Related papers: Distortion in transformation groups

Associated to every complete affine 3-manifold M with nonsolvable fundamental group is a noncompact hyperbolic surface S. We classify such complete affine structures when Sigma is homeomorphic to a three-holed sphere. In particular, for…

Let M be a smooth manifold which is homeomorphic to the n-fold product of S^k, where k is odd. There is an induced homomorphism from the group of diffeomorphisms of M to the automorphism group of H k (M ; Z). We prove that the image of this…

Stefan M$\ddot{\mathrm{u}}$ller posed the problem "Do Hofer's metrics on the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphism and the one of Hamiltonian homeomorphisms (Hameomorphisms) correspond?". Let $(M,\omega)$ be a compact exact symplectic…

There are two well-known ways of describing elements of the rotation group SO$(m)$. First, according to the Cartan-Dieudonn\'e theorem, every rotation matrix can be written as an even number of reflections. And second, they can also be…

We consider groups of orientation-preserving real analytic diffeomorphisms of the circle which have a finite image under the rotation number function. We show that if such a group is nondiscrete with respect to the $C^1$-topology then it…

Following the recent advances in the study of groups of circle diffeomorphisms, we describe an efficient way of classifying the topological dynamics of locally discrete, finitely generated, virtually free subgroups of the group…

Let $G$ be a u.s.c decomposition of $S^n$, $H_G$ denote the set of nondegenerate elements and $\pi$ be the projection of $S^n$ onto $S^n/G$. Suppose that each point in the decomposition space has arbitrarily small neighborhoods with…

This paper concerns with deformations of noncompact complex hyperbolic manifolds (with locally Bergman metric), varieties of discrete representations of their fundamental groups into $PU(n,1)$ and the problem of (quasiconformal) stability…

We study the problem of conjugating a diffeomorphism of the interval to (positive) powers of itself. Although this is always possible for homeomorphisms, the smooth setting is rather interesting. Besides the obvious obstruction given by…

It is shown that every homeomorphism f of finite distortion in the plane is the so-called lower Q-homeomorphism with Q(z)=K_f(z), and, on this base, it is developed the theory of the boundary behavior of such homeomorphisms.

We prove that for many degrees in a stable range the homotopy groups of the moduli space of metrics of positive scalar curvature on S^n and on other manifolds are non-trivial. This is achieved by further developing and then applying a…

For each $n > 0$ there is a one complex parameter family of homeomorphisms of the circle consisting of linear fractional transformations `conjugated by $z \to z^n$'. We show that these families are free of relations, which determines the…

For a compact $(2n+1)$-dimensional smooth manifold, let $\mu_M : B Diff_\partial (D^{2n+1}) \to B Diff (M)$ be the map that is defined by extending diffeomorphisms on an embedded disc by the identity. By a classical result of Farrell and…

In a 1983 paper with Frank Warner, we proved that the space of all great circle fibrations of the 3-sphere S^3 deformation retracts to the subspace of Hopf fibrations, and so has the homotopy type of a pair of disjoint two-spheres. Since…

In this note we describe a family of arguments that link the homotopy-type of a) the diffeomorphism group of the disc $D^n$, b) the space of co-dimension one embedded spheres in a sphere and c) the homotopy-type of the space of co-dimension…

Let S be a compact surface - or the interior of a compact surface - and let V be the manifold of cooriented contact elements of S equiped with its canonical contact structure. A diffeomorphism of V that preserves the contact structure and…

Let G be the homeomorphism group of a dendrite. We study the normal subgroups of G. For instance, there are uncountably many non-isomorphic such groups G that are simple groups. Moreover, these groups can be chosen so that any isometric…

In this paper we characterize the group of affine transformations of a flat affine simply connected manifold whose developing map is a diffeomorphism. This is proved by making use of some simple facts about homeomorphisms of $\mathbb{R}^n$…

We show that, for certain families $\phi_{\mathbf{s}}$ of diffeomorphisms of high-dimensional spheres, the commutator of the Dehn twist along the zero-section of $T^*S^n$ with the family of pullbacks $\phi^*_{\mathbf{s}}$ gives a…

Using a recent result of Bowden, Hensel and Webb, we prove the existence of homeomorphisms with positive stable commutator length in the groups of homeomorphisms of the real projective plane and M\"obius strip which are isotopic to the…