UBIQUITY OF FREE SUBGROUPS

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.

More Polish full groups

Let G/K be an orbit of the adjoint representation of a compact connected Lie group G, σ be an involutive automorphism of G and \( \tilde{G} \) be the Lie group of fixed points of σ. We find a sufficient condition for the complete integrability of the geodesic ow of the Riemannian metric on \( \tilde{G}/\left(\tilde{G}\cap K\right) \) which is induced by the bi-invariant Riemannian metric on \( \tilde{G} \). The integrals constructed here are real analytic functions, polynomial in momenta. It is checked that this sufficient condition holds when G is the unitary group U(n) and σ is its automorphism determined by the complex conjugation.

La structure profinie du groupe des unités d'un anneau de séries entières à coefficients dans un anneau fini

Computable topological abelian groups

Classical inequalities used in information theory such as those of de Bruijn, Fisher, Cramér, Rao, and Kullback carry over in a natural way from Euclidean space to unimodular Lie groups. These are groups that possess an integration measure that is simultaneously invariant under left and right shifts. All commutative groups are unimodular. And even in noncommutative cases unimodular Lie groups share many of the useful features of Euclidean space. The rotation and Euclidean motion groups, which are perhaps the most relevant Lie groups to problems in geometric mechanics, are unimodular, as are the unitary groups that play important roles in quantum computing. The extension of core information theoretic inequalities defined in the setting of Euclidean space to this broad class of Lie groups is potentially relevant to a number of problems relating to information gathering in mobile robotics, satellite attitude control, tomographic image reconstruction, biomolecular structure determination, and quantum information theory. In this paper, several definitions are extended from the Euclidean setting to that of Lie groups (including entropy and the Fisher information matrix), and inequalities analogous to those in classical information theory are derived and stated in the form of fifteen small theorems. In all such inequalities, addition of random variables is replaced with the group product, and the appropriate generalization of convolution of probability densities is employed. An example from the field of robotics demonstrates how several of these results can be applied to quantify the amount of information gained by pooling different sensory inputs.

1. Symmetries of vector spaces: 1.1. What is a symmetry? 1.2. Distance is fundamental 1.3. Groups of symmetries 1.4. Bilinear forms and symmetries of spacetime 1.5. Putting the pieces together 1.6. A broader view: Lie groups 2. Complex numbers, quaternions and geometry: 2.1. Complex numbers 2.2. Quaternions 2.3. The geometry of rotations of R3 2.4. Putting the pieces together 2.5. A broader view: octonions 3. Linearization: 3.1. Tangent spaces 3.2. Group homomorphisms 3.3. Differentials 3.4. Putting the pieces together 3.5. A broader view: Hilbert's fifth problem 4. One-parameter subgroups and the exponential map: 4.1. One-parameter subgroups 4.2. The exponential map in dimension one 4.3. Calculating the matrix exponential 4.4. Properties of the matrix exponential 4.5. Using exp to determine L(G) 4.6. Differential equations 4.7. Putting the pieces together 4.8. A broader view: Lie and differential equations 4.9. Appendix on convergence 5. Lie algebras: 5.1. Lie algebras 5.2. Adjoint maps { big `A' and small `a' 5.3. Putting the pieces together 5.4. A broader view: Lie theory 6. Matrix groups over other fields: 6.1. What is a field? 6.2. The unitary group 6.3. Matrix groups over finite fields 6.4. Putting the pieces together 6.5. A broader view of finite groups of Lie type and simple groups Appendix I. Linear algebra facts Appendix II. Paper assignment used at Mount Holyoke College Appendix III. Opportunities for further study Solutions to selected problems Bibliography.

Since the solution of the celebrated Hilbert’s Fifth Problem, one knows that a locally euclidean topological group is a Lie group. In accordance with Hilbert’s original idea of getting rid of the differentiability hypothesis in Lie theory, one can look for a homotopy analogue of this result. Unfortunately the most straightforward idea is false: Hilton, Roitberg and Stasheff have exhibited a topological group having the homotopy type of a compact manifold and which is not homotopy equivalent to any Lie group (see [Sta69]). Nevertheless, the problem of finding a homotopy characterisation of Lie groups remains open and has been intensively investigated for the last three decades. Obviously, the first step of such a programme is a better understanding of the homotopy properties of Lie groups. One has to restrict this study to the class of compact connected Lie groups: the Iwasawa decomposition tells us that any connected Lie group has the homotopy type of a compact one.

The first part of this paper deals with problems concerning the symmetric algebra of complex-valued polynomial functions on the complex vector space of n by k matrices. In this context, a generalization of the so-called “classical separation of variables theorem” for the symmetric algebra is obtained. The second part is devoted to the study of certain linear representations, on the above linear space (the symmetric algebra) and its subspaces, of the complex general linear group of order k and of its subgroups, namely, the unitary group, and the real and complex special orthogonal groups. The results of the first part lead to generalizations of several well-known theorems in the theory of group representations. The above representation, of the real special orthogonal group, which arises from the right action of this group on the underlying vector space (of the symmetric algebra) of matrices, possesses interesting properties when restricted to the Stiefel manifold. The latter is defined as the orbit (under the action of the real special orthogonal group) of the n by k matrix formed by the first n row vectors of the canonical basis of the k-dimensional real Euclidean space. Thus the last part of this paper is involved with questions in harmonic analysis on this Stiefel manifold. In particular, an interesting orthogonal decomposition of the complex Hilbert space consisting of all square-integrable functions on the Stiefel manifold is also obtained.

