Subgroup distortion in wreath products of cyclic groups

We study the effects of subgroup distortion in the wreath products , where A is finitely generated abelian. We show that every finitely generated subgroup of has distortion function equivalent to some polynomial. Moreover, for A infinite, and for any polynomial l^k, there is a 2-generated subgroup of having distortion function equivalent to the given polynomial. Also, a formula for the length of elements in arbitrary wreath product easily shows that the group has distorted subgroups, while the lamplighter group has no distorted (finitely generated) subgroups. In the course of the proof, we introduce a notion of distortion for polynomials. We are able to compute the distortion of any polynomial in one variable over Z,R or C.     

Nilpotent orbits and some small unitary representations of indefinite orthogonal groups

For 2?m?l/2, let G be a simply connected Lie group with as Lie algebra, let be the complexification of the usual Cartan decomposition, let K be the analytic subgroup with Lie algebra , and let be the universal enveloping algebra of . This work examines the unitarity and K spectrum of representations in the “analytic continuation” of discrete series of G, relating these properties to orbits in the nilpotent radical of a certain parabolic subalgebra of .The roots with respect to the usual compact Cartan subalgebra are all ±e_i±e_j with 1?i<j?l. In the usual positive system of roots, the simple root e_m−e_m+1 is noncompact and the other simple roots are compact. Let be the parabolic subalgebra of for which e_m−e_m+1 contributes to and the other simple roots contribute to , let L be the analytic subgroup of G with Lie algebra , let , let be the sum of the roots contributing to , and let be the parabolic subalgebra opposite to .The members of are nilpotent members of . The group acts on with finitely many orbits, and the topological closure of each orbit is an irreducible algebraic variety. If Y is one of these varieties, let R(Y) be the dual coordinate ring of Y; this is a quotient of the algebra of symmetric tensors on that carries a fully reducible representation of .For , let . Then λ_s defines a one-dimensional module . Extend this to a module by having act by 0, and define . Let be the unique irreducible quotient of . The representations under study are and , where and Π_S is the Sth derived Bernstein functor.For s>2l−2, it is known that π_s=π_s′ and that π_s′ is in the discrete series. Enright, Parthsarathy, Wallach, and Wolf showed for m?s?2l−2 that π_s=π_s′ and that π_s′ is still unitary. The present paper shows that π_s′ is unitary for 0?s?m−1 even though π_s≠π_s′, and it relates the K spectrum of the representations π_s′ to the representation of on a suitable R(Y) with Y depending on s. Use of a branching formula of D. E. Littlewood allows one to obtain an explicit multiplicity formula for each K type in π_s′; the variety Y is indispensable in the proof. The chief tools involved are an idea of B. Gross and Wallach, a geometric interpretation of Littlewood's theorem, and some estimates of norms.It is shown further that the natural invariant Hermitian form on π_s′ does not make π_s′ unitary for s<0 and that the K spectrum of π_s′ in these cases is not related in the above way to the representation of on any R(Y).A final section of the paper treats in similar fashion the simply connected Lie group with Lie algebra , 2?m?l/2.     

Local indicability and relative presentations of groups

A relative presentation is a triple where A is a group, X is a set, and R is a set of words in the free product A∗F(X) where F(X) is the free group with basis X. Under certain hypotheses on the relative presentation , we show that (1) the group presented by is locally indicable; (2) the pre-aspherical model for is aspherical; (3) the Freiheitssatz holds for . The result has applications in the computation of cohomology of groups and the field of equations over groups.     

On a relation between certain cohomological invariants

Let G be a group, the supremum of the projective lengths of the injective ZG-modules and the supremum of the injective lengths of the projective ZG-modules. The invariants and were studied in [T.V. Gedrich, K.W. Gruenberg, Complete cohomological functors on groups, Topology Appl. 25 (1987) 203-223] in connection with the existence of complete cohomological functors. If is finite then [T.V. Gedrich, K.W. Gruenberg, Complete cohomological functors on groups, Topology Appl. 25 (1987) 203-223] and , where is the generalized cohomological dimension of G [B.M. Ikenaga, Homological dimension and Farrell cohomology, J. Algebra 87 (1984) 422-457]. Note that if G is of finite virtual cohomological dimension. It has been conjectured in [O. Talelli, On groups of type Φ, Arch. Math. 89 (1) (2007) 24-32] that if is finite then G admits a finite dimensional model for , the classifying space for proper actions.We conjecture that for any group G and we prove the conjecture for duality groups, fundamental groups of graphs of finite groups and fundamental groups of certain finite graphs of groups of type .     

On conjugacy classes in metaplectic groups

Let E be a finite dimensional symplectic space over a local field of characteristic zero. We show that for every element in the metaplectic double cover of the symplectic group Sp(E), and are conjugate by an element of GSp(E) with similitude −1.     

