This book offers a panorama of recent advances in the theory of infinite groups. It contains survey papers contributed by leading specialists in group theory and other areas of mathematics. Topics include amenable groups, Kaehler groups, automorphism groups of rooted trees, rigidity, C*-algebras, random walks on groups, pro-p groups, Burnside groups, parafree groups, and Fuchsian groups. The accent is put on strong connections between group theory and other areas of mathematics.
This book provides a detailed exposition of a wide range of topics in geometric group theory, inspired by Gromov’s pivotal work in the 1980s. It includes classical theorems on nilpotent groups and solvable groups, a fundamental study of the growth of groups, a detailed look at asymptotic cones, and a discussion of related subjects including filters and ultrafilters, dimension theory, hyperbolic geometry, amenability, the Burnside problem, and random walks on groups. The results are unified under the common theme of Gromov’s theorem, namely that finitely generated groups of polynomial growth are virtually nilpotent. This beautiful result gave birth to a fascinating new area of research which is still active today. The purpose of the book is to collect these naturally related results together in one place, most of which are scattered throughout the literature, some of them appearing here in book form for the first time. In this way, the connections between these topics are revealed, providing a pleasant introduction to geometric group theory based on ideas surrounding Gromov's theorem. The book will be of interest to mature undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics who are familiar with basic group theory and topology, and who wish to learn more about geometric, analytic, and probabilistic aspects of infinite groups.
This volume contains cutting-edge research from leading experts in ergodic theory, dynamical systems and group actions. A large part of the volume addresses various aspects of ergodic theory of general group actions including local entropy theory, universal minimal spaces, minimal models and rank one transformations. Other papers deal with interval exchange transformations, hyperbolic dynamics, transfer operators, amenable actions and group actions on graphs.
This monograph studies generating sets of almost simple classical groups, by bounding the spread of these groups. Guralnick and Kantor resolved a 1962 question of Steinberg by proving that in a finite simple group, every nontrivial element belongs to a generating pair. Groups with this property are said to be 3/2-generated. Breuer, Guralnick and Kantor conjectured that a finite group is 3/2-generated if and only if every proper quotient is cyclic. We prove a strong version of this conjecture for almost simple classical groups, by bounding the spread of these groups. This involves analysing the automorphisms, fixed point ratios and subgroup structure of almost simple classical groups, so the first half of this monograph is dedicated to these general topics. In particular, we give a general exposition of Shintani descent. This monograph will interest researchers in group generation, but the opening chapters also serve as a general introduction to the almost simple classical groups.
This collection of expository articles by a range of established experts and newer researchers provides an overview of the recent developments in the theory of locally compact groups. It includes introductory articles on totally disconnected locally compact groups, profinite groups, p-adic Lie groups and the metric geometry of locally compact groups. Concrete examples, including groups acting on trees and Neretin groups, are discussed in detail. An outline of the emerging structure theory of locally compact groups beyond the connected case is presented through three complementary approaches: Willis' theory of the scale function, global decompositions by means of subnormal series, and the local approach relying on the structure lattice. An introduction to lattices, invariant random subgroups and L2-invariants, and a brief account of the Burger–Mozes construction of simple lattices are also included. A final chapter collects various problems suggesting future research directions.
This volume contains a collection of papers based on lectures delivered by distinguished mathematicians at Clay Mathematics Institute events over the past few years. It is intended to be the first in an occasional series of volumes of CMI lectures. Although not explicitly linked, the topics in this inaugural volume have a common flavour and a common appeal to all who are interested in recent developments in geometry. They are intended to be accessible to all who work in this general area, regardless of their own particular research interests.
This first volume of a two-volume book contains selected papers from the international conference Groups St Andrews 2009. Leading researchers in their respective areas, including Gerhard Hiss and Volodymyr Nekrashevych, survey the latest developments in algebra.
Since their introduction by Gromov in the 1980s, the study of bounded cohomology and simplicial volume has developed into an active field connected to geometry and group theory. This monograph, arising from a learning seminar for young researchers working in the area, provides a collection of different perspectives on the subject, both classical and recent. The book's introduction presents the main definitions of the theories of bounded cohomology and simplicial volume, outlines their history, and explains their principal motivations and applications. Individual chapters then present different aspects of the theory, with a focus on examples. Detailed references to foundational papers and the latest research are given for readers wishing to dig deeper. The prerequisites are only basic knowledge of classical algebraic topology and of group theory, and the presentations are gentle and informal in order to be accessible to beginning graduate students wanting to enter this lively and topical field.
Positive laws on generators in powerful pro-p groups / C. Acciarri and G.A. Fernandez-Alcober -- Periodic groups saturated by dihedral subgroups / B. Amberg and L. Kazarin -- A note on finite groups in which the conjugacy class sizes form an arithmetic progression / M. Bianchi, A. Gillio and P.P. Palfy -- A survey of recent progress on non-abelian tensor squares of groups / R.D. Blyth, F. Fumagalli and M. Morigi -- Conjugacy classes of subgroups of finite p-groups: the first gap / R. Brandl -- The Tutte polynomial of the Schreier graphs of the Grigorchuck group and the Basilica group / T. Ceccherini-Silberstein, A. Donno and D. Iacono -- On maximal subgroups of the alternating and symmetric groups / V. Colombo -- Markov's problems through the looking glass of Zariski and Markov topologies / D. Dikranjan and D. Toller -- Linear groups with finite dimensional orbits / M.R. Dixon, L.A. Kurdachenko and J. Otal -- Three-dimensional loops as sections in a four-dimensional solvable Lie group / A. Figula -- A note on finite p-groups with a maximal elementary subgroup of rank 2 / G. Glauberman -- Finitely generated free by C[symbol] pro-p groups / W. Herfort and P.A. Zalesskii -- Finite nonabelian 2-groups all of whose minimal nonabelian subgroups are isomorphic to M[symbol] / Z. Janko -- Twisted conjugacy in certain Artin groups / A. Juhasz -- Applications of Clifford's theorem to Frobenius groups of automorphisms / E.I. Khukhro -- Inducing [symbol]-partial characters with a given vertex / M.L. Lewis -- Groups and Lie rings with Frobenius groups of automorphisms / N. Yu. Makarenko -- On integral representations of finite groups / D. Malinin -- On p-groups of small powerful class / A. Mann -- Lifting (2, k)-generators of linear groups / A. Maroti and C. Tamburini Bellani -- Fixed point subgroups and character tables / G. Navarro -- Permutability and seriality in locally finite groups / D.J.S. Robinson -- On the exponent of a finite group with a four-group of automorphisms / E. Romano and P. Shumyatsky -- Examples of Markov chains on spaces with multiplicities / F. Scarabotti and F. Tolli -- On the order and the element orders of finite groups: results and problems / W.J. Shi -- On local finiteness of verbal subgroups in residually finite groups / P. Shumyatsky -- The adjoint group of radical rings and related questions / Ya. P. Sysak -- On the Gorenstein dimension of soluble groups / O. Talelli -- Decomposition numbers for projective modules of finite Chevalley groups / A.E. Zalesski
