Related papers: Groups acting distally and minimally on $\mathbb S…

Let $p$ be an odd prime. We construct a non-abelian extension $\Gamma$ of $S^1$ by $Z/p \times Z/p$, and prove that any finite subgroup of $\Gamma$ acts freely and smoothly on $S^{2p-1} \times S^{2p-1}$. In particular, for each odd prime…

We prove that if $\Gamma$ is a countable group without a subgroup isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}^2$ that acts faithfully and minimally by orientation preserving homeomorphisms on the circle, then it has a free orbit. We give examples showing…

We construct a non-abelian extension $\Gamma$ of $S^1$ by $\cy 3 \times \cy 3$, and prove that $\Gamma$ acts freely and smoothly on $S^{5} \times S^{5}$. This gives new actions on $S^{5} \times S^{5}$ for an infinite family $\cP$ of finite…

A finite nonabelian simple group does not admit a free action on a homology sphere, and the only finite simple group which acts on a homology sphere with at most 0-dimensional fixed point sets ("pseudofree action") is the alternating group…

We show that if $G$ is a real semi-simple Lie group, and $\Gamma$ is a discrete subgroup of $G$ containing a subgroup $\Sigma$ acting ergodically (in a strong sense) on the Furstenberg boundary of $G$, then $\Gamma$ is not isomorphic to a…

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 study properly discontinuous and cocompact actions of a discrete subgroup $\Gamma$ of an algebraic group $G$ on a contractible algebraic manifold $X$. We suppose that this action comes from an algebraic action of $G$ on $X$ such that a…

Let $G$ be a finite simple group of Lie type and let $P$ be a Sylow $2$-subgroup of $G$. In this paper, we prove that for any nontrivial element $x \in G$, there exists $g \in G$ such that $G = \langle P, x^g \rangle$. By combining this…

Recall that a pseudofree group action on a space is one whose singular set consists only of isolated points. In this paper, we classify all of the finite groups which admit pseudofree actions on S^2 x S^2. The groups turn out to be exactly…

Let $\Gamma$ be a countable group. A $\Gamma$-action on a compact abelian group $X$ by continuous automorphisms of $X$ is called Noetherian if the dual of $X$ is Noetherian as a ${\mathbb Z}(\Gamma)$-module. We prove that any Noetherian…

An algebraic $\Gamma$-action is an action of a countable group $\Gamma$ on a compact abelian group $X$ by continuous automorphisms of $X$. We prove that any expansive algebraic action of a finitely generated nilpotent group $\Gamma$ on a…

We say that a finitely generated group $\Gamma$ is self-simulable if every effectively closed action of $\Gamma$ on a closed subset of $\{\texttt{0},\texttt{1}\}^{\mathbb{N}}$ is the topological factor of a $\Gamma$-subshift of finite type.…

Let $\Gamma$ be a finitely generated torsion free nilpotent group, and let $A^\omega$ be the space of infinite words over a finite alphabet $A$. We investigate two types of self-similar actions of $\Gamma$ on $A^\omega$, namely the…

An $\widetilde A_2$ group $\Gamma$ acts simply transitively on the vertices of an affine building $\triangle$. We study certain subgroups $\Gamma_0 \cong {\Bbb Z}^2$ which act on certain apartments of $\triangle$. If one of these subgroups…

Given a finitely generated group $\Gamma$, we study the space ${\rm Isom}(\Gamma,{\mathbb Q\mathbb U})$ of all actions of $\Gamma$ by isometries of the rational Urysohn metric space ${\mathbb Q\mathbb U}$, where ${\rm Isom}(\Gamma,{\mathbb…

In this two part work we prove that for every finitely generated subgroup $\Gamma < \text{Out}(F_n)$, either $\Gamma$ is virtually abelian or $H^2_b(\Gamma;\mathbb{R})$ contains an embedding of $\ell^1$. The method uses actions on…

Let $X=GD$ be a group, where $G$ is a nonabelian simple group and $D$ is a dihedral group. These groups $X$ are closely related to regular Cayley maps. The main theorems of this paper describes $X$.

Given an action of a group G on a topological space X, we establish a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a free subgroup F of rank 2 of G acting properly discontinuously on at least one nonempty, open, F-invariant…

Let $G$ be a simple algebraic group of type $G_2$ over an algebraically closed field of characteristic $2$. We give an example of a finite group $\Gamma$ with Sylow $2$-subgroup $\Gamma_2$ and an infinite family of pairwise non-conjugate…

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…