Exponentiable monomorphisms in categories of domains

We give a characterization of exponentiable monomorphisms in the categories of ω-complete posets, of directed complete posets and of continuous directed complete posets as those monotone maps f that are convex and that lift an element (and then a queue) of any directed set (ω-chain in the case of ) whose supremum is in the image of f (Theorem 1.9). Using this characterization, we obtain that a monomorphism f:X→B in (, ) exponentiable in w.r.t. the Scott topology is exponentiable also in (, ). We prove that the converse is true in the category , but neither in , nor in .     

Quartic residues and binary quadratic forms

Let be a prime, m∈Z and . In this paper we obtain a general criterion for m to be a quartic residue in terms of appropriate binary quadratic forms. Let d>1 be a squarefree integer such that , where is the Legendre symbol, and let ε_d be the fundamental unit of the quadratic field . Since 1942 many mathematicians tried to characterize those primes p so that ε_d is a quadratic or quartic residue . In this paper we will completely solve these open problems by determining the value of , where p is an odd prime, and . As an application we also obtain a general criterion for , where {u_n(a,b)} is the Lucas sequence defined by and .     

Geodesic currents and Teichmüller space

Consider a hyperbolic surface X of infinite area. The Liouville map assigns to any quasiconformal deformation of X a measure on the space of geodesics of the universal covering X? of X. We show that the Liouville map is a homeomorphism from the Teichmüller space onto its image, and that the image is closed and unbounded. The set of asymptotic rays to consists of all bounded measured laminations on X. Hence, the set of projective bounded measured laminations is a natural boundary for . The action of the quasiconformal mapping class group on continuously extends to this boundary for .     

On the Kurosh rank of the intersection of subgroups in free products of groups

The Kurosh rank rK(H) of a subgroup H of a free product of groups Gα, α∈I, is defined accordingly to the classic Kurosh subgroup theorem as the number of free factors of H. We prove that if H₁, H₂ are subgroups of and H₁, H₂ have finite Kurosh rank, then , where , q^∗ is the minimum of orders >2 of finite subgroups of groups Gα, α∈I, q^∗:=∞ if there are no such subgroups, and if q^∗=∞. In particular, if the factors Gα, α∈I, are torsion-free groups, then .     

q-Analog of the Möbius function and the cyclotomic identity associated to a profinite group

Let G be a profinite group and q an indeterminate. In this paper, we introduce and study a q-analog of the Möbius function and the cyclotomic identity arising from the lattice of open subgroups of G. When q is any integer, we show that they have close connections with the functors , , and introduced in [Y.-T. Oh, q-Deformation of Witt-Burnside rings, Math. Z. 257 (2007) 151-191]. In particular, we interpret the multiplicative property of the inverse of the table of marks and the Möbius function of G as a composition property of certain functors. Classification of , , and up to strict natural isomorphism as q varies over the set of integers and its application will be dealt with, too.     

On duality between étale groupoids and Hopf algebroids

For any étale Lie groupoid G over a smooth manifold M, the groupoid convolution algebra of smooth functions with compact support on G has a natural coalgebra structure over the commutative algebra which makes it into a Hopf algebroid. Conversely, for any Hopf algebroid A over we construct the associated spectral étale Lie groupoid over M such that is naturally isomorphic to G. Both these constructions are functorial, and is fully faithful left adjoint to . We give explicit conditions under which a Hopf algebroid is isomorphic to the Hopf algebroid of an étale Lie groupoid G.     

Independence of ? in Lafforgue's theorem

Let X be a smooth curve over a finite field of characteristic p, let ?≠p be a prime number, and let be an irreducible lisse -sheaf on X whose determinant is of finite order. By a theorem of L. Lafforgue, for each prime number ?′≠p, there exists an irreducible lisse -sheaf on X which is compatible with , in the sense that at every closed point x of X, the characteristic polynomials of Frobenius at x for and are equal. We prove an “independence of ?” assertion on the fields of definition of these irreducible ?′-adic sheaves : namely, that there exists a number field F such that for any prime number ?′≠p, the -sheaf above is defined over the completion of F at one of its ?′-adic places.     

The Farahat-Higman ring of wreath products and Hilbert schemes

We study the structure constants of the class algebra of the wreath products Γ_n associated to an arbitrary finite group Γ with respect to the basis of conjugacy classes. We show that a suitable filtration on gives rise to the graded ring with non-negative integer structure constants independent of n (some of which are computed), which are then encoded in a Farahat-Higman ring . The real conjugacy classes of Γ come to play a distinguished role and are treated in detail in the case when Γ is a subgroup of . The above results provide new insight to the cohomology rings of Hilbert schemes of points on a quasi-projective surface X.