Related papers: Fuglede-Kadison determinants over free groups and …

We study properties of a generalization of the Mahler measure to elements in group rings, in terms of the Lueck-Fuglede-Kadison determinant. Our main focus is the variation of the Mahler measure when the base group is changed. In…

We formulate Lehmer's Problem about the Mahler measure of polynomials for general compact abelian groups, introducing a Lehmer constant for each such group. We show that all nontrivial connected compact groups have the same Lehmer constant,…

The Mahler measure of a function on the real d-torus is its geometric mean over the torus. It appears in number theory, ergodic theory and other fields. The Fuglede-Kadison determinant is defined in the context of von Neumann algebra theory…

We consider the problem whether for a group G there exists a constant Lambda(G) > 1 such that for any (r,s)-matrix A over the integral group ring ZG the Fuglede-Kadison determinant of the G-equivariant bounded operator from L^2(G)^r to…

For an ergodic measure preserving action on a probability space, consider the corresponding crossed product von Neumann algebra. We calculate the Fuglede-Kadison determinant for a class of operators in this von Neumann algebra in terms of…

We establish a congruence satisfied by the integer group determinants for the non-abelian Heisenberg group of order $p^3$. We characterize all determinant values coprime to $p$, give sharp divisibility conditions for multiples of $p$, and…

We consider Mahler measures of two well-studied families of bivariate polynomials, namely $P_t=x+x^{-1}+y+y^{-1}+\sqrt{t}$ and $Q_t=x^3+y^3+1-\sqrt[3]{t}xy$, where $t$ is a complex parameter. In the cases when the zero loci of these…

The results of Culler and Shalen for 2,3 or 4-free hyperbolic 3-manifolds are contingent on properties specific to and special about rank two subgroups of a free group. Here we determine what construction and algebraic information is…

In this note, we survey results concerning variations of the L\"uck-Fuglede-Kadison determinant with respect to the base group. Further, we discuss recurrences of coefficients in the determinant for certain distinguished base groups. The…

We solve Lehmer's problem for a class of polynomials arising from Hermitian matrices over the Eisenstein and Gaussian integers, that is, we show that all such polynomials have Mahler measure at least Lehmer's number \tau_0 = 1.17628... .

A conjecture of Kadison and Kastler from 1972 asks whether sufficiently close operator algebras in a natural uniform sense must be small unitary perturbations of one another. For $n\geq 3$ and a free ergodic probability measure preserving…

Continuing our previous work (Cohn, Lam, Lu, Yang, Nonlinear Analysis (2011), doi: 10.1016 /j.na.2011.09.053), we obtain a class of Trudinger-Moser inequalities on the entire Heisenberg group, which indicate what the best constants are. All…

We prove a noncommutative Bader-Shalom factor theorem for lattices with dense projections in product groups. As an application of this result and our previous works, we obtain a noncommutative Margulis factor theorem for all irreducible…

For any group, there is a natural (pseudo-)norm on the vector space B1 of real (group) 1-boundaries, called the stable commutator length norm. This norm is closely related to, and can be thought of as a relative version of, the Gromov…

We investigate Friedl-L\"uck's universal $L^2$-torsion for descending HNN extensions of finitely generated free groups, and so in particular for $F_n$-by-$\mathbb{Z}$ groups. This invariant induces a semi-norm on the first cohomology of the…

For 3-manifolds, the leading coefficient of the $L^2$-Alexander torsion is a numerical invariant of a real first cohomology class. We show that the leading coefficient equals the relative $L^2$-torsion of the manifold cut up along a…

The $\log 3$ Theorem, proved by Culler and Shalen, states that every point in the hyperbolic 3-space is moved a distance at least $\log 3$ by one of the non-commuting isometries $\xi$ or $\eta$ provided that $\xi$ and $\eta$ generate a…

After Furstenberg had provided a first glimpse of remarkable rigidity phenomena associated with the joint action of several commuting automorphisms (or endomorphisms) of a compact abelian group, further key examples motivated the…

We establish regularity conditions for $L_p$-boundedness of Fourier multipliers on the group von Neumann algebras of higher rank simple Lie groups. This provides a natural H\"ormander-Mikhlin criterion in terms of Lie derivatives of the…

Let $q$ be a prime with $q \equiv 7 \mod 8$, and let $K=\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-q})$. Then $2$ splits in $K$, and we write $\mathfrak{p}$ for either of the primes $K$ above $2$. Let $K_\infty$ be the unique $\mathbb{Z}_2$-extension of $K$…