Related papers: Non-abelian free groups admit non-essentially free…

We show that every finitely-generated non-amenable linear group over a field of characteristic zero admits an ergodic action which is rigid in the sense of Popa. If this group has trivial solvable radical, we prove that these actions can be…

Let $p$ be an odd prime. We construct a non-abelian extension $\Gamma$ of $S^1$ by $Z/p \times Z/p$, and prove that any finite subgroup of $\Gamma$ acts freely and smoothly on $S^{2p-1} \times S^{2p-1}$. In particular, for each odd prime…

We introduce notions of absolutely non-free and perfectly non-free group actions and use them to study the associated unitary representations. We show that every weakly branch group acts absolutely non-freely on the boundary of the…

We construct a non-abelian extension $\Gamma$ of $S^1$ by $\cy 3 \times \cy 3$, and prove that $\Gamma$ acts freely and smoothly on $S^{5} \times S^{5}$. This gives new actions on $S^{5} \times S^{5}$ for an infinite family $\cP$ of finite…

An algebraic $\Gamma$-action is an action of a countable group $\Gamma$ on a compact abelian group $X$ by continuous automorphisms of $X$. We prove that any expansive algebraic action of a finitely generated nilpotent group $\Gamma$ on a…

In this paper we study random walks on a finitely generated group $G$ which has a free action on a $\mathbb{Z}^n$-tree. We show that if $G$ is non-abelian and acts minimally, freely and without inversions on a locally finite…

We show that a group acting on a non-trivial tree with finite edge stabilizers and icc vertex stabilizers admits a faithful and highly transitive action on an infinite countable set. This result is actually true for infinite vertex…

We study under which condition an amalgamated free product or an HNN-extension over a finite subgroup admits an amenable, transitive and faithful action on an infinite countable set. We show that such an action exists if the initial groups…

I. M. Chiswell has asked whether every group that admits a free isometric action (without inversions) on a $\Lambda$-tree is orderable. We give an example of a multiple HNN extension $\Gamma$ which acts freely on a $\mathbb{Z}^2$-tree but…

A measure preserving action of a countably infinite group \Gamma is called totally ergodic if every infinite subgroup of \Gamma acts ergodically. For example, all mixing and mildly mixing actions are totally ergodic. This note shows that if…

Let $\Lambda_0$ be an ordered abelian group. We show how an $\mathrm{ATF}(\mathbb{Z}\times\Lambda_0)$ group -- that is, a group admitting a free affine action without inversions on a $\mathbb{Z}\times\Lambda_0$-tree -- admits a natural…

We consider groups of automorphisms of locally finite trees, and give conditions on its subgroups that imply that they are not elementary amenable. This covers all known examples of groups that are not elementary amenable and act on the…

Given a countable group $\Gamma$, letting $\mathcal{K}_\Gamma$ denote the class of {\pmp} actions of $\Gamma$, we study the question of when the model companion of $\mathcal{K}_\Gamma$ exists. Berenstein, Henson, and Ibarluc\'ia showed that…

We give a simple proof of the finite presentation of Sela's limit groups by using free actions on $\bbR^n$-trees. We first prove that Sela's limit groups do have a free action on an $\bbR^n$-tree. We then prove that a finitely generated…

We prove that the amalgamated free product of two free groups of rank two over a common cyclic subgroup, admits an amenable, faithful, transitive action on an infinite countable set. We also show that any finite index subgroup admits such…

Using percolation techniques, Gaboriau and Lyons recently proved that every countable, discrete, nonamenable group $\Gamma$ contains measurably the free group $\mathbf F_2$ on two generators: there exists a probability measure-preserving,…

Let $\Gamma$ be a countable group and $(X, \Gamma)$ a compact topological dynamical system. We study the question of the existence of an intermediate $C^*$-subalgebra $\mathcal{A}$ $$C^{*}_{r}(\Gamma)<\mathcal{A}<C(X)\rtimes_r\Gamma,$$…

Let $G$ be a finite, non-abelian group of the form $G = A N$, where $A \leq G$ is abelian, and $N \trianglelefteq G$ is cyclic. We prove that the commuting graph $\Gamma(G)$ of $G$ is either a connected graph of diameter at most four, or…

This is the second paper in a series of three, where we take on the unified theory of non-Archimedean group actions, length functions and infinite words. Here, for an arbitrary group $G$ of infinite words over an ordered abelian group…

We introduce a quantitative notion of lawlessness for finitely generated groups, encoded by the "lawlessness growth function" $\mathcal{A}_{\Gamma} : \mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{N}$. We show that $\mathcal{A}_{\Gamma}$ is bounded iff…