On invertible terraces for non‐abelian groups

We give several constructions for invertible terraces and invertible directed terraces. These enable us to give the first known infinite families of invertible terrraces, both directed and undirected, for non‐abelian groups. In particular, we show that all generalized dicyclic groups of orders 24k + 4 and 24k + 20 have an invertible directed terrace and that all groups of the form A × G have an invertible terrace, where A is an (possibly trivial) abelian group of odd order and G is any one of: (i) a generalized dihedral group of order 12k + 2 or 12k + 10; (ii) a generalized dicyclic group of order 24k + 4 or 24k + 20; (iii) a non‐abelian group of order n with 10 ≤ n ≤ 21; (iv) a non‐abelian binary group of order n with 24 ≤ n ≤ 42. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 15: 437–447, 2007     

Nilpotent 1‐factorizations of the complete graph

For which groups G of even order 2n does a 1‐factorization of the complete graph K_2n exist with the property of admitting G as a sharply vertex‐transitive automorphism group? The complete answer is still unknown. Using the definition of a starter in G introduced in 4 , we give a positive answer for new classes of groups; for example, the nilpotent groups with either an abelian Sylow 2‐subgroup or a non‐abelian Sylow 2‐subgroup which possesses a cyclic subgroup of index 2. Further considerations are given in case the automorphism group G fixes a 1‐factor. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs     

On the Chern‐Ricci flow and its solitons for Lie groups

This paper is concerned with Chern‐Ricci flow evolution of left‐invariant hermitian structures on Lie groups. We study the behavior of a solution, as t is approaching the first time singularity, by rescaling in order to prevent collapsing and obtain convergence in the pointed (or Cheeger‐Gromov) sense to a Chern‐Ricci soliton. We give some results on the Chern‐Ricci form and the Lie group structure of the pointed limit in terms of the starting hermitian metric and, as an application, we obtain a complete picture for the class of solvable Lie groups having a codimension one normal abelian subgroup. We have also found a Chern‐Ricci soliton hermitian metric on most of the complex surfaces which are solvmanifolds, including an unexpected shrinking soliton example.     

Valuations and rank of ordered abelian groups

It is shown that there exists an ordered abelian group that has no smallest positive element and that has no sequence of nonzero elements converging to zero. Some formulae for the rank of ordered abelian groups have been derived and a necessary condition for an order type to be rank of an ordered abelian group has been discussed. These facts have been translated to the spectrum of a valuation ring using some well-known results in valuation theory.

     

L2‐signatures,homology localization,and amenable groups

Aimed at geometric applications, we prove the homology cobordism invariance of the L²‐Betti numbers and L²‐signature defects associated to the class of amenable groups lying in Strebel's class D(R), which includes some interesting infinite/finite non‐torsion‐free groups. This result includes the only prior known condition, that Γ is a poly‐torsion‐free abelian group (or a finite p‐group). We define a new commutator series that refines Harvey's torsion‐free derived series of groups, using the localizations of groups and rings of Bousfield, Vogel, and Cohn. The series, called the local derived series, has versions for homology with arbitrary coefficients and satisfies functoriality and an injectivity theorem. We combine these two new tools to give some applications to distinct homology cobordism types within the same simple homotopy type in higher dimensions, to concordance of knots in three manifolds, and to spherical space forms in dimension 3. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Constructions for Terraces and R‐Sequencings,Including a Proof That Bailey's Conjecture Holds for Abelian Groups

Every abelian group of even order with a noncyclic Sylow 2‐subgroup is known to be R‐sequenceable except possibly when the Sylow 2‐subgroup has order 8. We construct an R‐sequencing for many groups with elementary abelian Sylow 2‐subgroups of order 8 and use this to show that all such groups of order other than 8 also have terraces. This completes the proof of Bailey's Conjecture in the abelian case: all abelian groups other than the noncyclic elementary abelian 2‐groups have terraces. For odd orders it is known that abelian groups are R‐sequenceable except possibly those with noncyclic Sylow 3‐subgroups. We show how the theory of narcissistic terraces can be exploited to find R‐sequencings for many such groups, including infinitely many groups with each possible of Sylow 3‐subgroup type of exponent at most 3¹² and all groups whose Sylow 3‐subgroups are of the form or .     

