Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1210.3671

Some arithmetic groups that do not act on the circle

Dave Witte Morris
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The group SL(3,Z) cannot act (faithfully) on the circle (by homeomorphisms). We will see that many other arithmetic groups also cannot act on the circle. The discussion will involve several important topics in group theory, such as ordered groups, amenability, bounded generation, and bounded cohomology. Lecture 1 provides an introduction to the subject, and uses the theory of left-orderable groups to prove that SL(3,Z) does not act on the circle. Lecture 2 discusses bounded generation, and proves that groups of the form SL(2,Z[a]) do not act on the real line. Lectures 3 and 4 are brief introductions to amenable groups and bounded cohomology, respectively. They also explain how these ideas can be used to prove that actions on the circle have finite orbits. An appendix provides hints or references for all of the exercises. These notes are slightly expanded from talks given at the Park City Mathematics Institute's Graduate Summer School in July 2012.

Explore related subjects

math.GR

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Dave Witte Morris. 2012-10-13. Some arithmetic groups that do not act on the circle. https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.3671

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Word Measures on Wreath Products II

Every word $w$ in $F_r$, the free group of rank $r$, induces a probability measure (the $w$-measure) on every finite group $G$, by substitution of random $G$-elements in the letters. This measure is determined by its Fourier coefficients: the $w$-expectations $E_w[χ]$ of the irreducible characters of $G$. For every finite group $G$, every stable character $χ$ of $G\wr S_n$ (trace of a finitely generated $FI_G$-module), and every word $w\in F_r$, we approximate $E_w[χ]$ up to an error term of $O(n^{-π(w)})$, where $π(w)$ is the primitivity rank of $w$. This generalizes previous works by Puder, Hanany, Magee and the author. As an application we show that random Schreier graphs of representation-stable actions of $G\wr S_n$ are close-to-optimal expanders. The paper reveals a surprising relation between stable representation theory of wreath products and not-necessarily connected Stallings core graphs.

math.GR↗
arXiv2026

Robust quasi-isometric embeddings inapproximable by Anosov representations

Let $\mathbb{K}=\mathbb{R}$ or $\mathbb{C}$. For all but finitely many $m\in \mathbb{N}$, we exhibit the first examples of non-locally rigid, Zariski dense, robust quasi-isometric embeddings of hyperbolic groups in $\mathsf{SL}_m(\mathbb{K})$ which are not limits of Anosov representations. As a consequence, we show that higher rank analogues of Sullivan's structural stabilty theorem and of the density theorem for Kleinian groups fail for Anosov representations in $\mathsf{SL}_m(\mathbb{C}), m\geq 30$.

math.GR↗
arXiv2026

$\mathcal{C}$-Hereditarily conjugacy separable groups and wreath products

We provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the restricted wreath product $A\wr B$ to be $\mathcal{C}$-hereditarily conjugacy separable where $\mathcal{C}$ is an extension-closed pseudovariety of finite groups. Moreover, we prove that the Grigorchuk group is 2-hereditarily conjugacy separable. As an application, we demonstrate that the lamplighter groups and $\mathbb{Z} \wr \mathbb{Z}$ are hereditarily conjugacy separable (but not $p$-conjugacy separable for any prime $p$). This provides infinitely many new examples of solvable, non-polycyclic hereditarily conjugacy separable groups. Furthermore, we study wreath products of cyclic subgroup separable groups and the derived length of iterated wreath products of solvable groups with an abelian base group and, as an application, we give an explicit construction of non-polycyclic hereditarily conjugacy separable groups of arbitrary derived length as iterated wreath products of abelian groups.

math.GR↗