Amalgamated products and properly 3-realizable groups

In this paper, we show that the class of all properly 3-realizable groups is closed under amalgamated free products (and HNN-extensions) over finite groups. We recall that G is said to be properly 3-realizable if there exists a compact 2-polyhedron K with π₁(K)≅G and whose universal cover has the proper homotopy type of a 3-manifold (with boundary).     

Homological characterization of the unknot

Given a knot K in the 3-sphere, let Q_K be its fundamental quandle as introduced by Joyce. Its first homology group is easily seen to be . We prove that H₂(Q_K)=0 if and only if K is trivial, and whenever K is non-trivial. An analogous result holds for links, thus characterizing trivial components.More detailed information can be derived from the conjugation quandle: let Q_K^π be the conjugacy class of a meridian in the knot group . We show that , where p is the number of prime summands in a connected sum decomposition of K.     

Homology rings of homotopy associative H-spaces

Let X be a homotopy associative mod p H-space for p an odd prime. The homology H_*(X;Fp) is an associative ring, but not necessarily commutative. We study conditions when for elements of H_*(X;Fp). Under certain conditions imply for l=p−2 or p−1. These methods can be used to prove results about homology commutators that were previously obtained using the adjoint action [H. Hamanaka, S. Hara, A. Kono, Adjoint action of Lie groups on the loop spaces and cohomology of exceptional Lie groups, Transform. Group Theory (1996) 44-50, Korea Adv. Inst. Sci. Tech.; A. Kono, K. Kozima, The adjoint action of a Lie group on the space of loops, J. Math. Soc. Japan 45 (3) (1993) 495-509; A. Kono, J. Lin, O. Nishimura, Characterization of the mod 3 cohomology of E₇, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 131 (10) (2003) 3289-3295]. We also generalize results of Kane [R. Kane, Torsion in homotopy associative H-spaces, Illinois J. Math. 20 (1976) 476-485] to nonfinite mod p homotopy associative H-spaces.     

On finite groups acting on ℤ<Subscript>2</Subscript>-homology 3-spheres

We consider finite groups G admitting orientation-preserving actions on homology 3-spheres (arbitrary, i.e. not necessarily free actions), concentrating on the case of nonsolvable groups. It is known that every finite group G admits actions on rational homology 3-spheres (and even free actions). On the other hand, the class of groups admitting actions on integer homology 3-spheres is very restricted (and close to the class of finite subgroups of the orthogonal group SO(4), acting on the 3-sphere). In the present paper, we consider the intermediate case of ₂-homology 3-spheres (i.e., with the ₂-homology of the 3-sphere where ₂ denote the integers mod two; we note that these occur much more frequently in 3-dimensional topology than the integer ones). Our main result is a list of finite nonsolvable groups G which are the candidates for orientation-preserving actions on ₂-homology 3-spheres. From this we deduce a corresponding list for the case of integer homology 3-spheres. In the integer case, the groups of the list are closely related to the dodecahedral group or the binary dodecahedral group most of these groups are subgroups of the orthogonal group SO(4) and hence admit actions on S³. Roughly, in the case of ₂-homology 3-spheres the groups PSL(2,5) and SL(2,5) get replaced by the groups PSL(2,q) and SL(2,q), for an arbitrary odd prime power q. We have many examples of actions of the groups PSL(2,q) and SL(2,q) on ₂-homology 3-spheres, for various small values of q (constructed as regular coverings of suitable hyperbolic 3-orbifolds and 3-manifolds, using computer-supported methods to calculate the homology of the coverings). We think that all of them occur but have no method to prove this at present (in particular, the exact classification of the finite nonsolvable groups admitting actions on ₂-homology 3-spheres remains still open).     

Filtered ends of infinite covers and groups

Let f:A→B be a covering map. We say that A has e filtered ends with respect to f (or B) if, for some filtration {K_n} of B by compact subsets, A−f⁻¹(K_n) “eventually” has e components. The main theorem states that if Y is a (suitable) free H-space, if K<H has infinite index, and if Y has a positive finite number of filtered ends with respect to H?Y, then Y has one filtered end with respect to K?Y. This implies that if G is a finitely generated group and K<H<G are subgroups each having infinite index in the next, then implies that , where is the number of filtered ends of a pair of groups in the sense of Kropholler and Roller.     