One‐factorizations of complete graphs with vertex‐regular automorphism groups

We consider one‐factorizations of K_2n possessing an automorphism group acting regularly (sharply transitively) on vertices. We present some upper bounds on the number of one‐factors which are fixed by the group; further information is obtained when equality holds in these bounds. The case where the group is dihedral is studied in some detail, with some non‐existence statements in case the number of fixed one‐factors is as large as possible. Constructions both for dihedral groups and for some classes of abelian groups are given. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 10: 1–16, 2002     

A structure theorem for abelian quasi-ordered groups

We introduce a notion of compatible quasi-ordered groups which unifies valued and ordered abelian groups. It was proved by S.M. Fakhruddin that a compatible quasi-order on a field is always either an order or a valuation. We show here that the group case is more complicated than the field case and describe the general structure of a compatible quasi-ordered abelian group. We then define a notion of Hahn product of compatible quasi-ordered groups and generalize Hahn's embedding theorem to quasi-ordered groups. We also develop a notion of quasi-order-minimality and establish a connection with C-minimality, thus answering a question of F. Delon. Finally, we use compatible quasi-ordered groups to give an example of a C-minimal group which is neither an ordered nor a valued group.     

Σ-Groups as Convergence Groups

A Σ-group is an abelian group in which certain infinite sums are postulated to exist and to satisfy axioms suggested by the properties of unconditional sums in abelian convergence groups. Two notions of convergence are considered: in terms of nets, and in terms of filters. It is proved that every Σ-group can be regarded as a net convergence group (of a particular type). An example is given to show that the same does not remain true if filters are used instead of nets. For the special class of ‘adic’ Σ-groups, however, it is proved that filters are adequate.     

Existential equivalence of ordered abelian groups with parameters

Summary In [GK], Gurevich and Kokorin proved that any two non-trivial ordered abelian groups (o-groups, for short) satisfy the same existential sentences. Let nowG, H be non-trivialo-groups with a commono-subgroupG ₀. We determine whetherG andH are existentially equivalent overG ₀. As a corollary, we obtain algebraic criteria for deciding, whether ano-subgroupG is existentially closed in ano-groupH. Corresponding results are proved foro-groups in which congruences are regarded as atomic relations.     

Partial difference sets and amorphic Cayley schemes in non‐abelian 2‐groups

In this paper, we consider regular automorphism groups of graphs in the RT2 family and the Davis‐Xiang family and amorphic abelian Cayley schemes from these graphs. We derive general results on the existence of non‐abelian regular automorphism groups from abelian regular automorphism groups and apply them to the RT2 family and Davis‐Xiang family and their amorphic abelian Cayley schemes to produce amorphic non‐abelian Cayley schemes.     

‐differential equations for ‐classical polynomials and ‐Jacobi–Stirling numbers

We introduce, characterise and provide a combinatorial interpretation for the so‐called q‐Jacobi–Stirling numbers. This study is motivated by their key role in the (reciprocal) expansion of any power of a second order q‐differential operator having the q‐classical polynomials as eigenfunctions in terms of other even order operators, which we explicitly construct in this work. The results here obtained can be viewed as the q‐version of those given by Everitt et al. and by the first author, whilst the combinatorics of this new set of numbers is a q‐version of the Jacobi–Stirling numbers given by Gelineau and the second author.     

Fusions of Character Tables II: p-Groups

If the character table of a finite group H satisfies certain conditions, then the classes and characters of H can fuse to give the character table of a group G of the same order. We investigate the case where H is an abelian group. In a previous article, we gave examples of Camina pairs that fuse from abelian groups. In this article, we give more general examples of Camina triples that fuse from abelian groups. We use this result to give an example of a group which fuses from an abelian group, but which has a subgroup that does not. We also give an example of a powerful 2-group which does not fuse from an abelian group and of a regular 3-group which does not fuse from an abelian group.     

