Geometric Group Theory, Non-Positive Curvature and Recognition Problems Between the Sea and the Sky, Where the Weather Is
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Metric Geometry in a Tame Setting
University of California Los Angeles Metric Geometry in a Tame Setting A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics by Erik Walsberg 2015 c Copyright by Erik Walsberg 2015 Abstract of the Dissertation Metric Geometry in a Tame Setting by Erik Walsberg Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Matthias J. Aschenbrenner, Chair We prove basic results about the topology and metric geometry of metric spaces which are definable in o-minimal expansions of ordered fields. ii The dissertation of Erik Walsberg is approved. Yiannis N. Moschovakis Chandrashekhar Khare David Kaplan Matthias J. Aschenbrenner, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 iii To Sam. iv Table of Contents 1 Introduction :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 1 2 Conventions :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 5 3 Metric Geometry ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 7 3.1 Metric Spaces . 7 3.2 Maps Between Metric Spaces . 8 3.3 Covers and Packing Inequalities . 9 3.3.1 The 5r-covering Lemma . 9 3.3.2 Doubling Metrics . 10 3.4 Hausdorff Measures and Dimension . 11 3.4.1 Hausdorff Measures . 11 3.4.2 Hausdorff Dimension . 13 3.5 Topological Dimension . 15 3.6 Left-Invariant Metrics on Groups . 15 3.7 Reductions, Ultralimits and Limits of Metric Spaces . 16 3.7.1 Reductions of Λ-valued Metric Spaces . 16 3.7.2 Ultralimits . 17 3.7.3 GH-Convergence and GH-Ultralimits . 18 3.7.4 Asymptotic Cones . 19 3.7.5 Tangent Cones . 22 3.7.6 Conical Metric Spaces . 22 3.8 Normed Spaces . 23 4 T-Convexity :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 24 4.1 T-convex Structures . -
Filling Functions Notes for an Advanced Course on the Geometry of the Word Problem for Finitely Generated Groups Centre De Recer
Filling Functions Notes for an advanced course on The Geometry of the Word Problem for Finitely Generated Groups Centre de Recerca Mathematica` Barcelona T.R.Riley July 2005 Revised February 2006 Contents Notation vi 1Introduction 1 2Fillingfunctions 5 2.1 Van Kampen diagrams . 5 2.2 Filling functions via van Kampen diagrams . .... 6 2.3 Example: combable groups . 10 2.4 Filling functions interpreted algebraically . ......... 15 2.5 Filling functions interpreted computationally . ......... 16 2.6 Filling functions for Riemannian manifolds . ...... 21 2.7 Quasi-isometry invariance . .22 3Relationshipsbetweenfillingfunctions 25 3.1 The Double Exponential Theorem . 26 3.2 Filling length and duality of spanning trees in planar graphs . 31 3.3 Extrinsic diameter versus intrinsic diameter . ........ 35 3.4 Free filling length . 35 4Example:nilpotentgroups 39 4.1 The Dehn and filling length functions . .. 39 4.2 Open questions . 42 5Asymptoticcones 45 5.1 The definition . 45 5.2 Hyperbolic groups . 47 5.3 Groups with simply connected asymptotic cones . ...... 53 5.4 Higher dimensions . 57 Bibliography 68 v Notation f, g :[0, ∞) → [0, ∞)satisfy f ≼ g when there exists C > 0 such that f (n) ≤ Cg(Cn+ C) + Cn+ C for all n,satisfy f ≽ g ≼, ≽, ≃ when g ≼ f ,andsatisfy f ≃ g when f ≼ g and g ≼ f .These relations are extended to functions f : N → N by considering such f to be constant on the intervals [n, n + 1). ab, a−b,[a, b] b−1ab, b−1a−1b, a−1b−1ab Cay1(G, X) the Cayley graph of G with respect to a generating set X Cay2(P) the Cayley 2-complex of a -
On Discrete Generalised Triangle Groups
Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society (1995) 38, 397-412 © ON DISCRETE GENERALISED TRIANGLE GROUPS by M. HAGELBERG, C. MACLACHLAN and G. ROSENBERGER (Received 29th October 1993) A generalised triangle group has a presentation of the form where R is a cyclically reduced word involving both x and y. When R=xy, these classical triangle groups have representations as discrete groups of isometries of S2, R2, H2 depending on In this paper, for other words R, faithful discrete representations of these groups in Isom + H3 = PSL(2,C) are considered with particular emphasis on the case /? = [x, y] and also on the relationship between the Euler characteristic x and finite covolume representations. 1991 Mathematics subject classification: 20H15. 1. Introduction In this article, we consider generalised triangle groups, i.e. groups F with a presentation of the form where R(x,y) is a cyclically reduced word in the free product on x,y which involves both x and y. These groups have been studied for their group theoretical interest [8, 7, 13], for topological reasons [2], and more recently for their connections with hyperbolic 3-manifolds and orbifolds [12, 10]. Here we will be concerned with faithful discrete representations p:T-*PSL(2,C) with particular emphasis on the cases where the Kleinian group p(F) has finite covolume. In Theorem 3.2, we give necessary conditions on the group F so that it should admit such a faithful discrete representation of finite covolume. For certain generalised triangle groups where the word R(x,y) has a specified form, faithful discrete representations as above have been constructed by Helling-Mennicke- Vinberg [12] and by the first author [11]. -
Nonpositive Curvature and the Ptolemy Inequality
Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2007 Nonpositive curvature and the Ptolemy inequality Foertsch, T ; Lytchak, A ; Schroeder, Viktor Abstract: We provide examples of nonlocally, compact, geodesic Ptolemy metric spaces which are not uniquely geodesic. On the other hand, we show that locally, compact, geodesic Ptolemy metric spaces are uniquely geodesic. Moreover, we prove that a metric space is CAT(0) if and only if it is Busemann convex and Ptolemy. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/imrn/rnm100 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-21536 Journal Article Published Version Originally published at: Foertsch, T; Lytchak, A; Schroeder, Viktor (2007). Nonpositive curvature and the Ptolemy inequality. International Mathematics Research Notices, 2007(rnm100):online. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/imrn/rnm100 Foertsch, T., A. Lytchak, and V. Schroeder. (2007) “Nonpositive Curvature and the Ptolemy Inequality,” International Mathematics Research Notices, Vol. 2007, Article ID rnm100, 15 pages. doi:10.1093/imrn/rnm100 Nonpositive Curvature and the Ptolemy Inequality Thomas Foertsch1, Alexander Lytchak1, Viktor Schroeder2 1Universitat¨ Bonn, Mathematisches Institut, Beringstr. 1, 53115 Bonn, Germany, and 2Universitat¨ Zurich¨ , Institut fur¨ Mathematik, Winterthurerstr. 190, 8057 Zurich¨ , Switzerland Correspondence to be sent to: Thomas Foertsch, Universitat¨ Bonn, Mathematisches Institut, Beringstr. 1, 53115 Bonn, Germany. e-mail: [email protected] We provide examples of nonlocally, compact, geodesic Ptolemy metric spaces which are not uniquely geodesic. On the other hand, we show that locally, compact, geodesic Ptolemy metric spaces are uniquely geodesic. -
Cofinitely Hopfian Groups, Open Mappings and Knot Complements
COFINITELY HOPFIAN GROUPS, OPEN MAPPINGS AND KNOT COMPLEMENTS M.R. BRIDSON, D. GROVES, J.A. HILLMAN, AND G.J. MARTIN Abstract. A group Γ is defined to be cofinitely Hopfian if every homomorphism Γ → Γ whose image is of finite index is an auto- morphism. Geometrically significant groups enjoying this property include certain relatively hyperbolic groups and many lattices. A knot group is cofinitely Hopfian if and only if the knot is not a torus knot. A free-by-cyclic group is cofinitely Hopfian if and only if it has trivial centre. Applications to the theory of open mappings between manifolds are presented. 1. Introduction A group Γ is said to be Hopfian (or to have the Hopf property) if every surjective endomorphism of Γ is an automorphism. It is said to be (finitely) co-Hopfian if every injective endomorphism (with image of finite index) is an automorphism. These properties came to prominence in Hopf’s work on self-maps of surfaces [23]. Related notions have since played a significant role in many contexts, for instance combinatorial group theory, e.g. [3, 35], and the study of approximate fibrations [11]. Here we will be concerned with a Hopf-type property that played a central role in the work of Bridson, Hinkkanen and Martin on open and quasi-regular mappings of compact negatively curved manifolds [7]. We say that a group Γ is cofinitely Hopfian (or has the cofinite Hopf property) if every homomorphism Γ → Γ whose image is of finite index is an automorphism. This condition is stronger than both the Hopf property and the finite co-Hopf property. -
