Characterizing a vertex-transitive graph by a large ball

It is well-known that a complete Riemannian manifold M which is locally isometric to a symmetric space is covered by a symmetric space. Here we prove that a discrete version of this property (called local to global rigidity) holds for a large class of vertex-transitive graphs, including Cayley graphs of torsion-free lattices in simple Lie groups, and Cayley graph of torsion-free virtually nilpotent groups. By contrast, we exhibit various examples of Cayley graphs of finitely presented groups (e.g. SL(4,Z)) which fail to have this property, answering a question of Benjamini, Ellis, and Georgakopoulos. Answering a question of Cornulier, we also construct a continuum of non pairwise isometric large-scale simply connected locally finite vertex-transitive graphs. This question was motivated by the fact that large-scale simply connected Cayley graphs are precisely Cayley graphs of finitely presented groups and therefore have countably many isometric classes.Comment: v1: 38 pages. With an Appendix by Jean-Claude Sikorav v2: 48 pages. Several improvements in the presentation. To appear in Journal of Topolog

Characterisations of algebraic properties of groups in terms of harmonic functions

We prove various results connecting structural or algebraic properties of graphs and groups to conditions on their spaces of harmonic functions. In particular: we show that a group with a finitely supported symmetric measure has a finite-dimensional space of harmonic functions if and only if it is virtually cyclic; we present a new proof of a result of V. Trofimov that an infinite vertex-transitive graph admits a non-constant harmonic function; we give a new proof of a result of T. Ceccherini-Silberstein, M. Coornaert and J. Dodziuk that the Laplacian on an infinite, connected, locally finite graph is surjective; and we show that the positive harmonic functions on a non-virtually nilpotent linear group span an infinite-dimensional space.Comment: 32 pages, 2 figures. Final version. Most of the material on virtually nilpotent groups from V1 is now superseded by http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.0117

On solvable minimally transitive permutation groups

We investigate properties of finite transitive permutation groups $(G, \Omega)$ in which all proper subgroups of $G$ act intransitively on $\Omega.$ In particular, we are interested in reduction theorems for minimally transitive representations of solvable groups.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, journal pape