Related papers: Probabilistic Tits alternative for circle diffeomo…

We show that if one selects uniformly independently and identically distributed matrices $A_1, \ldots, A_s \in \mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{Z})$ from a ball of large radius $X$ then with probability at least $1 - X^{-1 + o(1)}$ the matrices $A_1,…

Let $G$ be a real linear semisimple algebraic group without compact factors and $\Gamma$ a Zariski dense subgroup of $G$. In this paper, we use a probabilistic counting in order to study the asymptotic properties of $\Gamma$ acting on the…

We introduce a model of random f.g., torsion-free, $2$-step nilpotent groups (in short, $\tau_2$-groups). To do so, we show that these are precisely the groups that admit a presentation of the form $ \label{tau2pres_0}\langle A, C \mid…

We show that any nonabelian free group $F$ of finite rank is homogeneous; that is for any tuples $\bar a$, $\bar b \in F^n$, having the same complete $n$-type, there exists an automorphism of $F$ which sends $\bar a$ to $\bar b$. We further…

Following the works of Furstenberg and Glasner on stationary means, we strengthen and extend in this paper some recent results by Di Nasso, Goldbring, Jin, Leth, Lupini and Mahlburg on piecewise syndeticity of product sets in countable…

We consider the probability $p(S_n)$ that a pair of random permutations generates either the alternating group $A_n$ or the symmetric group $S_n$. Dixon (1969) proved that $p(S_n)$ approaches $1$ as $n\to\infty$ and conjectured that…

This paper, which is the second of a series of three papers, studies dynamical properties of elements of $\mathrm{Out}(F_{\tt n})$, the outer automorphism group of a nonabelian free group $F_{\tt n}$. We prove that, for every exponentially…

The well-known Heyde theorem characterizes the Gaussian distributions on the real line by the symmetry of the conditional distribution of one linear form of independent random variables given another. We generalize this theorem to groups of…

We prove new separability results about free groups. Namely, if $H_1, \ldots , H_k$ are infinite index, finitely generated subgroups of a non-abelian free group $F$, then there exists a homomorphism onto some alternating group $f:F…

Let k be a local field, and G a linear group over k. We prove that either G contains a relatively open solvable subgroup, or it contains a relatively dense free subgroup. This result has applications in dynamics, Riemannian foliations and…

This self-contained paper is part of a series \cite{FF2,FF3} on actions by diffeomorphisms of infinite groups on compact manifolds. The two main results presented here are: 1) Any homomorphism of (almost any) mapping class group or…

We give sufficient conditions for the non-triviality of the Poisson boundary of random walks on $H(\mathbb{Z})$ and its subgroups. The group $H(\mathbb{Z})$ is the group of piecewise projective homeomorphisms over the integers defined by…

Let $G$ be a countable discrete amenable group which acts continuously on a compact metric space $X$ and let $\mu$ be an ergodic $G-$invariant Borel probability measure on $X$. For a fixed tempered F{\o}lner sequence $\{F_n\}$ in $G$ with…

We investigate the asymptotic structure of (possibly type III) crossed product von Neumann algebras $M = B \rtimes \Gamma$ arising from arbitrary actions $\Gamma \curvearrowright B$ of bi-exact discrete groups (e.g. free groups) on amenable…

Let $\mu$ be a probability measure on $\text{Out}(F_N)$ with finite first logarithmic moment with respect to the word metric, finite entropy, and whose support generates a nonelementary subgroup of $\text{Out}(F_N)$. We show that almost…

The proof of the Tits alternative for $Out(F_n)$ is completed. The main tool is a Kolchin type theorem, proved in this paper. It states that a finitely generated subgroup of $Out(F_n)$ consisting of unipotent automorphisms can be conjugated…

Let $\Gamma$ be a countable discrete group, $H$ a lcsc totally disconnected group and $\rho : \Gamma \rightarrow H$ a homomorphism with dense image. We develop a general and explicit technique which provides, for every compact open subgroup…

Let G be a finite group of nilpotency class 2 and w a group word. In this short paper we show that the probability that a random n-tuple of elements from G satisfies w is at least one over the order of G. This answers a special case of a…

Let $G$ be a finite simple group. In this paper we consider the existence of small subsets $A$ of $G$ with the property that, if $y \in G$ is chosen uniformly at random, then with high probability $y$ invariably generates $G$ together with…

The famous Tits' alternative states that a linear group either contains a nonabelian free group or is soluble-by-(locally finite). We study in this paper similar alternatives in pseudofinite groups. We show for instance that an…