Groupable lattices

A lattice is called groupable provided it can be endowed with the structure of an l-group (lattice ordered group). The primary objective of this paper is to introduce an order theoretic property of groupable lattices which implies that all associated l-groups are subdirect products of totally ordered groups. This is an analog to Iwasawa's well-known result which asserts that a conditionally complete l-group is abelian. A secondary objective is to outline a general method for identifying classes of l-groups determined by order theoretic properties.     

On 2‐factorizations of the complete graph: From the k‐pyramidal to the universal property

We consider 2‐factorizations of complete graphs that possess an automorphism group fixing k?0 vertices and acting sharply transitively on the others. We study the structures of such factorizations and consider the cases in which the group is either abelian or dihedral in some more details. Combining results of the first part of the paper with a result of D. Bryant, J Combin Des, 12 (2004), 147–155, we prove that the class of 2‐factorizations of complete graphs is universal. Namely each finite group is the full automorphism group of a 2‐factorization of the class. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 17: 211‐228, 2009     

Abelian pro‐countable groups and non‐Borel orbit equivalence relations

We study topological groups that can be defined as Polish, pro‐countable abelian groups, as non‐archimedean abelian groups or as quasi‐countable abelian groups, i.e., Polish subdirect products of countable, discrete groups, endowed with the product topology. We characterize tame groups in this class, i.e., groups all of whose continuous actions on a Polish space induce a Borel orbit equivalence relation, and relatively tame groups, i.e., groups all of whose diagonal actions induce a Borel orbit equivalence relation, provided that are continuous actions inducing Borel orbit equivalence relations.     

Characterizing Automorphism Groups of Ordered Abelian Groups

A proof is given of the following theorem, which characterizesfull automorphism groups of ordered abelian groups: a groupH is the automorphism group of some ordered abelian group ifand only if H is right-orderable. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification20K15, 20K20, 20F60, 20K30 (primary); 03E05 (secondary).     

Finitely Presented, Coherent, and Ultrasimplicial Ordered Abelian Groups

We study notions such as finite presentability and coherence, for partially ordered abelian groups and vector spaces. Typical results are the following: (i) A partially ordered abelian group G is finitely presented if and only if G is finitely generated as a group, G⁺ is well-founded as a partially ordered set, and the set of minimal elements of G⁺\ {0} is finite. (ii) Torison-free, finitely presented partially ordered abelian groups can be represented as subgroups of some Zⁿ, with a finitely generated submonoid of (Z⁺)ⁿ as positive cone. (iii) Every unperforated, finitely presented partially ordered abelian group is Archimedean. Further, we establish connections with interpolation. In particular, we prove that a divisible dimension group G is a directed union of simplicial subgroups if and only if every finite subset of G is contained into a finitely presented ordered subgroup.     

k-metric spaces

In this paper, we give a new generalization of metric spaces called k-metric spaces. Our k-metrics are valued in lattice ordered groups, which allows us to talk about distance in non-abelian lattice ordered groups. We also discuss a class of (not necessarily abelian) lattice ordered groups in which every k-metric induces a topology. Then we show that every k-metric valued in the real numbers is metrizable. In the last section, we characterize intrinsic metrics on lattice ordered rings that are almost f-rings and prove that being an almost f-ring is necessary and sufficient for this characterization. Then we show that if a lattice ordered ring is representable, then every intrinsic metric is a k-metric.     

Divisibility in certain automorphism groups

We study solvability of equations of the form x ⁿ = g in the groups of order automorphisms of archimedean-complete totally ordered groups of rank 2. We determine exactly which automorphisms of the unique abelian such group have square roots, and we describe all automorphisms of the general ones.