converges to limits.

New proof shows lower bound for commutator length in RAAGs.

Embeddings preserve stable commutator length for surfaces.

Study stable commutator length in free products using surface maps.

Study on stable mixed commutator length in coarse group theory.

Study the Gromov boundary of fine curve graph for surface homeomorphisms.

This note provides an alternate account of Calegari's rationality theorem for stable commutator length in free groups.

The paper extends quasimorphisms on subgroups to larger groups.

We prove that for any euclidean ring R and n at least 6, Gamma=SL_n(R) has no unbounded quasi-homomorphisms. From Bavard's duality theorem, this means that the stable commutator length vanishes on Gamma. The result is particularly interesting for R = F[x] for a certain field F (such as the field C of complex numbers, b…

New constructions show manifold volumes are dense in non-negative reals.

We obtain sharp estimates on the growth rate of stable commutator length on random (geodesic) words, and on random walks, in hyperbolic groups and groups acting nondegenerately on hyperbolic spaces. In either case, we show that with high probability stable commutator length of an element of length $n$ is of order $n/\l…

We combine concepts from random matrix theory and free probability together with ideas from the theory of commutator length in groups and maps from surfaces, and establish new connections between the two. More particularly, we study measures induced by free words on the unitary groups $U(n)$. Every word $w$ in the free…

This paper has two parts, on Baumslag-Solitar groups and on general G-trees. In the first part we establish bounds for stable commutator length (scl) in Baumslag-Solitar groups. For a certain class of elements, we further show that scl is computable and takes rational values. We also determine exactly which of these el…

New displacement technique vanishes bounded cohomology in all degrees.

Each element of the commutator subgroup of a group can be represented as a product of commutators. The minimal number of factors in such a product is called the commutator length of the element. The commutator length of a group is defined as the supremum of commutator lengths of elements of its commutator subgroup. We …

New criterion for maximal gap in scl for specific groups.

New proofs of Cheeger-like inequalities for coexact 1-forms on hyperbolic manifolds.

Cooper-Manning and Louder gave examples of maps of surface groups to PSL(2,C) which are not injective, but are incompressible (i.e. no simple loop is in the kernel). We construct more examples with very simple certificates for their incompressibility arising from the theory of stable commutator length.

New invariants derived from random matrices for words in free groups.