English

The lengths of conjugators in the model filiform groups

Group Theory 2026-02-11 v2

Abstract

The conjugator length function of a finitely generated group Γ\Gamma gives the optimal upper bound on the length of a shortest conjugator for any pair of conjugate elements in the ball of radius nn in the Cayley graph of Γ\Gamma. We prove that polynomials of arbitrary degree arise as conjugator length functions of finitely presented groups. To establish this, we analyse the geometry of conjugation in the discrete model filiform groups Γd=ZdϕZ\Gamma_d = \mathbb{Z}^d\rtimes_\phi\mathbb{Z} where is ϕ\phi is the automorphism of Zd\mathbb{Z}^d that fixes the last element of a basis a1,,ada_1,\dots,a_d and sends aia_i to aiai+1a_ia_{i+1} for i<di<d. The conjugator length function of Γd\Gamma_d is polynomial of degree dd.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.01235,
  title  = {The lengths of conjugators in the model filiform groups},
  author = {Martin R. Bridson and Timothy R. Riley},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.01235},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

17 pages, no figures; to appear in Math. Z