Related papers: Hyperbolicity as an obstruction to smoothability f…

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…

We study actions of groups by homeomorphisms on $\mathbf{R}$ (or an interval) that are minimal, have solvable germs at $\pm \infty$ and contain a pair of elements of a certain type. We call such actions coherent. We establish that such an…

By the Thurston stability theorem, a group of C^1 orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of the closed unit interval is locally indicable. We show that the local order structure of orbits gives a stronger criterion for nonsmoothability that…

The Lodha-Moore group $G$ first arose as a finitely presented counterexample to von Neumann's conjecture. The group $G$ acts on the unit interval via piecewise projective homemorphisms. A result of Lodha shows that $G$ in fact has type…

The standard actions of finite groups on spheres S^d are linear actions, i.e. by finite subgroups of the orthogonal group O(d+1). We prove that, in each dimension d>5, there is a finite group G which admits a faithful, topological action on…

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…

For a certain class of groups of piecewise linear homeomorphisms of the interval, we prove that they admit no sufficiently regular faithful action on the line. Building on previous work of Brum, Matte Bon, Rivas, and the author…

We prove new cases of the Hilbert-Smith conjecture for actions by natural homeomorphisms in symplectic topology. Specifically, we prove that the group of $p$-adic integers $\mathbb Z_p$ does not admit non-trivial continuous actions by…

We study the uniformly recurrent subgroups of groups acting by homeomorphisms on a topological space. We prove a general result relating uniformly recurrent subgroups to rigid stabilizers of the action, and deduce a $C^*$-simplicity…

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…

In this paper we consider the conjugacy classes of diffeomorphisms of the interval, endowed with the $C^1$-topology. We present several results in the spirit of the one below : Given two diffeomorphisms $f,g$ of the interval $[0;1]$ without…

We motivate and study the class $\mathcal{C}$ of countable groups $G$ such that the conjugacy relation between minimal actions of $G$ on $\mathbb{R}$ by orientation-preserving homeomorphisms is smooth -- that is, admits a Borel transversal.…

Let $C$ be a Grothendieck topos, $G$ and $H$ group objects of $C$. Let $p:P\rightarrow X$ be an $H$-torsor. Suppose that $X$ is endowed with an action of $G$. In this paper, we study the obstructions to lift the action of $G$ on $X$ to $P$…

We study the regularity of exceptional actions of groups by $C^{1,\alpha}$ diffeomorphisms on the circle, i.e. ones which admit exceptional minimal sets, and whose elements have first derivatives that are continuous with concave modulus of…

The Lodha-Moore groups provide the first known examples of type F_\infty groups that are non-amenable and contain no non-abelian free subgroups. These groups are related to Thompson's group F in certain ways, for instance they contain it as…

We show that the (topological) full group of a minimal pseudogroup over the Cantor set satisfies various rigidity phenomena of topological dynamical and combinatorial nature. Our main result applies to its possible homomorphisms into other…

We prove that, for nice classes of infinite-dimensional smooth groups G, natural constructions in smooth topology and symplectic topology yield homotopically coherent group actions of G. This yields a bridge between infinite-dimensional…

By the work of Brodzki-Niblo-Nowak-Wright and Monod, topological amenability of a continuous group action can be characterized using uniformly finite homology groups or bounded cohomology groups associated to this action. We show that…

Let $M$ be a closed, connected, orientable topological four-manifold with $H_1(M)$ nontrivial and free abelian, $b_2(M)\ne 0, 2$, and $\chi(M)\ne 0$. We show that if $G$ is a finite group of 2-rank $\le 1$ which admits a homologically…

We prove a new weak mean ergodic theorem (Theorem A) for 1-cocycles associated to weakly mixing representations of amenable groups. Let $G$ be a finitely generated, discrete, amenable group $G$ which admits a controlled Folner sequence. We…