Packing subgroups in solvable groups

We show that any subgroup of a (virtually) nilpotent-by-polycyclic group satisfies the bounded packing property of Hruska-Wise. In particular, the same is true about metabelian groups and linear solvable groups. However, we find an example of a finitely generated solvable group of derived length 3 which admits a finitely generated subgroup without the bounded packing property. In this example the subgroup is a metabelian retract also. Thus we obtain a negative answer to Problem 2.27 of Hruska-Wise. On the other hand, we show that polycyclic subgroups of solvable groups satisfy the bounded packing property.Comment: 8 pages, no figur

Approximate groups, III: the unitary case

By adapting the classical proof of Jordan's theorem on finite subgroups of linear groups, we show that every approximate subgroup of the unitary group U_n(C) is almost abelian.Comment: 19 pages, several revisions in the light of very helpful comments from the referee, including a simplification of the main argumen

Approximate groups and their applications: work of Bourgain, Gamburd, Helfgott and Sarnak

This is a survey of several exciting recent results in which techniques originating in the area known as additive combinatorics have been applied to give results in other areas, such as group theory, number theory and theoretical computer science. We begin with a discussion of the notion of an approximate group and also that of an approximate field, describing key results of Freiman-Ruzsa, Bourgain-Katz-Tao, Helfgott and others in which the structure of such objects is elucidated. We then move on to the applications. In particular we will look at the work of Bourgain and Gamburd on expansion properties of Cayley graphs on SL_2(F_p) and at its application in the work of Bourgain, Gamburd and Sarnak on nonlinear sieving problems.Comment: 25 pages. Survey article to accompany my forthcoming talk at the Current Events Bulletin of the AMS, 2010. A reference added and a few small changes mad