Arxiv:Math/0306105V2
A bound for the number of automorphisms of an arithmetic Riemann surface BY MIKHAIL BELOLIPETSKY Sobolev Institute of Mathematics, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia e-mail: [email protected] AND GARETH A. JONES Faculty of Mathematical Studies, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ e-mail: [email protected] Abstract We show that for every g ≥ 2 there is a compact arithmetic Riemann surface of genus g with at least 4(g − 1) automorphisms, and that this lower bound is attained by infinitely many genera, the smallest being 24. 1. Introduction Schwarz [17] proved that the automorphism group of a compact Riemann surface of genus g ≥ 2 is finite, and Hurwitz [10] showed that its order is at most 84(g − 1). This bound is sharp, by which we mean that it is attained for infinitely many g, and the least genus of such an extremal surface is 3. However, it is also well known that there are infinitely many genera for which the bound 84(g − 1) is not attained. It therefore makes sense to consider the maximal order N(g) of the group of automorphisms of any Riemann surface of genus g. Accola [1] and Maclachlan [14] independently proved that N(g) ≥ 8(g +1). This bound is also sharp, and according to p. 93 of [2], Paul Hewitt has shown that the least genus attaining it is 23. Thus we have the following sharp bounds for N(g) with g ≥ 2: 8(g + 1) ≤ N(g) ≤ 84(g − 1). arXiv:math/0306105v2 [math.GR] 21 Nov 2004 We now consider these bounds from an arithmetic point of view, defining arithmetic Riemann surfaces to be those which are uniformized by arithmetic Fuchsian groups. -
Lectures on Quasi-Isometric Rigidity Michael Kapovich 1 Lectures on Quasi-Isometric Rigidity 3 Introduction: What Is Geometric Group Theory? 3 Lecture 1
Contents Lectures on quasi-isometric rigidity Michael Kapovich 1 Lectures on quasi-isometric rigidity 3 Introduction: What is Geometric Group Theory? 3 Lecture 1. Groups and Spaces 5 1. Cayley graphs and other metric spaces 5 2. Quasi-isometries 6 3. Virtual isomorphisms and QI rigidity problem 9 4. Examples and non-examples of QI rigidity 10 Lecture 2. Ultralimits and Morse Lemma 13 1. Ultralimits of sequences in topological spaces. 13 2. Ultralimits of sequences of metric spaces 14 3. Ultralimits and CAT(0) metric spaces 14 4. Asymptotic Cones 15 5. Quasi-isometries and asymptotic cones 15 6. Morse Lemma 16 Lecture 3. Boundary extension and quasi-conformal maps 19 1. Boundary extension of QI maps of hyperbolic spaces 19 2. Quasi-actions 20 3. Conical limit points of quasi-actions 21 4. Quasiconformality of the boundary extension 21 Lecture 4. Quasiconformal groups and Tukia's rigidity theorem 27 1. Quasiconformal groups 27 2. Invariant measurable conformal structure for qc groups 28 3. Proof of Tukia's theorem 29 4. QI rigidity for surface groups 31 Lecture 5. Appendix 33 1. Appendix 1: Hyperbolic space 33 2. Appendix 2: Least volume ellipsoids 35 3. Appendix 3: Different measures of quasiconformality 35 Bibliography 37 i Lectures on quasi-isometric rigidity Michael Kapovich IAS/Park City Mathematics Series Volume XX, XXXX Lectures on quasi-isometric rigidity Michael Kapovich Introduction: What is Geometric Group Theory? Historically (in the 19th century), groups appeared as automorphism groups of some structures: • Polynomials (field extensions) | Galois groups. • Vector spaces, possibly equipped with a bilinear form| Matrix groups. -
Undecidability of the Word Problem for Groups: the Point of View of Rewriting Theory
