SUBGROUP DISTORTIONS IN NILPOTENT GROUPS

The explicit formula for the distortion function of a connected Lie subgroup in a connected simply connected nilpotent Lie group is obtained. In particular, we prove that a function f: N → R can be realized (up to equivalence) as the distortion function of a connected Lie subgroup in a connected simply connected nilpotent Lie group if and only if f ～ n^r for some nonnegative r ∈ Q. Considering lattices in Lie groups, we establish the analogous results for finitely generated nilpotent groups.     

Groups admitting ergodic actions with generalized discrete spectrum

The class of groups admitting an effective ergodic action with generalized discrete spectrum is a natural generalization of the class of maximally almost periodic groups. H. Freudenthal has given a complete characterization of the connected maximally almost periodic groups, and here we give a complete characterization of the almost connected groups admitting an effective ergodic action with generalized discrete spectrum. Namely, we show that an almost connected group is in this class if and only if it is typeR. It is known that this is equivalent to the group being of polynomial growth, and for Lie groups is just the condition that all eigenvalues of the adjoint representation lie on the unit circle.Research partially supported by NSF Grant MCS-77-13070 and the Miller InstituteResearch partially supported by NSF Grant MCS 76-06626     

On approximation of Lie groups by discrete subgroups

A locally compact group G is said to be approximated by discrete subgroups (in the sense of Tôyama) if there is a sequence of discrete subgroups of G that converges to G in the Chabauty topology (or equivalently, in the Vietoris topology). The notion of approximation of Lie groups by discrete subgroups was introduced by Tôyama in Kodai Math. Sem. Rep. 1 (1949) 36–37 and investigated in detail by Kuranishi in Nagoya Math. J. 2 (1951) 63–71. It is known as a theorem of Tôyama that any connected Lie group approximated by discrete subgroups is nilpotent. The converse, in general, does not hold. For example, a connected simply connected nilpotent Lie group is approximated by discrete subgroups if and only if G has a rational structure. On the other hand, if Γ is a discrete uniform subgroup of a connected, simply connected nilpotent Lie group G then G is approximated by discrete subgroups Γ _n containing Γ. The proof of the above result is by induction on the dimension of G, and gives an algorithm for inductively determining Γ _n . The purpose of this paper is to give another proof in which we present an explicit formula for the sequence (Γ _n ) _n?≥?0 in terms of Γ. Several applications are given.     

On the structure of finite coverings of compact connected groups

Finite-sheeted covering mappings onto compact connected groups are studied. We show that for a covering mapping from a connected Hausdorff topological space onto a compact (in general, non-abelian) group there exists a topological group structure on the covering space such that the mapping becomes a homomorphism of groups. To prove this fact we construct an inverse system of covering mappings onto Lie groups which approximates the given covering mapping. As an application, it is shown that a covering mapping onto a compact connected abelian group G must be a homeomorphism provided that the character group of G admits division by degree of the mapping. We also get a criterion for triviality of coverings in terms of means and prove that each finite covering of G is equivalent to a polynomial covering.     

Assouad–Nagata dimension of connected Lie groups

We prove that the asymptotic Assouad–Nagata dimension of a connected Lie group G equipped with a left-invariant Riemannian metric coincides with its topological dimension of G/C where C is a maximal compact subgroup. To prove it we will compute the Assouad–Nagata dimension of connected solvable Lie groups and semisimple Lie groups. As a consequence we show that the asymptotic Assouad–Nagata dimension of a polycyclic group equipped with a word metric is equal to its Hirsch length and that some wreath-type finitely generated groups can not be quasi-isometrically embedded into any cocompact lattice on a connected Lie group.     

Invariant Orders on Lie Groups and Coverings of Ordered Homogeneous Spaces

 In this paper we give a characterization of those reductive or solvable connected, not necessarily simply connected, Lie groups which permit a non-degenerate group order. A non-degenerate group ordering on G always defines a pointed generating invariant convex cone W in the Lie algebra of G, but not every such cone arises in this way. The cones that do are called global. To decide whether a given cone is global or not is a difficult problem which for simply connected groups and invariant cones has completely been solved by Gichev.     

Distorsion des distances dans les groupes de Lie nilpotents

Let G be a connected nilpotent Lie group and H a connected subgroup of G. We give an explicit formula for the distance to the origin with the exponential coordinates of the second kind of g∈G. Using this fact, we prove that the distance to the origin of any element in H is bounded by a polynomial function of the distance to the origin in the group G. The degree of the polynomial is the nilpotency rank of the group G.     

On G-invariant distributions

Let G be a connected Lie group. In this paper we give a characterization of G-invariant distributions on certain regular subsets of a G-manifold in terms of distributions on the orbit space. In order to obtain this characterization we introduce and exploit distributions on manifolds which are not assumed to be Hausdorff spaces.     

