Related papers: Virtual Geometricity is Rare
Motivated by a question of Gordon and Wilton, we consider the question of which collections of words are "virtually geometric". In particular, we prove that some words (e.g. bbaaccabc) are not virtually geometric.
We show that, for any (symmetric) finite generating set of the Torelli group of a closed surface, the probability that a random word is not pseudo-Anosov decays exponentially in terms of the length of the word.
We construct a boundary of a finite rank free group relative to a finite list of conjugacy classes of maximal cyclic subgroups. From the cut points and uncrossed cut pairs of this boundary we construct a simplicial tree on which the group…
It is well-known that random groups with at least as many relators as generators have vanishing first betti number with high probability. In this paper we extend this question and study maps from few-relators random groups to infinite…
Gordon and Wilton recently proved that the double D of a free group F amalgamated along a cyclic subgroup C of F contains a surface group if a generator w of C satisfies a certain 3-manifold theoretic condition, called virtually…
We construct examples of groups showing that virtual solvability and the property of being virtually torsion-free are not preserved by bi-Lipschitz maps and hence by quasi-isometries.
We prove that a finitely generated group $G$ is virtually free if and only if there exists a generating set for $G$ and $k > 0$ such that all $k$-locally geodesic words with respect to that generating set are geodesic.
Let $G$ be a hyperbolic group that splits as a graph of free groups with cyclic edge groups. We prove that, unless $G$ is isomorphic to a free product of free and surface groups, every finite abelian group $M$ appears as a direct summand in…
Free groups are known to be homogeneous, meaning that finite tuples of elements which satisfy the same first-order properties are in the same orbit under the action of the automorphism group. We show that virtually free groups have a…
Four geometric conditions on a geodesic metric space, which are stronger variants of classical conditions characterizing hyperbolicity, are proved to be equivalent. In the particular case of the Cayley graph of a finitely generated group,…
Each free homotopy class of directed closed curves on a surface with boundary can be described by a cyclic reduced word in the generators of the fundamental group and their inverses. The word length is the number of letters of the cyclic…
We consider random character values X(g) of the symmetric group on n symbols, where X is chosen at random from the set of irreducible characters and g is chosen at random from the group, and we show that X(g)=0 with probability tending to…
We construct words with small image in a given finite alternating or unimodular group. This shows that word width in these groups is unbounded in general.
If $G$ is a group, a virtual retract of $G$ is a subgroup which is a retract of a finite index subgroup. Most of the paper focuses on two group properties: property (LR), that all finitely generated subgroups are virtual retracts, and…
If w is a word in d>1 letters and G is a finite group, evaluation of w on a uniformly randomly chosen d-tuple in G gives a random variable with values in G, which may or may not be uniform. It is known that if G ranges over finite simple…
We obtain a homological characterisation of virtually free-by-cyclic groups among groups that are hyperbolic and virtually compact special. As a consequence, we show that many groups known to be coherent actually possess the stronger…
We prove a rigidity theorem for the geometry of the unit ball in random subspaces of the scl norm in B_1^H of a free group. In a free group F of rank k, a random word w of length n (conditioned to lie in [F,F]) has scl(w)=log(2k-1)n/6log(n)…
In a number of recent works, it has been established that many virtually free groups, almost all fundamental groups of surfaces and all groups which are nontrivial free products of groups satisfying a non-trivial law are algebraically…
How much can randomness help computation? Motivated by this general question and by volume computation, one of the few instances where randomness provably helps, we analyze a notion of dispersion and connect it to asymptotic convex…
In this article, we introduce a new object, a virtual quadratic space, and its group of isometries. They are presented as natural generalizations of quadratic spaces and orthogonal groups. It is then shown that by replacing quadratic spaces…