Universita` degli Studi Roma Tre Facolta` di Scienze M.F.N. Corso di Laurea in Matematica Tesi di Laurea in Matematica Undecidability of the word problem for groups: the point of view of rewriting theory Candidato Relatori Matteo Acclavio Prof. Y. Lafont ..................................... Prof. L. Tortora de falco ...................................... questa tesi ´estata redatta nell'ambito del Curriculum Binazionale di Laurea Magistrale in Logica, con il sostegno dell'Universit´aItalo-Francese (programma Vinci 2009) Anno Accademico 2011-2012 Ottobre 2012 Classificazione AMS: Parole chiave: \There once was a king, Sitting on the sofa, He said to his maid, Tell me a story, And the maid began: There once was a king, Sitting on the sofa, He said to his maid, Tell me a story, And the maid began: There once was a king, Sitting on the sofa, He said to his maid, Tell me a story, And the maid began: There once was a king, Sitting on the sofa, . " Italian nursery rhyme Even if you don't know this tale, it's easy to understand that this could continue indefinitely, but it doesn't have to. If now we want to know if the nar- ration will finish, this question is what is called an undecidable problem: we'll need to listen the tale until it will finish, but even if it will not, one can never say it won't stop since it could finish later. those things make some people loose sleep, but usually children, bored, fall asleep. More precisely a decision problem is given by a question regarding some data that admit a negative or positive answer, for example: \is the integer number n odd?" or \ does the story of the king on the sofa admit an happy ending?". -
The Simplicial Volume of Mapping Tori of 3-Manifolds
THE SIMPLICIAL VOLUME OF MAPPING TORI OF 3-MANIFOLDS MICHELLE BUCHER AND CHRISTOFOROS NEOFYTIDIS ABSTRACT. We prove that any mapping torus of a closed 3-manifold has zero simplicial volume. When the fiber is a prime 3-manifold, classification results can be applied to show vanishing of the simplicial volume, however the case of reducible fibers is by far more subtle. We thus analyse the possible self-homeomorphisms of reducible 3-manifolds, and use this analysis to produce an explicit representative of the fundamental class of the corresponding mapping tori. To this end, we introduce a new technique for understanding self-homeomorphisms of connected sums in arbitrary dimensions on the level of classifying spaces and for computing the simplicial volume. In particular, we extend our computations to mapping tori of certain connected sums in higher dimensions. Our main result completes the picture for the vanishing of the simplicial volume of fiber bundles in dimension four. Moreover, we deduce that dimension four together with the trivial case of dimension two are the only dimensions where all mapping tori have vanishing simplicial volume. As a group theoretic consequence, we derive an alternative proof of the fact that the fundamental group G of a mapping torus of a 3-manifold M is Gromov hyperbolic if and only if M is virtually a connected sum #S2 × S1 and G does not contain Z2. 1. INTRODUCTION For a topological space X and a homology class α 2 Hn(X; R), Gromov [9] introduced the `1-semi-norm of α to be X X kαk1 := inf jλjj λjσj 2 Cn(X; R) is a singular cycle representing α : j j If M is a closed oriented n-dimensional manifold, then the simplicial volume of M is given by kMk := k[M]k1, where [M] denotes the fundamental class of M. -
3-Manifold Groups
3-Manifold Groups Matthias Aschenbrenner Stefan Friedl Henry Wilton University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA E-mail address: [email protected] Fakultat¨ fur¨ Mathematik, Universitat¨ Regensburg, Germany E-mail address: [email protected] Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, Cam- bridge University, United Kingdom E-mail address: [email protected] Abstract. We summarize properties of 3-manifold groups, with a particular focus on the consequences of the recent results of Ian Agol, Jeremy Kahn, Vladimir Markovic and Dani Wise. Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Decomposition Theorems 7 1.1. Topological and smooth 3-manifolds 7 1.2. The Prime Decomposition Theorem 8 1.3. The Loop Theorem and the Sphere Theorem 9 1.4. Preliminary observations about 3-manifold groups 10 1.5. Seifert fibered manifolds 11 1.6. The JSJ-Decomposition Theorem 14 1.7. The Geometrization Theorem 16 1.8. Geometric 3-manifolds 20 1.9. The Geometric Decomposition Theorem 21 1.10. The Geometrization Theorem for fibered 3-manifolds 24 1.11. 