Related papers: Normal generation of locally compact groups
If a discrete subset S of a topological group G with the identity 1 generates a dense subgroup of G and S \cup {1} is closed in G, then S is called a suitable set for G. We apply Michael's selection theorem to offer a direct,…
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…
A compactly generated group is noncompact if and only if it admits a nonconstant harmonic function (for some, equivalently for every, reasonable measure). This generalizes the known fact that a finitely generated group is infinite if and…
Let $G$ be a finite simple group. In this paper we consider the existence of small subsets $A$ of $G$ with the property that, if $y \in G$ is chosen uniformly at random, then with high probability $y$ invariably generates $G$ together with…
We prove that a finitely generated group contains a sequence of non-trivial elements which converge to the identity in every compact homomorphic image if and only if the group is not virtually abelian.
In SGA 2, Grothendieck conjectures that the \'etale fundamental group of the punctured spectrum of a complete noetherian local domain of dimension at least two with algebraically closed residue field is topologically finitely generated. In…
We prove that in every finitely generated profinite group, every subgroup of finite index is open; this implies that the topology on such groups is determined by the algebraic structure. This is deduced from the main result about finite…
We prove that if a Cartesian product of alternating groups is topologically finitely generated, then it is the profinite completion of a finitely generated residually finite group. The same holds for Cartesian producs of other simple groups…
We prove that the isomorphism problem for finitely generated fully residually free groups is decidable. We also show that each finitely generated fully residually free group G has a decomposition that is invariant under automorphisms of G,…
A group $G$ is said to be $\frac{3}{2}$-generated if every nontrivial element belongs to a generating pair. It is easy to see that if $G$ has this property then every proper quotient of $G$ is cyclic. In this paper we prove that the…
Consider a compact connected Lie group $G$ and the corresponding Lie algebra $\cal L$. Let $\{X_1,...,X_m\}$ be a set of generators for the Lie algebra $\cal L$. We prove that $G$ is uniformly finitely generated by $\{X_1,...,X_m\}$. This…
The semidirect product $\mathbb{G}=\mathbb{L}\rtimes \mathbb{K}$ attached to a compact-group action on a connected, simply-connected solvable Lie group has a dense set of compact elements precisely when the $s\in \mathbb{K}$ operating on…
Famously, every finite simple group $G$ can be generated by a pair of elements. Moreover, Liebeck and Shalev (1995) proved that the probability that a pair of elements generate $G$ tends to $1$ as $|G| \to \infty$. More generally, work of…
We survey the existing parts of a classification of finite groups generated by orthogonal transformations in a finite-dimensional Euclidean space whose fixed point subspace has codimension one or two and extend it to a complete…
A self-similar group of finite type is the profinite group of all automorphisms of a regular rooted tree that locally around every vertex act as elements of a given finite group of allowed actions. We provide criteria for determining when a…
We study `good elements' in finite $2n$-dimensional classical groups $G$: namely $t$ is a `good element' if $o(t)$ is divisible by a primitive prime divisor of $q^n-1$ for the relevant field order $q$, and $t$ fixes pointwise an $n$-space.…
In this paper we characterize the finite permutation groups $F<S_d$ on $d$ letters such that every compact open subgroup of the associated universal group $U(F)<{\rm Aut} T_d$ is topologically finitely generated. Actually we show that in…
Let $G$ be a finite almost simple group. It is well known that $G$ can be generated by 3 elements, and in previous work we showed that 6 generators suffice for all maximal subgroups of $G$. In this paper we consider subgroups at the next…
In 1968, Milnor conjectured that a complete noncompact manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature has a finitely generated fundamental group. The author applies the Excess Theorem of Abresch and Gromoll (1990), to prove two theorems. The…
We say that a subset $X$ quasi-isometrically boundedly generates a finitely generated group $\Gamma$ if each element $\gamma$ of a finite-index subgroup of $\Gamma$ can be written as a product $\gamma = x_1 x_2 \cdots x_r$ of a bounded…