Related papers: On genericity of pseudo-Anosovs in the Torelli gro…
Given a finite generating set $S$, let us endow the mapping class group of a closed hyperbolic surface with the word metric for $S$. We discuss the following question: does the proportion of non-pseudo-Anosov mapping classes in the ball of…
We show that the probability that a finitely supported random walk on a non-elementary subgroup of the the mapping class group gives a non-pseudo-Anosov element decays exponentially in the length of the random walk. More generally, we show…
We show that a random walk on the mapping class group of an orientable surface gives rise to a pseudo-Anosov element with asymptotic probability one. Our methods apply to many subgroups of the mapping class group, including the Torelli…
We prove that the set of non-pseudo-Anosov elements in the Torelli group is exponentially small.
Given any generating set of any pseudo-Anosov-containing subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface, we construct a pseudo-Anosov with word length bounded by a constant depending only on the surface. More generally, in any subgroup G…
Asymptotic properties of finitely generated subgroups of free groups, and of finite group presentations, can be considered in several fashions, depending on the way these objects are represented and on the distribution assumed on these…
A subset of a group is characteristic if it is invariant under every automorphism of the group. We study word length in fundamental groups of closed hyperbolic surfaces with respect to characteristic generating sets consisting of a finite…
In this paper we study the generic, i.e., typical, behavior of finitely generated subgroups of hyperbolic groups and also the generic behavior of the word problem for amenable groups. We show that a random set of elements of a nonelementary…
We prove sharp limit theorems on random walks on graphs with values in finite groups. We then apply these results (together with some elementary algebraic geometry, number theory, and representation theory) to finite quotients of lattices…
We present the results of computer experiments suggesting that the probability that a random multiword in a free group is virtually geometric decays to zero exponentially quickly in the length of the multiword. We then prove this fact.
In the Cayley graph of the mapping class group of a closed surface, with respect to any generating set, we look at a ball of large radius centered on the identity vertex, and at the proportion among the vertices in this ball representing…
Mapping class groups are known to admit geometric (proper, cobounded) actions on injective spaces. Starting with such an action, and relying only on geometric arguments, we show that all finite generating sets resulting from taking large…
We prove that generic elements of braid groups are pseudo-Anosov, in the following sense: in the Cayley graph of the braid group with n $\ge$ 3 strands, with respect to Garside's generating set, we prove that the proportion of pseudo-Anosov…
We provide a simple criterion for an element of the mapping class group of a closed surface to have normal closure equal to the whole mapping class group. We apply this to show that every nontrivial periodic mapping class that is not a…
We study the word length entropy of automorphisms of residually nilpotent groups, and how the entropy of such group automorphisms relates to the entropy of induced automorphisms on various nilpotent quotients. We show that much like the…
We show that pseudo-Anosov mapping classes are generic in every Cayley graph of the mapping class group of a finite-type hyperbolic surface. Our method also yields an analogous result for rank-one CAT(0) groups and hierarchically hyperbolic…
We prove that pseudo-Anosov mapping classes are generic with respect to certain notions of genericity reflecting that we are dealing with mapping classes.
We prove that if G is a sufficiently large finite almost simple group of Lie type, then given a fixed nontrivial element x in G and a coset of G modulo its socle, the probability that x and a random element of the coset generate a subgroup…
Answering a question of A. V. Vasil'ev, we show that each finite symmetric (or alternating) group $H$ is a retract of any group containing $H$ as a verbally closed subgroup.
The idempotent problem of a finitely generated inverse semigroup is the formal language of all words over the generators representing idempotent elements. This note proves that a finitely generated inverse semigroup with regular idempotent…