On growth,recurrence and the Choquet-Deny Theorem for <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-adic Lie groups

We first study the growth properties of p-adic Lie groups and its connection with p-adic Lie groups of type R and prove that a non-type R p-adic Lie group has compact neighbourhoods of identity having exponential growth. This is applied to prove the growth dichotomy for a large class of p-adic Lie groups which includes p-adic algebraic groups. We next study p-adic Lie groups that admit recurrent random walks and prove the natural growth conjecture connecting growth and the existence of recurrent random walks, precisely we show that a p-adic Lie group admits a recurrent random walk if and only if it has polynomial growth of degree at most two. We prove this conjecture for some other classes of groups also. We also prove the Choquet-Deny Theorem for compactly generated p-adic Lie groups of polynomial growth and also show that polynomial growth is necessary and sufficient for the validity of the Choquet-Deny for all spread-out probabilities on Zariski-connected p-adic algebraic groups. Counter example is also given to show that certain assumptions made in the main results can not be relaxed.     

Invariant Orders on Lie Groups and Coverings of Ordered Homogeneous Spaces

 In this paper we give a characterization of those reductive or solvable connected, not necessarily simply connected, Lie groups which permit a non-degenerate group order. A non-degenerate group ordering on G always defines a pointed generating invariant convex cone W in the Lie algebra of G, but not every such cone arises in this way. The cones that do are called global. To decide whether a given cone is global or not is a difficult problem which for simply connected groups and invariant cones has completely been solved by Gichev. (Received 22 October 1999; in revised form 3 March 2000)     

The Divisibility Graph of finite groups of Lie type

The Divisibility Graph of a finite group G has vertex set the set of conjugacy class sizes of non-central elements in G and two vertices are connected by an edge if one divides the other. We determine the connected components of the Divisibility Graph of the finite groups of Lie type in odd characteristic.     

A model for embedding finite coverings defined by principal bundles into bundles of manifolds

For any finite group G we construct a canonical model for embedding a principal G-bundle fibrewise into a given locally trivial fibration with a connected manifold M of dimension n⩾2 as fibre. The construction uses configuration spaces. We apply the construction to obtain a canonical model for the class of principal G-bundles which are polynomial when considered as covering maps. Finally, we give an algebraic characterization of the polynomial principal G-bundles in terms of homomorphisms into braid groups.     

Actions of totally disconnected groups and equivariant singular homology

We study equivariant singular homology in the case of actions of totally disconnected locally compact groups on topological spaces. Theorem A says that if G is a totally disconnected locally compact group and X is a G-space, then any short exact sequence of covariant coefficient systems for G induces a long exact sequence of corresponding equivariant singular homology groups of the G-space X. In particular we consider the case where G is a totally disconnected compact group, i.e., a profinite group, and G acts freely on X. Of special interest is the case where G is a p-adic group, p a prime. The conjecture that no p-adic group, p a prime, can act effectively on a connected topological manifold, is namely known to be equivalent to the famous Hilbert-Smith conjecture. The Hilbert-Smith conjecture is the statement that, if a locally compact group G acts effectively on a connected topological manifold M, then G is a Lie group.     

Relative Kazhdan Property

We perform a systematic investigation of Kazhdan's relative Property (T) for pairs (G,X), where G is a locally compact group and X is any subset. When G is a connected Lie group or a p-adic algebraic group, we provide an explicit characterization of subsets X⊂G such that (G,X) has relative Property (T). In order to extend this characterization to lattices Γ⊂G, a notion of “resolutions” is introduced, and various characterizations of it are given. Special attention is paid to subgroups of SU(2,1) and SO(4,1).     

Self homotopy groups with large nilpotency classes

We demonstrate that for any n>0 there exists a compact connected Lie group G such that the self homotopy group [G,G] has the nilpotency class greater than n, where [G,G] is a nilpotent group for a compact connected Lie group G.     

A Note on Tortrat Groups

A locally compact group G is called a Tortrat group if for any probability measure on G which is not idempotent, the closure of {gg ^–1 | gG} does not contain any idempotent measure. We show that a connected Lie group G is a Tortrat group if and only if for all gG all eigenvalues of Ad g are of absolute value 1. Together with well-known results this also implies that a connected locally compact group is a Tortrat group if and only if it is of polynomial growth.     

Growth of connected locally compact groups

The asymptotic behavior of the Haar measure of Uⁿ = U · U ··· U, where U is a compact neighborhood of the identity in a separable, connected locally compact group, is considered. It is shown that for a given group G, the measure of Uⁿ grows at most polynomially for all U ? G, or at least exponentially for all U ? G. The groups having polynomial growth are characterized in terms of uniformly discrete free subsemigroups and in terms of the eigenvalues of elements occurring in the adjoint group of an approximating Lie group.     

On the factor sets of measures and local tightness of convolution semigroups over Lie groups

It is shown that for a large class of Lie groups (called weakly algebraic groups) including all connected semisimple Lie groups the following holds: for any probability measure on the Lie group the set of all two-sided convolution factors is compact if and only if the centralizer of the support of inG is compact. This is applied to prove that for any connected Lie groupG, any homomorphism of any real directed (submonogeneous) semigroup into the topological semigroup of all probability measures onG is locally tight.     

On a conjecture of ōshima

The set of homotopy classes of self maps of a compact, connected Lie group G is a group by the pointwise multiplication which we denote by H(G), and it is known to be nilpotent. ōshima [H. ōshima, Self homotopy group of the exceptional Lie group G₂, J. Math. Kyoto Univ. 40 (1) (2000) 177-184] conjectured: if G is simple, then H(G) is nilpotent of class ?rankG. We show this is true for PU(p) which is the first high rank example.