Related papers: Distortion in groups of Affine Interval Exchange t…

We prove that any finitely generated torsion free solvable subgroup of the group ${\rm IET}$ of all Interval Exchange Transformations is virtually abelian. In contrast, the lamplighter groups $A\wr \mathbb{Z}^k$ embed in ${\rm IET}$ for…

If $\G$ is a finitely generated group with generators $\{g_1,...,g_j\}$ then an infinite order element $f \in \G$ is a {\em distortion element} of $\G$ provided $\displaystyle{\liminf_{n \to \infty} |f^n|/n = 0,}$ where $|f^n|$ is the word…

We study the group IET of all interval exchange transformations. Our first main result is that the group generated by a generic pairs of elements of IET is not free (assuming a suitable irreducibility condition on the underlying…

An element $f$ of a group $G$ is reversible if it is conjugated in $G$ to its own inverse; when the conjugating map is an involution, $f$ is called strongly reversible. We describe reversible maps in certain groups of interval exchange…

A disjoint rotation map is an interval exchange transformation (IET) on the unit interval that acts by rotation on a finite number of invariant subintervals. It is currently unknown whether the group E of all IETs possesses any non-abelian…

H\"older's theorem states that any group acting freely by circle homeomorphisms is abelian, this is no longer true for interval exchange transformations: we first give examples of free actions of non abelian groups. Then after noting that…

We consider the group of smooth diffeomorphisms of the circle. We show that any recurrent $f$ (in the sense that $\{f^n\}_{n \in Z}$ is not discrete) is in fact a distortion element (in the sense that its iterates can be written as short…

The set of automorphisms of a one-dimensional \shift $(X, \sigma)$ forms a countable, but often very complicated, group. For zero entropy shifts, it has recently been shown that the automorphism group is more tame. We provide the first…

We prove that a subgroup of a finitely generated free nilpotent group F is undistorted if and only if it is a retract of a subgroup of finite index in F.

If $G$ is a finitely generated group with generators $\{g_1,..., g_s\}$, we say an infinite-order element $f \in G$ is a distortion element of $G$ provided that $\displaystyle \liminf_{n \to \infty} \frac{|f^n|}{n} = 0$, where $|f^n|$ is…

The affine diffeomorphism group $\mathrm{Aff}(S,q)$ of a half-translation surface $(S,q)$ comprise the self-diffeomorphisms with constant differential away from the singularities. This group coincides with the stabiliser of the associated…

Let IET be the group of bijections from $\mathopen{[}0,1 \mathclose{[}$ to itself that are continuous outside a finite set, right-continuous and piecewise translations. The abelianization homomorphism $f: \text{IET} \to A$, called…

We study a generalization Rec_d of the group IET=Rec_1 of interval exchange transformations in every dimension d>0, called the rectangle exchange transformations group. The subset of restricted rotations in IET is a generating subset and we…

We prove that every distortion element in the group of diffeomorphisms of the 2-sphere which has some recurrent point that is not fixed is an irrational pseudo-rotation. Moreover we prove that the differential of a distortion element in the…

Let $G$ be the group ${\rm PAff}_+({\bf S}^1)$ of piecewise--affine circle homeomorphisms or the group ${\Diff}^{\infty}(\mathbb R/\mathbb Z)$ of smooth circle diffeomorphisms. A constructive proof that all irrational rotations are…

We study the group of all interval exchange transformations (IETs). We show that for every IET $S$, there exists a dense open set of admissible IETs that share a relation with $S$. This is an extension of a result published by Dahmani,…

A group element is called generalized torsion if a finite product of its conjugates is equal to the identity. We show that in a finitely generated abelian-by-finite group, an element is generalized torsion if and only if its image in the…

We show that there is a distortion element in a finitely-generated subgroup $G$ of the automorphism group of the full shift, namely an element of infinite order whose word norm grows polylogarithmically. As a corollary, we obtain a lower…

General arguments of Baumslag and Bieri guarantee that any metabelian group of finite Pr\"ufer rank can be embedded in a metabelian constructible group. Here, we consider the metric behavior of a rich class of examples and analyze the…

Consider a_1,a_2,...,a_n, arbitrary elements of R. We characterize those real functions f that decompose into the sum of a_j-periodic functions, i.e., f=f_1+...+f_n with D_{a_j}f(x):=f(x+a_j)-f(x)=0. We show that f has such a decomposition…