Expansion in SLd(Z/qZ), q arbitrary

Let S be a fixed finite symmetric subset of SL _d (Z), and assume that it generates a Zariski-dense subgroup G. We show that the Cayley graphs of π _q (G) with respect to the generating set π _q (S) form a family of expanders, where π _q is the projection map Z→Z/q Z.     

The Zassenhaus variety of a reductive Lie algebra in positive characteristic

Let g be the Lie algebra of a connected reductive group G over an algebraically closed field k of characteristic p>0. Let Z be the centre of the universal enveloping algebra U=U(g) of g. Its maximal spectrum is called the Zassenhaus variety of g. We show that, under certain mild assumptions on G, the field of fractions Frac(Z) of Z is G-equivariantly isomorphic to the function field of the dual space g^∗ with twisted G-action. In particular Frac(Z) is rational. This confirms a conjecture of J. Alev. Furthermore we show that Z is a unique factorisation domain, confirming a conjecture of A. Braun and C. Hajarnavis. Recently, A. Premet used the above result about Frac(Z), a result of Colliot-Thelene, Kunyavskii, Popov and Reichstein and reduction mod p arguments to show that the Gelfand-Kirillov conjecture cannot hold for simple complex Lie algebras that are not of type A, C or G₂.     

The local finiteness of some groups generated by a conjugacy class of order 3 elements

We prove local finiteness for the groups generated by a conjugacy class of order 3 elements whose every pair generates a subgroup that is isomorphic to Z ₃, A ₄, A ₅, SL ₂(3), or SL ₂(5).     

The Extension of Möbius Groups

Let G be a non-elementary subgroup of SL(2,Г _n ) containing hyperbolic elements. We show that G is the extension of a subgroup of SL(2,C) if and only if that G is conjugate in SL(2,Г _n ) to a group G' with the following properties: (1) There are g ₀, h ? G', where g ₀ and h are hyperbolic, such that fix(g ₀) = {0,∞}, fix(h)∩fix(g ₀) =  and fix(h) ∩ C ≠ ; (2) tr(g) ? C for each g ? G'. As an application, we show that if G contains only hyperbolic elements and uniformly parabolic elements, then G is the extension of a subgroup of SL(2,C), which also yields the discreteness of G.     

Finite Abelian actions on surfaces

Edmonds showed that two free orientation preserving smooth actions φ₁ and φ₂ of a finite Abelian group G on a closed connected oriented smooth surface M are equivalent by an equivariant orientation preserving diffeomorphism iff they have the same bordism class [M,φ₁]=[M,φ₂] in the oriented bordism group Ω₂(G) of the group G. In this paper, we compute the bordism class [M,φ] for any such action of G on M and we determine for a given M, the bordism classes in Ω₂(G) that are representable by such actions of G on M. This will enable us to obtain a formula for the number of inequivalent such actions of G on M. We also determine the “weak” equivalence classes of such actions of G on M when all the p-Sylow subgroups of G are homocyclic (i.e. of the form n(Z/pαZ)).     

On a conjecture of E. Rapaport Strasser about knot-like groups and its pro-p version

A group G is knot-like if it is finitely presented of deficiency 1 and has abelianization G/G^′?Z. We prove the conjecture of E. Rapaport Strasser that if a knot-like group G has a finitely generated commutator subgroup G^′ then G^′ should be free in the special case when the commutator G^′ is residually finite. It is a corollary of a much more general result : if G is a discrete group of geometric dimension n with a finite K(G,1)-complex Y of dimension n, Y has Euler characteristics 0, N is a normal residually finite subgroup of G, N is of homological type FP_n-1 and G/N?Z then N is of homological type FP_n and hence G/N has finite virtual cohomological dimension vcd(G/N)=cd(G)-cd(N). In particular either N has finite index in G or cd(N)?cd(G)-1.Furthermore we show a pro-p version of the above result with the weaker assumption that G/N is a pro-p group of finite rank. Consequently a pro-p version of Rapaport's conjecture holds.     

Weakly holomorphic modular forms for some moonshine groups

In an article in the Pure and Applied Mathematics Quarterly in 2008, Duke and Jenkins investigated a certain natural basis of the space of weakly holomorphic modular forms for the full modular group SL ₂(Z). We show here that their results can be generalized to certain moonshine groups, also allowing characters that are real on the underlying subgroup Γ₀(N).     

