The articles in this volume are based on the talks given at two special sessions at the AMS Sectional meetings held in 2004. The articles cover various topological and asymptotic aspects of group theory, such as hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic groups, asymptotic cones, Thompson's group, Nielsen fixed point theory, homology, groups acting on trees, groups generated by finite automata, iterated monodromy groups, random walks on finitely generated groups, heat kernels, and currents on free groups.
This book is about the interplay between algebraic topology and the theory of infinite discrete groups. It is a hugely important contribution to the field of topological and geometric group theory, and is bound to become a standard reference in the field. To keep the length reasonable and the focus clear, the author assumes the reader knows or can easily learn the necessary algebra, but wants to see the topology done in detail. The central subject of the book is the theory of ends. Here the author adopts a new algebraic approach which is geometric in spirit.
This book presents articles at the interface of two active areas of research: classical topology and the relatively new field of geometric group theory. It includes two long survey articles, one on proofs of the Farrell–Jones conjectures, and the other on ends of spaces and groups. In 2010–2011, Ohio State University (OSU) hosted a special year in topology and geometric group theory. Over the course of the year, there were seminars, workshops, short weekend conferences, and a major conference out of which this book resulted. Four other research articles complement these surveys, making this book ideal for graduate students and established mathematicians interested in entering this area of research.
This volume assembles several research papers in all areas of geometric and combinatorial group theory originated in the recent conferences in Dortmund and Ottawa in 2007. It contains high quality refereed articles developing new aspects of these modern and active fields in mathematics. It is also appropriate to advanced students interested in recent results at a research level.
This volume contains the proceedings of the International Conference on Group Theory, Combinatorics and Computing held from October 3-8, 2012, in Boca Raton, Florida. The papers cover a number of areas in group theory and combinatorics. Topics include finite simple groups, groups acting on structured sets, varieties of algebras, classification of groups generated by 3-state automata over a 2-letter alphabet, new methods for construction of codes and designs, groups with constraints on the derived subgroups of its subgroups, graphs related to conjugacy classes in groups, and lexicographical configurations. Application of computer algebra programs is incorporated in several of the papers. This volume includes expository articles on finite coverings of loops, semigroups and groups, and on the application of algebraic structures in the theory of communications. This volume is a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students working in group theory and combinatorics. The articles provide excellent examples of the interplay between the two areas.
This volume, based on lectures and short communications at a summer school in Villa de Leyva, Colombia (July 2005), offers an introduction to some recent developments in several active topics at the interface between geometry, topology and quantum field theory. It is aimed at graduate students in physics or mathematics who might want insight in the following topics (covered in five survey lectures): Anomalies and noncommutative geometry, Deformation quantisation and Poisson algebras, Topological quantum field theory and orbifolds. These lectures are followed by nine articles on various topics at the borderline of mathematics and physics ranging from quasicrystals to invariant instantons through black holes, and involving a number of mathematical tools borrowed from geometry, algebra and analysis.
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
This book is devoted to group-theoretic aspects of topological dynamics such as studying groups using their actions on topological spaces, using group theory to study symbolic dynamics, and other connections between group theory and dynamical systems. One of the main applications of this approach to group theory is the study of asymptotic properties of groups such as growth and amenability. The book presents recently developed techniques of studying groups of dynamical origin using the structure of their orbits and associated groupoids of germs, applications of the iterated monodromy groups to hyperbolic dynamical systems, topological full groups and their properties, amenable groups, groups of intermediate growth, and other topics. The book is suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in group theory, transformations defined by automata, topological and holomorphic dynamics, and theory of topological groupoids. Each chapter is supplemented by exercises of various levels of complexity.
The subject of this handbook is Teichmuller theory in a wide sense, namely the theory of geometric structures on surfaces and their moduli spaces. This includes the study of vector bundles on these moduli spaces, the study of mapping class groups, the relation with $3$-manifolds, the relation with symmetric spaces and arithmetic groups, the representation theory of fundamental groups, and applications to physics. Thus the handbook is a place where several fields of mathematics interact: Riemann surfaces, hyperbolic geometry, partial differential equations, several complex variables, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, combinatorial topology, low-dimensional topology, theoretical physics, and others. This confluence of ideas toward a unique subject is a manifestation of the unity and harmony of mathematics. This volume contains surveys on the fundamental theory as well as surveys on applications to and relations with the fields mentioned above. It is written by leading experts in these fields. Some of the surveys contain classical material, while others present the latest developments of the theory as well as open problems. This volume is divided into the following four sections: The metric and the analytic theory The group theory The algebraic topology of mapping class groups and moduli spaces Teichmuller theory and mathematical physics This handbook is addressed to graduate students and researchers in all the fields mentioned.
This monograph is devoted to the study of the dynamics of expanding Thurston maps under iteration. A Thurston map is a branched covering map on a two-dimensional topological sphere such that each critical point of the map has a finite orbit under iteration. It is called expanding if, roughly speaking, preimages of a fine open cover of the underlying sphere under iterates of the map become finer and finer as the order of the iterate increases. Every expanding Thurston map gives rise to a fractal space, called its visual sphere. Many dynamical properties of the map are encoded in the geometry of this visual sphere. For example, an expanding Thurston map is topologically conjugate to a rational map if and only if its visual sphere is quasisymmetrically equivalent to the Riemann sphere. This relation between dynamics and fractal geometry is the main focus for the investigations in this work. The book is an introduction to the subject. The prerequisites for the reader are modest and include some basic knowledge of complex analysis and topology. The book has an extensive appendix, where background material is reviewed such as orbifolds and branched covering maps.