3-manifolds with (virtually) solvable fundamental group 26 Chapter 2. The Classification of 3-Manifolds by their Fundamental Groups 29 2.1. Closed 3-manifolds and fundamental groups 29 2.2. Peripheral structures and 3-manifolds with boundary 31 2.3. Submanifolds and subgroups 32 2.4. Properties of 3-manifolds and their fundamental groups 32 2.5. Centralizers 35 Chapter 3. 3-manifold groups after Geometrization 41 3.1. Definitions and conventions 42 3.2. Justifications 45 3.3. Additional results and implications 59 Chapter 4. The Work of Agol, Kahn{Markovic, and Wise 63 4.1. -
CLASS DESCRIPTIONS—WEEK 2, MATHCAMP 2016 Contents 9:10
CLASS DESCRIPTIONS|WEEK 2, MATHCAMP 2016 Contents 9:10 Classes 2 Dynamical Systems 2 Field Extensions and Galois Theory (Week 1 of 2) 2 Model Theory 2 Neural Networks 3 Problem Solving: Induction 3 10:10 Classes 4 Almost Planar 4 Extending Inclusion-Exclusion 4 Multilinear Algebra 5 The Word Problem for Groups 5 Why Are We Learning This? A seminar on the history of math education in the U.S. 6 11:10 Classes 6 Building Mathematical Structures 6 Graph Minors 7 History of Math 7 K-Theory 7 Linear Algebra (Week 2 of 2) 7 The Banach{Tarski Paradox 8 1:10 Classes 8 Divergent Series 8 Geometric Group Theory 8 Group Actions 8 The Chip-Firing Game 9 Colloquia 9 There Are Eight Flavors of Three-Dimensional Geometry 9 Tropical Geometry 9 Oops! I Ran Out of Axioms 10 Visitor Bios 10 Moon Duchin 10 Sam Payne 10 Steve Schweber 10 1 MC2016 ◦ W2 ◦ Classes 2 9:10 Classes Dynamical Systems. ( , Jane, Tuesday{Saturday) Dynamical systems are spaces that evolve over time. Some examples are the movement of the planets, the bouncing of a ball around a billiard table, or the change in the population of rabbits from year to year. The study of dynamical systems is the study of how these spaces evolve, their long-term behavior, and how to predict the future of these systems. It is a subject that has many applications in the real world and also in other branches of mathematics. In this class, we'll survey a variety of topics in dynamical systems, exploring both what is known and what is still open. -
On the Dehn Functions of K\" Ahler Groups
ON THE DEHN FUNCTIONS OF KAHLER¨ GROUPS CLAUDIO LLOSA ISENRICH AND ROMAIN TESSERA Abstract. We address the problem of which functions can arise as Dehn functions of K¨ahler groups. We explain why there are examples of K¨ahler groups with linear, quadratic, and exponential Dehn function. We then proceed to show that there is an example of a K¨ahler group which has Dehn function bounded below by a cubic function 6 and above by n . As a consequence we obtain that for a compact K¨ahler manifold having non-positive holomorphic bisectional curvature does not imply having quadratic Dehn function. 1. Introduction A K¨ahler group is a group which can be realized as fundamental group of a compact K¨ahler manifold. K¨ahler groups form an intriguing class of groups. A fundamental problem in the field is Serre’s question of “which” finitely presented groups are K¨ahler. While on one side there is a variety of constraints on K¨ahler groups, many of them originating in Hodge theory and, more generally, the theory of harmonic maps on K¨ahler manifolds, examples have been constructed that show that the class is far from trivial. Filling the space between examples and constraints turns out to be a very hard problem. This is at least in part due to the fact that the range of known concrete examples and construction techniques are limited. For general background on K¨ahler groups see [2] (and also [13, 4] for more recent results). Known constructions have shown that K¨ahler groups can present the following group theoretic properties: they can ● be non-residually finite [50] (see also [18]); ● be nilpotent of class 2 [14, 47]; ● admit a classifying space with finite k-skeleton, but no classifying space with finitely many k + 1-cells [23] (see also [5, 38, 12]); and arXiv:1807.03677v2 [math.GT] 7 Jun 2019 ● be non-coherent [33] (also [45, 27]).