It is proved that a large class ofII 1 factors have unitary group which is contractible in the strong operator topology, but whose fundamental group in the norm topology is isomorphic to the additive real numbers as proven by Araki-Smith-Smith [1]. The class includes the approximately finite dimensional factor of typeII 1 and the group factor associated with the free group on infinitely many generators. This contractibility is used to prove the contractibility of the automorphism group of the approximately finite dimensional factor of typeII 1 and typeII ∞. It is further shown that the fundamental group of the automorphism group of the approximately finite dimensional factor of typeIII λ, 0<λ<1, is isomorphic to the integer group ℤ.

We introduce a Lohe group which is a new class of matrix Lie groups and present a continuous dynamical system for the synchronization of group elements in a Lohe group. The Lohe group includes classical Lie groups such as the orthogonal, unitary, and symplectic groups, and since Lohe groups need not be compact, global existence of ODEs may fail. The proposed dynamical system generalizes the Lohe model (Lohe in J Phys A 43:465301, 2010; Lohe in J Phys A 42:395101–395126, 2009) itself a nonabelian generalization of the Kuramoto model, and alongside we also generalize the analytical framework (Ha and Ryoo in J Stat Phys 163:411–439, 2016) of emergent and unique phase-locked states. For the construction of the phase-locked states, we introduce Lyapunov functions measuring the ensemble diameter and the dissimilarity between two Lohe flows, and derive Gronwall-type differential inequalities for them. The global existence of solutions then become a consequence of the boundedness of these Lyapunov functions. Our sufficient framework for the emergent dynamics is formulated in terms of coupling strength and initial states, and it leads to the global existence of solutions and the formation and uniqueness of a phase-locked asymptotic state. As a concrete example, we demonstrate how our theory can show emergent phenomenon on the Heisenberg group, where all initial configurations tend to a unique phase-locked state exponentially fast.

We show that all groups of a distinguished class of «large» topological groups, that of Roelcke precompact Polish groups, have Kazhdan’s Property (T). This answers a question of Tsankov and generalizes previous results by Bekka (for the infinite-dimensional unitary group) and by Evans and Tsankov (for oligomorphic groups). Further examples include the group \({{\,\mathrm{Aut}\,}}(\mu )\) of measure-preserving transformations of the unit interval and the group \({{\,\mathrm{Aut}\,}}^*(\mu )\) of non-singular transformations of the unit interval.More precisely, we prove that the smallest cocompact normal subgroup \(G^\circ \) of any given non-compact Roelcke precompact Polish group G has a free subgroup \(F\le G^\circ \) of rank two with the following property: every unitary representation of \(G^\circ \) without invariant unit vectors restricts to a multiple of the left-regular representation of F. The proof is model-theoretic and does not rely on results of classification of unitary representations. Its main ingredient is the construction, for any \(\aleph _0\)-categorical metric structure, of an action of a free group on a system of elementary substructures with suitable independence conditions.

The list of known finite simple groups other than the cyclic, alternating, and Mathieu groups consists of the classical groups which are (projective) unimodular, orthogonal, symplectic, and unitary groups, the exceptional groups which are the direct analogues of the exceptional Lie groups, and certain twisted types which are constructed with the aid of Lie theory (see §§3 and 4 below). In this article, it is proved that each of these groups is generated by two of its elements. It is possible that one of the generators can be chosen of order 2, as is the case for the projective unimodular group (1), or even that one of the generators can be chosen as an arbitrary element other than the identity, as is the case for the alternating groups. Either of these results, if true, would quite likely require methods much more detailed than those used here.

Optimization problems over compact Lie groups have been extensively studied due to their broad applications in linear programming and optimal control. This paper analyzes least square problems over a noncompact Lie group, the symplectic group $\Sp(2N,\R)$, which can be used to assess the optimality of control over dynamical transformations in classical mechanics and quantum optics. The critical topology for minimizing the Frobenius distance from a target symplectic transformation is solved. It is shown that the critical points include a unique local minimum and a number of saddle points. The topology is more complicated than those of previously studied problems on compact Lie groups such as the orthogonal and unitary groups because the incompatibility of the Frobenius norm with the pseudo-Riemannian structure on the symplectic group brings significant nonlinearity to the problem. Nonetheless, the lack of traps guarantees the global convergence of local optimization algorithms.

We study the complex-time Segal-Bargmann transform Bs,τKN on a compact type Lie group KN, where KN is one of the following classical matrix Lie groups: the special orthogonal group SO(N,R), the special unitary group SU(N), or the compact symplectic group Sp(N). Our work complements and extends the results of Driver, Hall, and Kemp on the Segal-Bargman transform for the unitary group U(N). We provide an effective method of computing the action of the Segal-Bargmann transform on trace polynomials, which comprise a subspace of smooth functions on KN extending the polynomial functional calculus. Using these results, we show that as N→∞, the finite-dimensional transform Bs,τKN has a meaningful limit Gs,τ which can be identified as an operator on the space of complex Laurent polynomials.