Related papers: Big mapping class groups and rigidity of the simpl…
Let $X$ be a Banach space on which a discrete group $\Gamma$ acts by isometries. For certain natural choices of $X$, every element of the group algebra, when regarded as an operator on $X$, has empty residual spectrum. We show, for…
We survey, and extend, results on the adjoint action of the homeomorphism group $H(X)$ on the space of surjective continuous maps, $C_s(X)$, where $X$ is a Cantor set. We look also at the restriction of the action to various dynamically…
Under the natural action of the pure mapping class group of a surface of genus at least three, we show that any global fixed point in the low-dimensional deformation space of the surface group corresponds to the trivial representation. A…
We prove that a planar graph is generically rigid in the plane if and only if it can be embedded as a pseudo-triangulation. This generalizes the main result of math.CO/0307347 which treats the minimally generically rigid case. The proof…
The space $\Omega(G)$ of all based loops in a compact semisimple simply connected Lie group $G$ has an action of the maximal torus $T\subset G$ (by pointwise conjugation) and of the circle $S^1$ (by rotation of loops). Let $\mu :…
Let $\Gamma$ be a chart. For each label $m$, we denote by $\Gamma_m$ the "subgraph" of $\Gamma$ consisting of all the edges of label $m$ and their vertices. Let $\Gamma$ be a minimal chart of type $(m;3,3)$. That is, a minimal chart…
The aim of this note is to advertise on a result, not stated explicitly, but proved, in arXiv:0802.0512. Namely, if $\Gamma$ is any group, if $\rho_1$, $\rho_2$ are representations of $\Gamma$ in $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{R})$, one of them…
It is well known that the full matrix ring over a skew-field is a simple ring. We generalize this theorem to the case of semirings. We characterize the case when the matrix semiring $\mathbf{M}_n(S)$, of all $n\times n$ matrices over a…
Let $\Gamma$ be an irreducible lattice in a product of n infinite irreducible complete Kac-Moody groups of simply laced type over finite fields. We show that if n is at least 3, then each Kac-Moody groups is in fact a simple algebraic group…
Let $G$ be a closed highly homogeneous subgroup of $S_{\infty}$ not involving circular orderings. We show that the closure of a conjugacy class from $G$ contains a conjugacy class which is comeagre in it. Furthermore, we show that the…
Let $\phi \in {\rm Mod}(\Sigma)$ be an arbitrary element of the mapping class group of a closed orientable surface $\Sigma$ of genus at least $2$. For any characteristic cover $\widetilde{\Sigma} \to \Sigma$ one can consider the linear…
Using generating functions, we enumerate regular semisimple conjugacy classes in the finite classical groups. For the general linear, unitary, and symplectic groups this gives a different approach to known results; for the special…
We call a pair of closed subgroups $(G_1,G_2)$ from a connected reductive algebraic group $G$ a {\it complexity $c$ pair} if the multiplication action of the pair on $G$ is of complexity $c$. The main focus of this article is on the cases…
We answer a conjecture of Bauer, Catanese and Grunewald showing that all finite simple groups other than the alternating group of degree 5 admit unmixed Beauville structures. We also consider an analog of the result for simple algebraic…
We outline a general procedure that builds classifying spaces for generalized Thompson groups $\Gamma$. The construction depends on a small number of choices: (1) an inverse semigroup $S$ of partial transformations that ``locally determine"…
We study the positive theory of groups acting on trees and show that under the presence of weak small cancellation elements, the positive theory of the group is trivial, i.e. coincides with the positive theory of a non-abelian free group.…
Recently, John Franks and Michael Handel proved that, for $g\geq 3$ and $n\leq 2g-4$, every homomorphism from the mapping class group of an orientable surface of genus $g$ to $\GL (n,\C)$ is trivial. We extend this result to $n\leq 2g-1$,…
Since the end of the XIXth century, we know that each birational map of the complex projective plane is the product of a finite number of quadratic birational maps of the projective plane; this motivates our work which essentially deals…
Let G be a simple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero and X be a spherical conjugacy class of G. We determine the decomposition of the coordinate ring of X into simple G-modules.
In this note, we prove that the compactly supported mapping class group of a surface containing a genus $3$ subsurface has no realization as a subgroup of the homeomorphism group. We also prove that for certain surfaces with order $6$…