Related papers: SAut(Fn) cannot act on small tori

Using Galois descent tools, we extend the Altmann-Hausen presentation of normal affine algebraic varieties endowed with an effective torus action over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero to the case where the ground field…

We consider an action of the automorphism group $\mathrm{Aut}(F_n)$ of the free group $F_n$ of rank $n$ on the filtered vector space $A_d(n)$ of Jacobi diagrams of degree $d$ on $n$ oriented arcs. This action induces on the associated…

Let X be a rational nonsingular compact connected real algebraic surface. Denote by Aut(X) the group of real algebraic automorphisms of X. We show that the group Aut(X) acts n-transitively on X, for all natural integers n. As an application…

The group SL(n,Z) admits a smooth faithful action on the (n-1)-sphere S^(n-1), induced from its linear action on euclidean space R^n. We show that, if m < n-1 and n > 2, any smooth action of SL(n,Z) on a mod 2 homology m-sphere, and in…

Let $(X, \sigma)$ be a transitive sofic shift and let $\rm{Aut}(X)$ denote its automorphism group. We generalize a result of Frisch, Schlank, and Tamuz to show that any normal amenable subgroup of $\rm{Aut}(X)$ must be contained in the…

An affine variety $X$ of dimension $\ge 2$ is called {\em flexible} if its special automorphism group SAut$(X)$ acts transitively on the smooth locus $X_{reg}$ \cite{AKZ}. Recall that the special automorphism group SAut$(X)$ is the subgroup…

Let SL(n,Z) be the special linear group over integers and $M =S^r_1 \times S^r_2,T^r_1 \times S^r_2$ , or $T^r_0 \times S^r_1 \times S^r_2$, products of spheres and tori. We prove that any group action of SL(n,Z) on $M^r$ by diffeomorphims…

We present an elementary proof of the fact that every torsor for an affine group scheme over an algebraically closed field is trivial. This is related to the uniqueness of fibre functors on neutral tannakian categories.

Let $\mathrm{SL}_{n}(\mathbb{Z})$ $(n\geq 3)$ be the special linear group and $M^{r}$ be a closed aspherical manifold. It is proved that when $r<n,$ a group action of $\mathrm{SL}_{n}(\mathbb{Z})$ on $M^{r}$ by homeomorphisms is trivial if…

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…

Our main result is the following: let X be a normal affine toric surface without torus factor. Then there exists a non-normal affine toric surface X' with automorphism group isomorphic to the automorphism group of X if and only if X is…

We study the action of the group Aut(F_n) of automorphisms of a finitely generated free group on the degree 2 subcomplex of the spine of Auter space. Hatcher and Vogtmann showed that this subcomplex is simply connected, and we use the…

It is known that simple algebraic groups of type $F_4$ defined over a field $k$ are precisely the full automorphism groups of Albert algebras over $k$. We explore $R$-triviality for the group $\text{\bf Aut}(A)$ when $A$ is an Albert…

We study the group Tame(SL$_2$) of tame automorphisms of a smooth affine 3-dimensional quadric, which we can view as the underlying variety of SL(2,$\mathbb{C}$). We construct a square complex on which the group admits a natural cocompact…

Let $N=L_n(q)$, {$n \geq 2$}, $q$ a prime power, be a projective linear simple group. We classify all Steiner quadruple systems admitting a group $G$ with $N \leq G \leq \Aut(N)$. In particular, we show that $G$ cannot act as a group of…

We describe a family of rational affine surfaces S with huge groups of automorphisms in the following sense: the normal subgroup of Aut(S) generated by all its algebraic subgroups is not generated by any countable family of such subgroups,…

We prove that if $G_\phi=\langle F, t| t x t^{-1} =\phi(x), x\in F\rangle$ is the mapping torus group of an injective endomorphism $\phi: F\to F$ of a free group $F$ (of possibly infinite rank), then every two-generator subgroup $H$ of…

Let $T$ be a locally finite tree without vertices of degree $1$. We show that among the closed subgroups of $\mathrm{Aut}(T)$ acting with a bounded number of orbits, the Chabauty-closure of the set of topologically simple groups is the set…

In this paper we determine all finite groups G that can act on some compact Riemann surface M with the property that if H is any non-trivial subgroup of G, then the orbit surface M/H is the Riemann sphere. The idea is to look at the induced…

The automorphism group $\operatorname{Aut}(F_n)$ of the free group $F_n$ acts on a space $A_d(n)$ of Jacobi diagrams of degree $d$ on $n$ oriented arcs. We study the $\operatorname{Aut}(F_n)$-module structure of $A_d(n)$ by using two…