Related papers: On Nielsen realization and manifold models for cla…

There is the problem, whether for a given virtually torsionfree discrete group $\Gamma$ there exists a cocompact proper topological $\Gamma$-manifold, which is equivariantly homotopy equivalent to the classifying space for proper actions.…

The main goal of this paper is to give the first examples of equivariant aspherical Poincare complexes, that are not realized by group actions on closed aspherical manifolds $M$. These will also provide new counterexamples to the Nielsen…

The problem of equivariant rigidity is the $\Gamma$-homeomorphism classification of $\Gamma$-actions on manifolds with compact quotient and with contractible fixed sets for all finite subgroups of $\Gamma$. In other words, this is the…

In this note, we record the proof of a theorem about the coincidence of genuine and homotopy fixed points for isometric group actions on complete Riemannian manifolds with nonpositive sectional curvature, and more generally, certain…

$\Gamma$-structures are weak forms of multiplications on closed oriented manifolds. As shown by Hopf the rational cohomology algebras of manifolds admitting $\Gamma$-structures are free over odd degree generators. We prove that this…

The smooth (resp. metric and complex) Nielsen Realization Problem for K3 surfaces $M$ asks: when can a finite group $G$ of mapping classes of $M$ be realized by a finite group of diffeomorphisms (resp. isometries of a Ricci-flat metric, or…

For a locally finite connected graph $X$ we consider the group $Maps(X)$ of proper homotopy equivalences of $X$. We show that it has a natural Polish group topology, and we propose these groups as an analog of big mapping class groups. We…

The Nielsen Realization problem asks when the group homomorphism from Diff(M) to pi_0 Diff(M) admits a section. For M a closed surface, Kerckhoff proved that a section exists over any finite subgroup, but Morita proved that if the genus is…

Let $\Gamma$ be a finitely generated group of matrices over $\mathbb{C}$. We construct an isometric action of $\Gamma$ on a complete CAT(0) space $X$ such that the restriction of this action to any subgroup of $\Gamma$ containing no…

For a 3-manifold M, the twist group Twist(M) is the subgroup of the mapping class group Mod(M) generated by twists about embedded 2-spheres. We study the Nielsen realization problem for subgroups of Twist(M). We prove that a nontrivial…

Let $\Gamma$ be a non-elementary Kleinian group and $H<\Gamma$ a finitely generated, proper subgroup. We prove that if $\Gamma$ has finite co-volume, then the profinite completions of $H$ and $\Gamma$ are not isomorphic. If $H$ has finite…

Given a finite subgroup G of the mapping class group of a surface S, the Nielsen realization problem asks whether G can be realized as a finite group of homeomorphisms of S. In 1983, Kerckhoff showed that for S a finite-type surface, any…

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…

Given a smooth, oriented, simply-connected $4$-manifold $M$, the homological Nielsen realization problem asks: when does a finite group of isometries $G\leq O(H_2(M;\mathbb{Z}))$ preserving the intersection form lift isomorphically to a…

Let $\Gamma$ be a discrete group of isometries acting on the complex hyperbolic $n$-space $\mathbb{H}^n_\mathbb{C}$. In this note, we prove that if $\Gamma$ is convex-cocompact, torsion-free, and the critical exponent $\delta(\Gamma)$ is…

The topological fundamental group $\pi_{1}^{top}$ is a homotopy invariant finer than the usual fundamental group. It assigns to each space a quasitopological group and is discrete on spaces which admit universal covers. For an arbitrary…

We study the action of the mapping class group on the real homology of finite covers of a topological surface. We use the homological representation of the mapping class to construct a faithful infinite-dimensional representation of the…

Given two maps between smooth manifolds, the obstruction to removing their coincidences (via homotopies) is measured by minimum numbers. In order to determine them we introduce and study an infinite hierarchy of Nielsen numbers N_i, i = 0,…

A modified algorithm for the construction of nonlinear realizations (sigma models) is applied to the general covariance group. Our method features finite dimensionality of the coset manifold by letting the vacuum stability group be…

We consider the action of a finite subgroup of the mapping class group $Mod(S)$ of an oriented compact surface $S$ of genus $g \geq 2$ on the moduli space $\mathcal{R}(S,G)$ of representations of $\pi_1(S)$ in a connected semisimple real…