Ihara's lemma for imaginary quadratic fields

An analogue over imaginary quadratic fields of a result in algebraic number theory known as Ihara's lemma is established. More precisely, we show that for a prime ideal p of the ring of integers of an imaginary quadratic field F, the kernel of the sum of the two standard p-degeneracy maps between the cuspidal sheaf cohomology is Eisenstein. Here Y₀ and Y₁ are analogues over F of the modular curves Y₀(N) and Y₀(Np), respectively. To prove our theorem we use the method of modular symbols and the congruence subgroup property for the group SL₂(Z[1/p]) which is due to Mennicke [J. Mennicke, On Ihara's modular group, Invent. Math. 4 (1967) 202-228] and Serre [J.-P. Serre, Le problème des groupes de congruence pour SL₂, Ann. of Math. (2) 92 (1970) 489-527].     

Galois number fields with small root discriminant

We pose the problem of identifying the set K(G,Ω) of Galois number fields with given Galois group G and root discriminant less than the Serre constant Ω≈44.7632. We definitively treat the cases G=A₄, A₅, A₆ and S₄, S₅, S₆, finding exactly 59, 78, 5 and 527, 192, 13 fields, respectively. We present other fields with Galois group SL₃(2), A₇, S₇, PGL₂(7), SL₂(8), ΣL₂(8), PGL₂(9), PΓL₂(9), PSL₂(11), and , and root discriminant less than Ω. We conjecture that for all but finitely many groups G, the set K(G,Ω) is empty.     

On the second cohomology of an algebraic group and of its lie algebra in a positive characteristic

Necessary and sufficient isomorphism conditions for the second cohomology group of an algebraic group with an irreducible root system over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p ≥ 3h ? 3, where h stands for the Coxeter number, and the corresponding second cohomology group of its Lie algebra with coefficients in simple modules are obtained, and also some nontrivial examples of isomorphisms of the second cohomology groups of simple modules are found. In particular, it follows from the results obtained here that, among the simple algebraic groups SL₂(k), SL₃(k), SL₄(k), Sp₄(k), and G ₂, nontrivial isomorphisms of this kind exist for SL₄(k) and G ₂ only. For SL₄(k), there are two simple modules with nontrivial second cohomology and, for G ₂, there is one module of this kind. All nontrivial examples of second cohomology obtained here are one-dimensional.     

Prime ideals in the C*-algebra of a nilpotent group

We say that a locally compact groupG hasT ₁ primitive ideal space if the groupC ^*-algebra,C ^*(G), has the property that every primitive ideal (i.e. kernel of an irreducible representation) is closed in the hull-kernel topology on the space of primitive ideals ofC ^*(G), denoted by PrimG. This means of course that every primitive ideal inC ^*(G) is maximal. Long agoDixmier proved that every connected nilpotent Lie group hasT ₁ primitive ideal space. More recentlyPoguntke showed that discrete nilpotent groups haveT ₁ primitive ideal space and a few month agoCarey andMoran proved the same property for second countable locally compact groups having a compactly generated open normal subgroup. In this note we combine the methods used in [3] with some ideas in [9] and show that for nilpotent locally compact groupsG, having a compactly generated open normal subgroup, closed prime ideals inC ^*(G) are always maximal which implies of course that PrimG isT ₁.     

Invariant means and invariant ideals in L∞(G) for a locally compact group G

For a nondiscrete σ-compact locally compact Hausdorff group G, L_∞(G) is a commutative Banach algebra under pointwise multiplication which has many nonzero proper closed invariant ideals; there is at least a continuum of maximal invariant ideals {N_α} such that N_α1 + N_α2 = L_∞(G) whenever α₁ ≠ α₂. It follows from the construction of these ideals that when G is also amenable as a discrete group, then LIM?TLIM contains at least a continuum of mutually singular elements each of which is singular to any element of TLIM. The supports of left-invariant means are in the maximal ideal space of L_∞(G); the structure of these supports leads to the notion of stationary and transitive maximal ideals. To prove that both these types of maximal ideals are dense among all maximal ideals, one shows that the intersection of all nonzero closed invariant ideals is zero. This is the case even though the intersection of any sequence of closed invariant ideals is not zero and the intersection of all the maximal invariant ideals is not zero.     

