English

Non-solutions to mixed equations in acylindrically hyperbolic groups coming from random walks

Group Theory 2026-01-16 v2

Abstract

A mixed equation in a group GG is given by a non-trivial element w(x)w (x) of the free product GZG \ast \mathbb{Z}, and a solution is some gGg\in G such that w(g)w(g) is the identity. For GG acylindrically hyperbolic with trivial finite radical (e.g. torsion-free) we show that any mixed equation of length nn has a non-solution of length comparable to log(n)\log(n), which is the best possible bound. Similarly, we show that there is a common non-solution of length O(n)O(n) to all mixed equations of length nn, again the best possible bound. In fact, in both cases we show that a random walk of appropriate length yields a non-solution with positive probability.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.15456,
  title  = {Non-solutions to mixed equations in acylindrically hyperbolic groups coming from random walks},
  author = {Henry Bradford and Alessandro Sisto},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.15456},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

6 pages, v2: minor changes, accepted in Archiv der Mathematik

R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:06:28.668Z