Related papers: Most big mapping class groups fail the Tits Altern…

In this note we show that many subgroups of mapping class groups of infinite-type surfaces without boundary have trivial centers, including all normal subgroups. Using similar techniques, we show that every nontrivial normal subgroup of a…

Let $\Gamma$ be a finitely generated group acting properly discontinuously by isometries on a visibility CAT(0) space $X$ that satisfies the bounded packing property. We prove that $\Gamma$ satisfies the Tits alternative: it is either…

There exist right angled Artin groups $A$ such that the isomorphism problem for finitely presented subgroups of $A$ is unsolvable, and for certain finitely presented subgroups the conjugacy and membership problems are unsolvable. It follows…

A theorem of Cantat and Urech says that an analog of the classical Tits alternative holds for the group of birational automorphisms of a compact complex Kaehler surface. We established in our previous paper the following Tits-type…

Let G be a group of automorphisms of a compact K\"ahler manifold X of dimension n and N(G) the subset of null-entropy elements. Suppose G admits no non-abelian free subgroup. Improving the known Tits alternative, we obtain that, up to…

We prove a Tits alternative for topological full groups of minimal actions of finitely generated groups. On the one hand, we show that topological full groups of minimal actions of virtually cyclic groups are amenable. By doing so, we…

We discuss various types of Tits Alternative for subgroups of graph products of groups, and prove that, under some natural conditions, a graph product of groups satisfies a given form of Tits Alternative if and only if each vertex group…

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 $6$…

We prove a Tits alternative theorem for groups acting on CAT(0) cubical complexes. Namely, suppose that $G$ is a group for which there is a bound on the orders of its finite subgroups. We prove that if $G$ acts properly on a…

We show an analogous result of the famous Tits alternative for a group G of birational automorphisms of a projective hyperk\"aher manifold: Either G contains a non-commutative free group or G is an almost abelian group of finite rank. As an…

For any right-angled Artin group, we show that its outer automorphism group contains either a finite-index nilpotent subgroup or a nonabelian free subgroup. This is a weak Tits alternative theorem. We find a criterion on the defining graph…

We prove that the mapping class group of a surface obtained from removing a Cantor set from either the 2-sphere, the plane, or the interior of the closed 2-disk has no proper countable-index subgroups. The proof is an application of the…

Let $G=G_1\ast\dots\ast G_k\ast F$ be a countable group which splits as a free product, where all groups $G_i$ are freely indecomposable and not isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}$, and $F$ is a finitely generated free group. If for all…

We present an algorithm that decides whether a finitely generated linear group over an infinite field is solvable-by-finite: a computationally effective version of the Tits alternative. We also give algorithms to decide whether the group is…

We show that the closure of the compactly supported mapping class group of an infinite type surface is not perfect and that its abelianization contains a direct summand isomorphic to an uncountable direct sum of rationals. We also extend…

We prove that, for any infinite-type surface $S$, the integral homology of the closure of the compactly-supported mapping class group $\overline{\mathrm{PMap}_c(S)}$ and of the Torelli group $\mathcal{T}(S)$ is uncountable in every positive…

We introduce the notion of a probabilistic identity of a residually finite group. We prove that a finitely generated linear group satisfies a probabilistic identity if and only if it is virtually solvable. As an application, we prove a…

In this article, we study the smooth mapping class group of a surface S relative to a given Cantor set, that is the group of isotopy classes of orientation-preserving smooth diffeomorphisms of S which preserve this Cantor set. When the…

We will show that if a proper complete CAT(0) space X has a visual boundary homeomorphic to the join of two Cantor sets, and X admits a geometric group action by a group containing a subgroup isomorphic to Z^2, then its Tits boundary is the…

By considering appropriate finite covering spaces of closed non-orientable surfaces, we construct linear representations of their mapping class group which have finite index image in certain big arithmetic groups.