Elliptically embedded subgroups of polycyclic groups

Algorithms for Matrix Groups and the Tits Alternative

This meeting was focused on asymptotic aspects of group theory. The resulting problems lead, in particular, to the study of infinite groups, with an emphasis on the asymptotic behaviour of their finite quotients. Also, properties of infinite families of finite groups are at the center of interest in the field. We had talks on the most important recent developments in the field of asymptotic and profinite group theory. We single out some of these new results. The classification of finite simple groups has provided an impetus for the detailed investigation of properties of families of groups of Lie type and of alternating groups. This has produced many results of asymptotic or probabilistic nature, describing in a quantitative way properties that hold for all sufficiently large simple groups, or else that hold ‘almost surely’ as the orders of the groups are tending to infinity. Here we had a talk of Aner Shalev on his recent solution (with coauthors) of Ore's conjecture. Recently there has been much activity in the study of infinite groups, with an emphasis on the asymptotic behaviour of their finite quotients, or their finite-index subgroups. The theory of subgroup growth is now well established; the theory of the associated zeta functions is making good progress. More subtle variations of subgroup growth are also developing into significant theories in their own right: there are important new results on representation growth – of arithmetic groups, nilpotent groups and pro-p groups; and on maximal subgroup growth, with applications to probabilistic generation properties. Profinite groups are ‘asymptotic limits’ of finite groups. The nature of verbal subgroups and verbal mappings, in both finite and profinite groups, has been the focus of much recent work. This has led among other things to the solution of Serre's problem on subgroups of finite index in finitely generated profinite groups; other significant results include the characterisation of closed verbal subgroups in pro-p groups and new characterisations of solubility in finite groups. Branch groups, both discrete and profinite, are certain groups of automorphisms of rooted trees; introduced by Grigorchuk and others over 20 years ago, they have provided the solution to several outstanding problems, and their study continues to provide new results. Some of them were reported on in our meeting. We also had talks from important fields of mathematics in which profinite and asymptotic group theory finds application. There is, for instance, the study of the absolute Galois group of the rationals and in particular its closed pro-p subgroups. Methods from pro-p group theory have successfully been applied in order to understand fundamental groups of (hyperbolic) 3-manifolds. The interplay between the topological fundamental group of a complex algebraic surface and its profinite completion which is the etale fundamental group of the surface is the subject of recent research. We believe that the meeting was exciting and successful. The high quality lectures covered a lot of very recent results in the field. There were many intense discussions between mathematicians of different fields. Altogether there were over 50 participants from all over the world. The percentage of young researchers was very high. The following extended abstracts were collected and edited by Dr. Evija Ribnere.

We classify the finite groups G such that the unit group of the integral group ring ZG contains a subgroup of finite index which is the direct product of free products of abelian groups. The latter problem is also investigated for any order in an arbitrary semisimple finite dimensional Q-algebra.

Let G be a compact Hausdorff group and n a positive integer. It is proved that all subnormal subgroups of G of index dividing n are open if and only if there are only finitely many such subgroups, and that all subgroups of finite index in G are open if and only if there are only countably many such subgroups.

A profinite group is called strongly complete if every subgroup of finite index is open and of type (AF) if it has only finitely many subgroups of any fixed index. In this paper it is shown that a topologically finitely generated abelian by pro-nilpotent profinite group is strongly complete, and that a pro-solvable profinite group is strongly complete if is of type (AF).

We count the finitely generated subgroups of the modular group [Formula: see text]. More precisely, each such subgroup [Formula: see text] can be represented by its Stallings graph [Formula: see text], we consider the number of vertices of [Formula: see text] to be the size of [Formula: see text] and we count the subgroups of size [Formula: see text]. Since an index [Formula: see text] subgroup has size [Formula: see text], our results generalize the known results on the enumeration of the finite index subgroups of [Formula: see text]. We give asymptotic equivalents for the number of finitely generated subgroups of [Formula: see text], as well as of the number of finite index subgroups, free subgroups and free finite index subgroups. We also give the expected value of the isomorphism type of a size [Formula: see text] subgroup and prove a large deviation statement concerning this value. Similar results are proved for finite index and for free subgroups. Finally, we show how to efficiently generate uniformly at random a size [Formula: see text] subgroup (respectively, finite index subgroup, free subgroup) of [Formula: see text].

