Related papers: Virtual First Betti Number of GGS Groups

It is well-known that random groups with at least as many relators as generators have vanishing first betti number with high probability. In this paper we extend this question and study maps from few-relators random groups to infinite…

We show that the first $L^2$-betti number of a finitely generated residually finite group can be estimated from below by using ordinary first betti numbers of finite index normal subgroups. As an application we construct a finitely…

We show that if a group G is finitely presented and nilpotent-by-abelian-by-finite, then there is an upper bound on the first betti number of M as M runs through all subgroups of finite index in G.

Given a reducible $3$-manifold $M$ with an aspherical summand in its prime decomposition and a homeomorphism $f\colon M\to M$, we construct a map of degree one from a finite cover of $M\rtimes_f S^1$ to a mapping torus of a certain…

We show that there exist non-unitarizable groups without non-abelian free subgroups. Both torsion and torsion free examples are constructed. As a by-product, we show that there exist finitely generated torsion groups with non-vanishing…

We show that the virtual second Betti number of a finitely generated, residually free group $G$ is finite if and only if $G$ is either free, free abelian or the fundamental group of a closed surface. We also prove a similar statement in…

We show that a finitely generated residually finite rationally solvable (or RFRS) group $G$ is virtually fibred, in the sense that it admits a virtual surjection to $\mathbb{Z}$ with a finitely generated kernel, if and only if the first…

We prove that a finitely generated group $G$ is virtually free if and only if there exists a generating set for $G$ and $k > 0$ such that all $k$-locally geodesic words with respect to that generating set are geodesic.

We give an elementary criterion on a group G for the map from Aut(G) to Out(G) to split virtually. This criterion applies to many residually finite CAT(0) groups and hyperbolic groups, and in particular to all finitely generated Coxeter…

Recently, Eduard Schesler and the second author constructed examples of finitely generated residually finite, hereditarily just infinite groups with positive first $L^2$-Betti number. In contrast to their result, we show that a finitely…

The virtual Betti number conjecture states that any hyperbolic three-manifold has a finite cover with positive first Betti number. We show that this would follow if it were known that the derived series of the fundamental group $G$ of a…

We construct first examples of infinite finitely generated residually finite torsion groups with positive rank gradient. In particular, these groups are non-amenable. Some applications to problems about cost and $L^2$-Betti numbers are…

Let $G$ be a countable group and $k$ a positive integer, we show that the $L^2$-Betti numbers of the group $G$ vanish up to degree $k$ provided that there is some infinite index subgroup $H$ with finite $k$th $L^2$-Betti number containing a…

We define Euler characteristics on classes of residually finite and virtually torsion free groups and we show that they satisfy certain formulas in the case of amalgamated free products and HNN extensions over finite subgroups. These…

We generalize a result of R. Thomas to establish the non-vanishing of the first l2-Betti number for a class of finitely generated groups.

We exhibit infinite, solvable, virtually abelian groups with a fixed number of generators, having arbitrarily large balls consisting of torsion elements. We also provide a sequence of 3-generator non-virtually nilpotent polycyclic groups of…

We will give an example of a branch group $G$ that has exponential growth but does not contain any non-abelian free subgroups. This answers question 16 from \cite{Bartholdi} positively. The proof demonstrates how to construct a non-trivial…

We construct the first examples of residually finite non-exact groups. The construction is based on author's earlier construction of groups containing isometrically expanders using a graphical small cancellation.

We give a new characterisation of virtually free groups using graph minors. Namely, we prove that a finitely generated, infinite group is virtually free if and only if for any finite generating set, the corresponding Cayley graph is minor…

Free groups are known to be homogeneous, meaning that finite tuples of elements which satisfy the same first-order properties are in the same orbit under the action of the automorphism group. We show that virtually free groups have a…