On Groups Generated by Elements of Pirme Order

In the first part of the paper we give a characterization of groups generated by elements of fixed prime order p. In the second part we study the group G _n ^(p) of n × n matrices with the pth power of the determinant equal to 1 over a field F containing a primitive pth root of 1. It is known that the group G _n ⁽²⁾ of n × n matrices of determinant ± 1 over a field F and the group SL _n (F) are generated by their involutions and that each element in these groups is a product of four involutions. We consider some subgroups G of G _n ^(p) and study the following problems: Is G generated by its elements of order p? If so, is every element of G a product of k elements of order p for some fixed integer k? We show that G _n ^(p) and SL _n (F) are generated by their elements of order p and that the bound k exists and is equal to 4. We show that every universal p-Coxeter group has faithful two-dimensional representations over many fields F (including ? and ?). For a universal p-Coxeter group of rank ≥ 2 for p ≥ 3 or of rank ≥ 3 for p = 2 there is no bound k.     

A necessary condition for non-abelian finite <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-groups with second centre of order <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis><Superscript>2</Superscript>

Let G be a non-abelian finite p-group such that |Z ₂(G)| = p ². In this paper we prove that each maximal subgroup M ≠ C _G (Z ₂(G)) is non-abelian and has cyclic centre.     

On 9- and 10-decomposable finite groups

A finite group G is called n-decomposable if every proper non-trivial normal subgroup of G is a union of n distinct conjugacy classes of G. In some research papers, the question of finding all positive integer n such that there is an n-decomposable finite group was posed. In this paper, we investigate the structure of 9- and 10-decomposable non-perfect finite groups. We prove that a non-perfect group G is 9-decomposable if and only if G is isomorphic to Aut(PSL(2,32)), Aut(PSL(3,3)), the semi-direct product Z ₃ ∝(Z ₅×Z ₅) or a non-abelian group of order pq, where p and q are primes and p?1=8q, and also, a non-perfect finite group G is 10-decomposable if and only if G is isomorphic to Aut(PSL(2,17)), PSL(2,25):2₃, a split extension of PSL(2,25) by Z ₂ in ATLAS notation (Conway et al., Atlas of Finite Groups, [1985]), Aut(U ₃(3)) or D ₃₈, where D ₃₈ denotes the dihedral group of order 38.     

Ideals with bounded approximate identities in Fourier algebras

We make use of the operator space structure of the Fourier algebra A(G) of an amenable locally compact group to prove that if H is any closed subgroup of G, then the ideal I(H) consisting of all functions in A(G) vanishing on H has a bounded approximate identity. This result allows us to completely characterize the ideals of A(G) with bounded approximate identities. We also show that for several classes of locally compact groups, including all nilpotent groups, I(H) has an approximate identity with norm bounded by 2, the best possible norm bound.     

On non-solvable Camina pairs

In this paper we study non-solvable and non-Frobenius Camina pairs (G,N). It is known [D. Chillag, A. Mann, C. Scoppola, Generalized Frobenius groups II, Israel J. Math. 62 (1988) 269–282] that in this case N is a p-group. Our first result (Theorem 1.3) shows that the solvable residual of G/O_p(G) is isomorphic either to SL(2,p^e),p is a prime or to SL(2,5), SL(2,13) with p=3, or to SL(2,5) with p7.Our second result provides an example of a non-solvable and non-Frobenius Camina pair (G,N) with |O_p(G)|=5⁵ and G/O_p(G)SL(2,5). Note that G has a character which is zero everywhere except on two conjugacy classes. Groups of this type were studies by S.M. Gagola [S.M. Gagola, Characters vanishing on all but two conjugacy classes, Pacific J. Math. 109 (1983) 363–385]. To our knowledge this group is the first example of a Gagola group which is non-solvable and non-Frobenius.     

Identifications in modular group algebras

Let G be a group, S a subgroup of G, and F a field of characteristic p. We denote the augmentation ideal of the group algebra FG by ω(G). The Zassenhaus-Jennings-Lazard series of G is defined by D_n(G)=G∩(1+ωⁿ(G)). We give a constructive proof of a theorem of Quillen stating that the graded algebra associated with FG is isomorphic as an algebra to the enveloping algebra of the restricted Lie algebra associated with the D_n(G). We then extend a theorem of Jennings that provides a basis for the quotient ωⁿ(G)/ωⁿ⁺¹(G) in terms of a basis of the restricted Lie algebra associated with the D_n(G). We shall use these theorems to prove the main results of this paper. For G a finite p-group and n a positive integer, we prove that G∩(1+ω(G)ωⁿ(S))=D_n+1(S) and G∩(1+ω²(G)ωⁿ(S))=D_n+2(S)D_n+1(S∩D₂(G)). The analogous results for integral group rings of free groups have been previously obtained by Gruenberg, Hurley, and Sehgal.