Operator space structure and amenability for Figà-Talamanca-Herz algebras

Column and row operator spaces—which we denote by COL and ROW, respectively—over arbitrary Banach spaces were introduced by the first-named author; for Hilbert spaces, these definitions coincide with the usual ones. Given a locally compact group G and p,p′∈(1,∞) with , we use the operator space structure on to equip the Figà-Talamanca-Herz algebra A_p(G) with an operator space structure, turning it into a quantized Banach algebra. Moreover, we show that, for p?q?2 or 2?q?p and amenable G, the canonical inclusion A_q(G)⊂A_p(G) is completely bounded (with cb-norm at most , where is Grothendieck's constant). As an application, we show that G is amenable if and only if A_p(G) is operator amenable for all—and equivalently for one—p∈(1,∞); this extends a theorem by Ruan.     

Compactifications of the homeomorphism group of a graph

Let Γ be a countable locally finite graph and let H(Γ) and H₊(Γ) denote the homeomorphism group of Γ with the compact-open topology and its identity component. These groups can be embedded into the space of all closed sets of Γ×Γ with the Fell topology, which is compact. Taking closure, we have natural compactifications and . In this paper, we completely determine the topological type of the pair and give a necessary and sufficient condition for this pair to be a (Q,s)-manifold. The pair is also considered for simple examples, and in particular, we find that has homotopy type of RP³. In this investigation we point out a certain inaccuracy in Sakai-Uehara's preceding results on for finite graphs Γ.     

On the cohomology of joins of operator algebras

By analogy with the join in topology, the join A*B for operator algebras A and B acting on Hilbert spaces H and K, respectively, was defined by Gilfeather and Smith (Amer. J. Math. 116 (1994) 541-561). Assuming that K is finite dimensional, they calculated the Hochschild cohomology groups for A*B with coefficients in L(K⊕H). We assume that A is a maximal abelian von Neumann algebra acting on H, A is a subalgebra of , and B is an ultraweakly closed subalgebra of M_n(A) containing A⊗1_n. We show that B may be decomposed into a finite sum of free modules. In this context, we redefine the join of A and B, generalize the calculations of Gilfeather and Smith, and calculate , for all m?0.     

Finite Group Actions with Fixed Points on Homology 3-Spheres

 If a finite group acts freely on a homology 3-sphere, then it has periodic cohomology. To say that a finite group F has periodic cohomology is equivalent to say that any Sylow subgroup of F of odd order is cyclic and a Sylow 2-subgroup of F is either cyclic or a quaternion group. In this paper we consider more generally smooth actions of finite groups G on homology 3-spheres which may have fixed points. We prove that any Sylow subgroup of G of odd order is either cyclic or the direct sum of two cyclic groups. Moreover, we show that if G has odd order, then it splits as a semidirect product of a subgroup A and a normal subgroup B such that B acts freely and there exist some simple closed curves in the homology 3-sphere which are fixed pointwise by some non-trivial element of A. We discuss the relation between these algebraic results and some classical constructions of the theory of 3-manifolds. Received 25 September 1997; in revised form 2 June 1998     

Graded Lie algebras with finite polydepth

If A is a graded connected algebra then we define a new invariant, polydepthA, which is finite if for some A-module M of at most polynomial growth. Theorem 1: If f:X→Y is a continuous map of finite category, and if the orbits of acting in the homology of the homotopy fibre grow at most polynomially, then has finite polydepth. Theorem 5: If L is a graded Lie algebra and polydepthUL is finite then either L is solvable and UL grows at most polynomially or else for some integer d and all r, ∑_i=k+1^k+ddimL_i?k^r, k? some k(r).     

On a combination method of VDR and patchwork for generating uniform random points on a unit sphere

In this paper, we use a combination of VDR theory and patchwork method to derive an efficient algorithm for generating uniform random points on a unit d-sphere. We first propose an algorithm to generate random vector with uniform distribution on a unit 2-sphere on the plane. Then we use VDR theory to reduce random vector X_d with uniform distribution on a unit d-sphere into , such that the random vector (X_d-1,X_d) is uniformly distributed on a unit 2-sphere and X_d-2 has conditional uniform distribution on a (d-2)-sphere of radius , given V=v with V having the p.d.f. . Finally, we arrive by induction at an algorithm for generating uniform random points on a unit d-sphere.     

