Related papers: Groups not acting on manifolds

We give a condition sufficient to ensure that an amalgam of groups is generalized torsion-free. As applications, we construct a closed 3-manifold whose fundamental group is generalized torsion-free and non bi-orderable; a one-relator group…

We construct locally compact groups with no non-trivial Invariant Random Subgroups and no non-trivial Uniformly Recurrent Subgroups.

We prove that, given any smooth action of a compact quantum group (in the sense of \cite{rigidity}) on a compact smooth manifold satisfying some more natural conditions, one can get a Riemannian structure on the manifold for which the…

We construct finitely generated groups with strong fixed point properties. Let $\mathcal{X}_{ac}$ be the class of Hausdorff spaces of finite covering dimension which are mod-$p$ acyclic for at least one prime $p$. We produce the first…

Let $X$ be a compact smooth manifold, possibly with boundary. Denote by $X_1,\dots,X_r$ the connected components of $X$. Assume that the integral cohomology of $X$ is torsion free and supported in even degrees. We prove that there exists a…

We study abstract group actions of locally compact Hausdorff groups on CAT(0) spaces. Under mild assumptions on the action we show that it is continuous or has a global fixed point. This mirrors results by Dudley and Morris-Nickolas for…

Whenever a finitely generated group $G$ acts properly discontinuously by isometries on a metric space $X$, there is an induced uniform embedding (a Lipschitz and uniformly proper map) $\rho: G \rightarrow X$ given by mapping $G$ to an…

We consider finite groups which admit a faithful, smooth action on an acyclic manifold of dimension three, four or five (e.g. euclidean space). Our first main result states that a finite group acting on an acyclic 3- or 4-manifold is…

We show that group actions on many treelike compact spaces are not too complicated dynamically. We first observe that an old argument of Seidler implies that every action of a topological group $G$ on a regular continuum is null and…

We consider fully effective orientation-preserving smooth actions of a given finite group G on smooth, closed, oriented 3-manifolds M. We investigate the relations that necessarily hold between the numbers of fixed points of various…

Let G be a subgroup of finite index in SL(n,Z) for N > 4. Suppose G acts continuously on a manifold M, with fundamental group Z^n, preserving a measure that is positive on open sets. Further assume that the induced G action on H^1(M) is…

We give a simple construction of new, complete, finite volume manifolds $M$ of bounded, nonpositive curvature. These manifolds have ends that look like a mixture of locally symmetric ends of different ranks and their fundamental groups are…

This self-contained paper is part of a series \cite{FF2,FF3} on actions by diffeomorphisms of infinite groups on compact manifolds. The two main results presented here are: 1) Any homomorphism of (almost any) mapping class group or…

The classification of finite group-actions on closed surfaces of small genus is well-known. In the present paper we are interested in the question of which of these group-actions are bounding (extend to a compact 3-manifold with the surface…

We study fundamental groups of non compact Riemannian manifolds. We find conditions which ensure that the fundamental group is trivial, finite or finitely generated.

We prove that if a finite group $G$ acts smoothly on a manifold $M$ so that all the isotropy subgroups are abelian groups with rank $\leq k$, then $G$ acts freely and smoothly on $M \times \bbS^{n_1} \times...\times \bbS^{n_k}$ for some…

We show a geometric rigidity of isometric actions of non compact (semisimple) Lie groups on Lorentz manifolds. Namely, we show that the manifold has a warped product structure of a Lorentz manifold with constant curvature by a Riemannian…

We construct examples of finitely generated groups L that have non-trivial actions on $\mathbb{R}$-trees but which cannot act, without fixing a vertex, on any simplicial tree. Moreover, any finitely presented group mapping onto L does have…

We establish three independent results on groups acting on trees. The first implies that a compactly generated locally compact group which acts continuously on a locally finite tree with nilpotent local action and no global fixed point is…

We are interested in finite groups acting orientation-preservingly on 3-manifolds (arbitrary actions, ie not necessarily free actions). In particular we consider finite groups which contain an involution with nonempty connected fixed point…