Related papers: Unsmoothable group actions on compact one-manifold…

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…

Let G be a finitely generated group having the property that any action of any finite-index subgroup of G by homeomorphisms of the circle must have a finite orbit. (By a theorem of E.Ghys, lattices in simple Lie groups of real rank at least…

We survey the role of right-angled Artin groups in the theory of diffeomorphism groups of low dimensional manifolds. We first describe some of the subgroup structure of right-angled Artin groups. We then discuss the interplay between…

Let $G$ be a countable group with no finitely generated subgroup of exponential growth. We show that every action of $G$ on a countable set preserving a linear (respectively, circular) order can be realised as the restriction of some action…

We prove that every smooth diffeomorphism group valued cocycle over certain abelian Anosov actions on tori (and more generally on infranilmanifolds), is a smooth coboundary on a finite cover, if the cocycle is center bunched and trivial at…

In this paper, we show that an infinite 2-group of bounded exponent cannot act faithfully and smoothly on compact manifolds.

Let $M$ be a compact one--manifold, and let $\mathrm{Diff}^{1+\mathrm{bv}}(M)$ denote the group of $C^1$ orientation preserving diffeomorphisms of $M$ whose first derivatives have bounded variation. We prove that if $G$ is a group which is…

In this paper, we prove that each automorphism of the Torelli group of a surface is induced by a diffeomorphism of the surface, provided that the surface is a closed, connected, orientable surface of genus at least 3. This result was…

Let $\Sigma_{g}$ be a closed, connected, and oriented surface of genus $g \geq 24$ and let $\Gamma$ be a finite index subgroup of the mapping class group $Mod(\Sigma_{g})$ that contains the Torelli group $\mathcal{I}(\Sigma_g)$. Then any…

Let $M$ be a manifold, $N$ a 1-dimensional manifold. Assuming $r \neq \dim(M)+1$, we show that any nontrivial homomorphism $\rho: \text{Diff}^r_c(M)\to \text{Homeo}(N)$ has a standard form: necessarily $M$ is $1$-dimensional, and there are…

Let $X$ be a smooth, compact, oriented $4$-manifold. Building upon work of Li-Liu, Ruberman, Nakamura and Konno, we consider a families version of Seiberg-Witten theory and obtain obstructions to the existence of certain group actions on…

We provide a smoothening criterion for group actions on manifolds by singular diffeomorphisms. We prove that if a countable group $\Gamma$ has the fixed point property FW for walls (e.g. if it has property (T)), every aperiodic action of…

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…

Let $G$ be a finitely generated group acting faithfully and properly discontinuously by homeomorphisms on a planar surface $X \subseteq \mathbb{S}^2$. We prove that $G$ admits such an action that is in addition co-compact, provided we can…

We give some sufficient conditions for the injectivity of actions of compact quantum groups on $C^{\ast}$-algebra. As an application, we prove that any faithful smooth action by a compact quantum group on a compact smooth (not necessarily…

We consider Abelian-by-cyclic groups for which the cyclic factor acts by hyperbolic automorphisms on the Abelian subgroup. We show that if such a group acts faithfully by $C^1$ diffeomorphisms of the closed interval with no global fixed…

Let S be a connected orientable surface with finitely many punctures, finitely many boundary components, and genus at least 6. Then any C^1 action of the mapping class group of S on the circle is trivial. The techniques used in the proof of…

For every compact surface $S$ of finite type (possibly with boundary components but without punctures), we show that when $n$ is sufficiently large there is no lift $\sigma$ of the surface braid group $B_n(S)$ to $\operatorname{Diff}(S,n)$,…

We construct a finitely presented, infinite, simple group that acts by homeomorphisms on the circle, but does not admit a non-trivial action by $C^1$-diffeomorphisms on the circle. The group emerges as a group of piecewise projective…

A. Borel proved that, if a finite group $F$ acts effectively and continuously on a closed aspherical manifold $M$ with centerless fundamental group $\pi_1(M)$, then a natural homomorphism $\psi$ from $F$ to the outer automorphism group…