The sum of unitary similarity orbits containing only special operators

Let B(H) be the algebra of bounded linear operator acting on a Hilbert space H (over the complex or real field). Characterization is given to A₁,…,A_k∈B(H) such that for any unitary operators is always in a special class S of operators such as normal operators, self-adjoint operators, unitary operators. As corollaries, characterizations are given to A∈B(H) such that complex, real or nonnegative linear combinations of operators in its unitary orbit U(A)={U^∗AU:Uunitary} always lie in S.     

Connections on modules over singularities of finite CM representation type

Let A be a commutative k-algebra, where k is an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0, and let M be an A-module. We consider the following question: Under what conditions is it possible to find a connection on M?We consider the maximal Cohen-Macaulay (MCM) modules over complete CM algebras that are isolated singularities, and usually assume that the singularities have finite CM representation type. It is known that any MCM module over a simple singularity of dimension d≤2 admits an integrable connection. We prove that an MCM module over a simple singularity of dimension d≥3 admits a connection if and only if it is free. Among singularities of finite CM representation type, we find examples of curves with MCM modules that do not admit connections, and threefolds with non-free MCM modules that admit connections.Let A be a singularity not necessarily of finite CM representation type, and consider the condition that A is a Gorenstein curve or a -Gorenstein singularity of dimension d≥2. We show that this condition is sufficient for the canonical module ω_A to admit an integrable connection, and conjecture that it is also necessary. In support of the conjecture, we show that if A is a monomial curve singularity, then the canonical module ω_A admits an integrable connection if and only if A is Gorenstein.     

On the torsion of group extensions and group actions

In this note, we study the torsion of extensions of finitely generated abelian by elementary abelian groups. When the action is trivial , we make a specific choice of a 1-cochain for a vanishing multiple of the cohomology class defining the extension and use it to completely describe the torsion of central extensions. As an application, one gets that, under the assumption of trivial action on homology, Z_p^r may act freely on (S¹)^k if and only if r?k, providing an alternative proof of the main theorem in [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 352 (6) (2000) 2689-2700] for central extensions.     

Homology of dihedral quandles

We solve the conjecture by R. Fenn, C. Rourke and B. Sanderson that the rack homology of dihedral quandles satisfies for p odd prime [T. Ohtsuki, Problems on invariants of knots and 3-manifolds, Geom. Topol. Monogr. 4 (2002) 377-572, Conjecture 5.12]. We also show that contains Z_p for n≥3. Furthermore, we show that the torsion of is annihilated by 3. We also prove that the quandle homology contains Z_p for p odd prime. We conjecture that for n>1 quandle homology satisfies: , where f_n are “delayed” Fibonacci numbers, that is, f_n=f_n−1+f_n−3 and f(1)=f(2)=0,f(3)=1. Our paper is the first step in approaching this conjecture.     

Embeddings of homology equivalent manifolds with boundary

We prove a theorem on equivariant maps implying the following two corollaries:(1) Let N and M be compact orientable n-manifolds with boundaries such that M⊂N, the inclusion M→N induces an isomorphism in integral cohomology, both M and N have (n−d−1)-dimensional spines and . Then the restriction-induced map Embm(N)→Embm(M) is bijective. Here Embm(X) is the set of embeddings X→Rm up to isotopy (in the PL or smooth category).(2) For a 3-manifold N with boundary whose integral homology groups are trivial and such that N?D³ (or for its special 2-spine N) there exists an equivariant map , although N does not embed into R³.The second corollary completes the answer to the following question: for which pairs (m,n) for each n-polyhedron N the existence of an equivariant map implies embeddability of N into Rm? An answer was known for each pair (m,n) except (3,3) and (3,2).     

Cyclic-type cohomology of strict inductive limits of Fréchet algebras

We present methods for the computation of the Hochschild and cyclic-type continuous homology and cohomology of some locally convex strict inductive limits of Fréchet algebras A_m. In the pure algebraic case it is known that, for the cyclic homology of A, for all n?0 [Cyclic Homology, Springer, Berlin, 1992, E.2.1.1]. We show that, for a locally convex strict inductive system of Fréchet algebras such that

0→A_m→A_m+1→A_m+1/A_m→0