Normal growth of large groups, II

We show that a large class of groups has normal subgroup growth of type n^{log n}, which is the same as the growth type of a free group of rank 2.Received: 21 June 2004     

Character theory of symmetric groups, subgroup growth of Fuchsian groups, and random walks

We develop a number of statistical aspects of symmetric groups (mostly dealing with the distribution of cycles in various subsets of Sn), asymptotic properties of (ordinary) characters of symmetric groups, and estimates for the multiplicities of root number functions of these groups. As main applications, we present an estimate for the subgroup growth of an arbitrary Fuchsian group, a finiteness result for the number of Fuchsian presentations of such a group (resolving a long-standing problem of Roger Lyndon), as well as a proof of a well-known conjecture of Roichman concerning the mixing time of random walks on symmetric groups.     

Covering theory for complexes of groups

We develop an explicit covering theory for complexes of groups, parallel to that developed for graphs of groups by Bass. Given a covering of developable complexes of groups, we construct the induced monomorphism of fundamental groups and isometry of universal covers. We characterize faithful complexes of groups and prove a conjugacy theorem for groups acting freely on polyhedral complexes. We also define an equivalence relation on coverings of complexes of groups, which allows us to construct a bijection between such equivalence classes, and subgroups or overgroups of a fixed lattice Γ in the automorphism group of a locally finite polyhedral complex X.     

Subgroup separability and virtual retractions of groups

We discuss separability properties of discrete groups, and introduce a new property of groups that is motivated by a geometric proof of separability of geometrically finite subgroups of Kleinian groups. This property appears natural in that it provides a general framework for old questions in the geometry and topology of hyperbolic manifolds and discrete groups.     

Varieties of finite supersolvable groups with the M. Hall property

The varieties in the title are shown to be precisely the product varieties G_p*Ab(d) for some prime p and some positive integer d dividing p−1. Here G_p denotes the variety of all finite p-groups and Ab(d) the variety of all finite Abelian groups of exponent dividing d. It turns out that these are exactly those varieties H of supersolvable groups for which all finitely generated free pro-H groups are freely indexed in the sense of Lubotzky and van den Dries. Several alternative characterizations of these varieties are presented. Some applications to formal language theory and finite monoid theory are also given. Among these is the determination of all supersolvable solutions H to the equations PH = J*H and J*H = J H which is, to the present date, the most complete solution to a problem raised by Pin. Another consequence of our results is that for each such variety H the monoid variety PH = J*H = J H has decidable membership. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of NSERC     

On the composition length of finite primitive linear groups

LetG be a finite primitive linear group over a fieldK, whereK is a finite field or a number field. We bound the composition length ofG in terms of the dimension of the underlying vector space and of the degree ofK over its prime subfield. As a byproduct, we prove a result of number theory which bounds the number of prime factors (counting multiplicities) ofq ⁿ−1, whereq, n>1 are integers, improving a result of Turull and Zame [6].     

Multiple zeta functions and asymptotic structure of free Abelian groups of finite rank

We define the multiple zeta function of the free Abelian group Z^d as

ζ_Z^d(s₁,…,s_d)=∑_|Z^d:H|<∞α₁(H)^−s₁?α_d(H)^−s_d,     

On uniqueness of JSJ decompositions of finitely generated groups

We give an example of two JSJ decompositions of a group that are not related by conjugation, conjugation of edge-inclusions, and slide moves. This answers the question of Rips and Sela stated in [RS].On the other hand we observe that any two JSJ decompositions of a group are related by an elementary deformation, and that strongly slide-free JSJ decompositions are genuinely unique. These results hold for the decompositions of Rips and Sela, Dunwoody and Sageev, and Fujiwara and Papasoglu, and also for accessible decompositions.     

Groups with super-exponential subgroup growth

We show that, if the subgroup growth of a finitely generated (abstract or profinite) groupG is super-exponential, then every finite group occurs as a quotient of a finite index subgroup ofG. The proof involves techniques from finite permutation groups, and depends on the Classification of Finite Simple Groups.The first author was partially supported by the Hungarian National Foundation for Scientific Research, Grant No. T7441. The second author was partially supported by the Israeli National Science Foundation.     

Davenport constant for finite abelian groups

For a finite abelian group G, we investigate the length of a sequence of elements of G that is guaranteed to have a subsequence with product identity of G. In particular, we obtain a bound on the length which takes into account the repetitions of elements of the sequence, the rank and the invariant factors of G. Consequently, we see that there are plenty of such sequences whose length could be much shorter than the best known upper bound for the Davenport constant of G, which is the least integer s such that any sequence of length s in G necessarily contains a subsequence with product identity. We also show that the Davenport constant for the multiplicative group of reduced residue classes modulo n is comparatively large with respect to the order of the group, which is φ(n),when n is in certain thin subsets of positive integers. This is done by studying the Carmichael’s lambda function, defined as the maximal multiplicative order of any reduced residue modulo n, along these subsets.     

