English

Tits-type alternative for certain groups acting on algebraic surfaces

Algebraic Geometry 2023-04-24 v3 Group Theory

Abstract

A theorem of Cantat and Urech says that an analog of the classical Tits alternative holds for the group of birational automorphisms of a compact complex Kaehler surface. We established in our previous paper the following Tits-type alternative: if X is a toric affine variety and G is a subgroup of Aut(X) generated by a finite set of unipotent subgroups normalized by the acting torus then either G contains a nonabelian free subgroup or G is a unipotent affine algebraic group. In the present paper we extend the latter result to any group G of automorphisms of a complex affine surface generated by a finite collection of unipotent algebraic subgroups. It occurs that either G contains a nonabelian free subgroup or G is a metabelian unipotent algebraic group.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2111.06659,
  title  = {Tits-type alternative for certain groups acting on algebraic surfaces},
  author = {Ivan Arzhantsev and Mikhail Zaidenberg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.06659},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

16 pages; extended by an alternative, short proof of the main theorem valid over any algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. To appear in: Proc. Amer. Math. Soc

R2 v1 2026-06-24T07:36:09.707Z