Related papers: Groups that do not act by automorphisms of codimen…

We study the topology of compact manifolds with a Lie group action for which there are only finitely many non-principal orbits, and describe the possible orbit spaces which can occur. If some non-principal orbit is singular, we show that…

Suppose that a finite group $G$ admits a Frobenius group of automorphisms FH of coprime order with cyclic kernel F and complement H such that the fixed point subgroup $C_G(H)$ of the complement is nilpotent of class $c$. It is proved that…

Given a simple Lie group G of rank 1, we consider compact pseudo-Riemannian manifolds (M,g) of signature (p,q) on which G can act conformally. Precisely, we determine the smallest possible value for the index min(p,q) of the metric. When…

We establish three independent results on groups acting on trees. The first implies that a compactly generated locally compact group which acts continuously on a locally finite tree with nilpotent local action and no global fixed point is…

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 prove that for arbitrary two finitely generated subgroups A and B having infinite index in a free group F, there is a subgroup H of finite index in B such that the subgroup generated by A and H has infinite index in F. The main corollary…

We construct a finitely presented, infinite, simple group that acts by homeomorphisms on the circle, but does not admit a non-trivial action by $C^1$-diffeomorphisms on the circle. The group emerges as a group of piecewise projective…

Recall that an effective circle action is semifree if the stabilizer subgroup of each point is connected. We show that if $(M, \om)$ is a coadjoint orbit of a compact Lie group $G$ then every element of $\pi_1(G)$ may be represented by a…

Let $G$ be a compact Lie group acting effectively by isometries on a compact Riemannian manifold $M$ with nonempty fixed point set $Fix(M,G)$. We say that the action is \emph{fixed point homogeneous} if $G$ acts transitively on a normal…

We show that no finite index subgroup of a sufficiently complicated mapping class group or braid group can act faithfully by $C^{1+\mathrm{bv}}$ diffeomorphisms on the circle, which generalizes a result of Farb-Franks, and which parallels a…

If $G$ is a semisimple Lie group of real rank at least 2 and $\Gamma$ is an irreducible lattice in $G$, then every homomorphism from $\Gamma$ to the outer automorphism group of a finitely generated free group has finite image.

This article takes the inspiration from two milestones in the study of non minimal actions of groups on the circle: Duminy's theorem about the number of ends of semi-exceptional leaves and Ghys' freeness result in analytic regularity. Our…

In this paper we survey some recent results on actions of finite groups on topological manifolds. Given an action of a finite group $G$ on a manifold $X$, these results provide information on the restriction of the action to a subgroup of…

A finitely presented 1-ended group $G$ has {\it semistable fundamental group at infinity} if $G$ acts geometrically on a simply connected and locally compact ANR $Y$ having the property that any two proper rays in $Y$ are properly…

Let (M, F) be a compact codimension-one foliated manifold whose leaves are equipped with Riemannian metrics, and consider continuous functions on M that are harmonic along the leaves of F . If every such function is constant on leaves we…

If a finite p-group G acts continuously on a compact topological manifold M then, with some bound C depending on M alone, G has a subgroup H of index at most C such that the H-action on M has at most C stabilizer subgroups. This result…

Every lattice H in a connected semi-simple Lie group G acts properly discontinuously by isometries on the contractible manifold G/K (K a maximal compact subgroup of G). We prove that if H acts on a contractible manifold W and if either 1)…

Let $X$ be a compact smooth manifold, possibly with boundary. Denote by $X_1,\dots,X_r$ the connected components of $X$. Assume that the integral cohomology of $X$ is torsion free and supported in even degrees. We prove that there exists a…

A. Borel proved that, if a finite group $F$ acts effectively and continuously on a closed aspherical manifold $M$ with centerless fundamental group $\pi_1(M)$, then a natural homomorphism $\psi$ from $F$ to the outer automorphism group…

Let D be an irreducible lattice in a connected, semisimple Lie group G with finite center. Assume that the real rank of G is at least two, that G/D is not compact, and that G has more than one noncompact simple factor. We show that D has no…