Related papers: No interesting sequential groups
We construct a finitely presented non-amenable group without free non-cyclic subgroups thus providing a finitely presented counterexample to von Neumann's problem. Our group is an extension of a group of finite exponent n >> 1 by a cyclic…
Let A = Z[c], where c is an irrational number whose square is rational, or let A = Z[1/r], where r > 1 is a square-free natural number. We show that no finite-index subgroup of SL(2,A) is left orderable. (Equivalently, these subgroups have…
We show that every Grigorchuk group $G_\omega$ embeds in (the commutator subgroup of) the topological full group of a minimal subshift. In particular, the topological full group of a Cantor minimal system can have subgroups of intermediate…
The theory ZFC implies the scheme that for every cardinal $\delta$ we can make $\delta$ many dependent choices over any definable relation without terminal nodes. Friedman, the first author, and Kanovei constructed a model of ZFC$^-$ (ZFC…
Existentially closed groups are, informally, groups that contain solutions to every consistent finite system of equations and inequations. They were introduced in 1951 in an algebraic context and subsequent research elucidated deep…
We obtain a forcing construction that shows that it is consistent that the torsion-free Abelian group $\mathbb{Q}^{(\lambda)}$ admits a Hausdorff group topology which is also $\mathcal{U}$-compact and contains no non-trivial convergent…
In 2002 Polterovich has notably established that on closed aspherical symplectic manifolds, Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of finite order, which we call Hamiltonian torsion, must in fact be trivial. In this paper we prove the first…
We construct a continuum of non-homeomorphic compact subspaces of the real line R without singleton components. Thus from the purely topological point of view the real line contains not only more closed sets than open sets but also more…
A pseudomodular group is a finite coarea nonarithmetic Fuchsian group whose cusp set is exactly $\mathbb{P}^1(\mathbb{Q})$. Long and Reid constructed finitely many of these by considering Fricke groups, i.e., those that uniformize…
The goal of this paper is twofold. In addition to the results stated in the next paragraph, we present some classical results on absoluteness relevant to functional analysis that are well known to logicians but not nearly as well advertised…
We introduce the fundamental group F(A) of a simple $\sigma$-unital $C^*$-algebra $A$ with unique (up to scalar multiple) densely defined lower semicontinuous trace. This is a generalization of our previous works. Our definition in this…
In this paper I introduce a new and intuitive first-order foundational theory (where the concept of set is not primitive) and use it to show that the power set of an infinite set does not exist. In particular, proofs of uncountability of a…
A topological group $G$ is {\em sequentially $h$-complete} if all the continuous homomorphic images of $G$ are sequentially complete. In this paper we give necessary and sufficient conditions on a complete group for being compact, using the…
We prove under ZFC that in each extremally disconnected compact space there exists a non-limit point of any countable discrete subset.
A recent conjecture of the author and Teng Fang states that there are only finitely many finite simple groups with no cubic graphical regular representation. In this paper, we make a crucial progress towards this conjecture by giving an…
We define a certain finite set in set theory $\{x\mid\varphi(x)\}$ and prove that it exhibits a universal extension property: it can be any desired particular finite set in the right set-theoretic universe and it can become successively any…
In the absence of the Axiom of Choice, necessary and sufficient conditions for a locally compact Hausdorff space to have all non-empty second-countable compact Hausdorff spaces as remainders are given in $\mathbf{ZF}$. Among other…
We prove that all finitely generated fully residually free groups (limit groups) have a sequence of finite dimensional unitary representations that `strongly converge' to the regular representation of the group. The corresponding statement…
We show that every compact connected group is the limit of a continuous inverse sequence, in the category of compact groups, where each successor bonding map is either an epimorphism with finite kernel or the projection from a product by a…
This is the written version of the Bourbaki seminar given in January 2013 and published in 2014 (modulo an additional early reference added subsequently). It describes the first construction of infinite, finitely generated amenable simple…