One-Sided Ideal Growth of Free Associative Algebras

Let R be a finitely generated associative algebra with unity over a finite field . Denote by a _n (R) the number of left ideals J ⊂ R such that dim R/J = n for all n ≥ 1. We explicitly compute and find asymptotics of the left ideal growth for the free associative algebra A _d of rank d with unity over , where d ≥ 1. This function yields a bound a _n (R) ≤ a _n (A _d ), , where R is an arbitrary algebra generated by d elements. Denote by m _n (R) the number of maximal left ideals J ⊂ R such that dim R/J = n, for n ≥ 1. Let d ≥ 2, we prove that m _n (A _d ) ≈ a _n (A _d ) as n → ∞.     

Compact groups having almost discrete orbit hypergroups

LetG be a compact group of automorphism acting continuously on a compact groupH. Then the orbit spaceH ^G is a compact hypergroup. We characterize, all solvable groupsH and compact automorphism groupsG for whichH ^G is almost discrete, i.e.,H ^G is homeomorphic to the one-point-compactification of . It turns out that thenH is isomorphic either to the infinite direct product (p) of the cyclic groups (p) or to _p ⁿ ( _p the group of allp-adic numbers) for some primep and some . The almost discrete orbit hypergroupsH ^G are determined explicitly for some examples.     

Approximate extension of partial ε-characters of abelian groups to characters with application to integral point lattices

Let G be an abelian group, S ⊆ G be a finite set, and T denote the multiplicative group of complex unitswith the invariant arc metric | arg(a/b)|. We will show that for a mapping ? : S → T to be ε-close on S to a character φ : G → T it is enough that ? be extendable to a mapping ¯f : (S U {1} US⁻¹)ⁿ → T, where n is big enough and ¯f violates the homomorphy condition at most up to an arbitrary σ < min(ε, π/2). Moreover, n can be chosen uniformly, independently of G and both ? and ¯f, depending just on σ, ε and the number of elements of S. The proof is non-constructive, using the ultraproduct construction and Pontryagin duality, hence yielding no estimate on the actual size of n. As one of the applications we show that, for a vector u ∈ R ^q to be ε-close to some vector from the dual lattice H^★ of a full rank integral point lattice H ⊆ ?^q, it is enough for the scalar product ux to be δ-close (with δ < 1/3) to an integer for all vectors xH satisfying Σ_i|x_i | < n, where n depends on δ, ε and q only.     

Normal subgroups of profinite groups of non-negative deficiency

The principal goal of the paper is to show that the existence of a finitely generated normal subgroup of infinite index in a profinite group G of non-negative deficiency gives rather strong consequences for the structure of G. To make this precise we introduce the notion of p-deficiency (p a prime) for a profinite group G. We prove that if the p-deficiency of G is positive and N is a finitely generated normal subgroup such that the p  -Sylow subgroup of G/N$G/N$ is infinite and p divides the order of N   then we have _cdp(G)=2${\mathrm{cd}}_p(G)=2$, _cdp(N)=1${\mathrm{cd}}_p(N)=1$ and _vcdp(G/N)=1${\mathrm{vcd}}_p(G/N)=1$ for the cohomological p-dimensions; moreover either the p  -Sylow subgroup of G/N$G/N$ is virtually cyclic or the p-Sylow subgroup of N is cyclic. If G is a profinite Poincaré duality group of dimension 3 at a prime p   (PD³${\mathit{PD}}^3$-group at p) we show that for N and p as above either N   is PD¹${\mathit{PD}}^1$ at p   and G/N$G/N$ is virtually PD²${\mathit{PD}}^2$ at p or N   is PD²${\mathit{PD}}^2$ at p   and G/N$G/N$ is virtually PD¹${\mathit{PD}}^1$ at p.     

Free groups and involutions in the unit group of a group algebra

We study the existence of free groups of rank 2 in the group generated by the involutions in the unit group of a group algebra over a non-absolute field.Received: 25 March 2004     

An improvement for the large sieve for square moduli

We establish a result on the large sieve with square moduli. These bounds improve recent results by S. Baier [S. Baier, On the large sieve with sparse sets of moduli, J. Ramanujan Math. Soc. 21 (2006) 279-295] and L. Zhao [L. Zhao, Large sieve inequality for characters to square moduli, Acta Arith. 112 (3) (2004) 297-308].     

Groups with less than <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> subgroups of index <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>

We characterise (residually-finite) groups which possess less than n subgroups of index n for almost all n ∈ ℕ.     

Maximal cofinitary groups

We discuss the cardinalities of maximal cofinitary groups under the assumption of . We also discuss various open questions in this area. Received: 24 July 1997     

Reflection groups of geodesic spaces and Coxeter groups

H.S.M. Coxeter showed that a group Γ is a finite reflection group of an Euclidean space if and only if Γ is a finite Coxeter group. In this paper, we define reflections of geodesic spaces in general, and we prove that Γ is a cocompact discrete reflection group of some geodesic space if and only if Γ is a Coxeter group.