Related papers: Variations on a theme by Higman

We give a new formulation of some of our recent results on the following problem: if all uniformly bounded representations on a discrete group $G$ are similar to unitary ones, is the group amenable? In \S 5, we give a new proof of…

Let A be a basic connected finite dimensional algebra over a field k and let Q be the ordinary quiver of A. To any presentation of A with Q and admissible relations, R. Martinez-Villa and J. A. de La Pena have associated a group called the…

We exhibit abelian topological groups admitting no nontrivial strongly continuous irreducible representations in Banach spaces. Among them are some abelian Banach-Lie groups and some monothetic subgroups of the unitary group of a separable…

We prove that Wang's free orthogonal and free unitary quantum groups are weakly amenable and that their Cowling-Haagerup constant is equal to 1. This is achieved by estimating the completely bounded norm of the projections on the…

A universal R--matrix for the quantum Heisenberg algebra h(1)q is presented. Despite of the non--quasitriangularity of this Hopf algebra, the quantum group induced from it coincides with the quasitriangular deformation already known.

We consider the logic space of countable (enumerated) groups and show that closed subspaces corresponding to some standard classes of groups have (do not have) generic groups. We also discuss the cases of semigroups and associative rings.

We classify finite groups $G$, such that the group algebra, $\mathbb{Q}G$ (over the field of rational numbers $\mathbb{Q}$), is the direct product of the group algebra $\mathbb{Q}[G/N]$ of a proper factor group $G/N$, and some division…

In this note we give an example of a group which is locally embeddable into finite groups (in particular it is initially subamenable, sofic and hence hyperlinear) but does not have Kirchberg's factorization property. This group provides…

For each countable group $Q$ we produce a short exact sequence $1\to N \to G \to Q\to 1$ where $G$ is f.g. and has a graphical $\frac16$ presentation and $N$ is f.g. and satisfies property $T$. As a consequence we produce a group $N$ with…

This work builds on the foundation laid by Gordon and Wilson in the study of isometry groups of solvmanifolds, i.e. Riemannian manifolds admitting a transitive solvable group of isometries. We restrict ourselves to a natural class of…

We show that the quotients of Wang and Van Daele's universal quantum groups by their centers are simple in the sense that they have no normal quantum subgroups, thus providing the first examples of simple compact quantum groups with…

The main goal of this paper is to prove that every Golod-Shafarevich group has an infinite quotient with Kazhdan's property $(T)$. In particular, this gives an affirmative answer to the well-known question about non-amenability of…

Given a countable group $G$, we develop a method to construct an overgroup $H$ that is finitely generated, highly transitive and mixed identity free. Our construction can be controlled to ensure that some fundamental group theoretic…

Let X=G/H be the quotient of a connected reductive algebraic C-group G defined over the field of complex numbers C by a finite subgroup H. We describe the topological fundamental group of the homogeneous space X, which is nonabelian when H…

We discuss some algebraic aspects of quantum permutation groups, working over arbitrary fields. If $K$ is any characteristic zero field, we show that there exists a universal cosemisimple Hopf algebra coacting on the diagonal algebra $K^n$:…

We prove several results on the permanence of weak amenability and the Haagerup property for discrete quantum groups. In particular, we improve known facts on free products by allowing amalgamation over a finite quantum subgroup. We also…

We construct several series of explicit presentations of infinite hyperbolic groups enjoying Kazhdan's property (T). Some of them are significantly shorter than the previously known shortest examples. Moreover, we show that some of those…

This is a presentation of recent work on quantum permutation groups. Contains: a short introduction to operator algebras and Hopf algebras; quantum permutation groups, and their basic properties; diagrams, integration formulae, asymptotic…

We construct finitely generated groups with strong fixed point properties. Let $\mathcal{X}_{ac}$ be the class of Hausdorff spaces of finite covering dimension which are mod-$p$ acyclic for at least one prime $p$. We produce the first…

We show that for any non--elementary hyperbolic group $H$ and any finitely presented group $Q$, there exists a short exact sequence $1\to N\to G\to Q\to 1$, where $G$ is a hyperbolic group and $N$ is a quotient group of $H$. As an…