The objective of this work is to study large scale properties of graphs, graph sequences and groups. Firstly we consider the combinatorial cost and prove that having cost equal to 1 and hyperfiniteness are coarse invariants of graph sequences. We show that cost is multiplicative with respect to taking finite index subgroups. For an amenable group we investigate the properties of their Farber sequences, sofic approximations and vice versa. Secondly we consider the first uniformly finite homology group of graphs with coefficients in Z. We show that its non-vanishing depends on the ends, large circuits and (higher-dimensional) non-expansion of the graph. When the graph is transitive this is a full description. Finally we take a look at the Baumslag-Solitar group BS (2; 3). This group is non-Hopfian, meaning it has a quotient isomorphic to itself. We give a visual interpretation of this on the Cayley graph level.

The theory of endomorphism rings of algebraic structures allows, in a natural way, a systematic approach based on the notion of entropy borrowed from dynamical systems. In the present work we introduce a ‘dual’ notion based upon the replacement of the finite groups used in the definition of algebraic entropy, by subgroups of finite index. The basic properties of this new entropy are established, and a connection to Hopfian groups is investigated.

Let Γ < SL n ( $$\mathbb{Z}$$ ) be a subgroup of finite index, where n ≥ 5. Suppose Γ acts continuously on a manifold M, where π1(M) = $$\mathbb{Z}$$ n , preserving a measure that is positive on open sets. Further assume that the induced Γ action on H 1(M) is non-trivial. We show there exists a finite index subgroup Γ′ < Γ and a Γ′ equivariant continuous map ψ : M → $$\mathbb{T}$$ n that induces an isomorphism on fundamental group. We prove more general results providing continuous quotients in cases where π1(M) surjects onto a finitely generated torsion free nilpotent group. We also give some new examples of manifolds with Γ actions.

On groups with uncountably many subgroups of finite index

We show that an infinite residually finite boundedly generated group has an infinite chain of finite index subgroups with ranks uniformly bounded, and give (sublinear) upper bounds on the ranks of arbitrary finite index subgroups of boundedly generated groups (examples that come close to achieving these bounds are presented). This proves a strong form of a conjecture of Abert, Jaikin-Zapirain, and Nikolov that asserts that the rank gradient of infinite boundedly generated residually finite groups is zero. Furthermore, our first result establishes a variant of a conjecture of Lubotzky on the ranks of finite index subgroups of special linear groups over the integers, and is analogous to a result of Pyber and Segal for solvable groups.

Given an infinite group G, we consider the finitely additive invariant measure defined on finite unions of cosets of finite index subgroups. We show that this shares many properties with the size of subsets of a finite group, for instance we can obtain equivalent results on the Ruzsa distance and product free sets. In particular, if G has infinitely many finite index subgroups, then it has subsets S of measure arbitrarily close to 1/2 with square S2 having measure less than 1. We also examine properties of the Ruzsa distance on the set of finite index subgroups of an infinite group, whereupon it becomes a genuine metric.

Coherence, subgroup separability, and metacyclic structures for a class of cyclically presented groups

This note investigates torsion-free abelian groups G of finite rank which embed, as subgroups of finite index, in a finite direct sum C of subgroups of the additive group of rational numbers. Specifically, we examine the relationship between G and C when the index of G in C is minimal. Some properties of Warfield duality are developed and used (in the case that G is locally free) to relate our results to earlier ones by Burkhardt and Lady.

Affine structures on a class of virtually nilpotent groups