Dimension and randomness in groups acting on rooted trees

We explore the structure of the p-adic automorphism group Gamma of the infinite rooted regular tree. We determine the asymptotic order of a typical element, answering an old question of Turan. We initiate the study of a general dimension theory of groups acting on rooted trees. We describe the relationship between dimension and other properties of groups such as solvability, existence of dense free subgroups and the normal subgroup structure. We show that subgroups of Gamma generated by three random elements are full-dimensional and that there exist finitely generated subgroups of arbitrary dimension. Specifically, our results solve an open problem of Shalev and answer a question of Sidki

The Hanna Neumann Conjecture and the rank of the join

The Hanna Neumann conjecture gives a bound on the intersection of finitely generated subgroups of free groups. We explore a natural extension of this result, which turns out to be true only in the finite index case, and provide counterexamples for the general case. We also see that the graph-based method of generating random subgroups of free groups developed by Bassino, Nicaud and Weil is well-suited to generating subgroups with non-trivial intersections. The same method is then used to generate a counterexample to a similar conjecture of Guzman.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; added counterexample to a conjecture of Guzma

Invariable Generation of Infinite Groups

A subset S of a group G invariably generates G if G = for each choice of g(s) in G, s in S. In this paper we study invariable generation of infinite groups, with emphasis on linear groups. Our main result shows that a finitely generated linear group is invariably generated by some finite set of elements if and only if it is virtually solvable. We also show that the profinite completion of an arithmetic group having the congruence subgroup property is invariably generated by a finite set of elements

Aspects of Nonabelian Group Based Cryptography: A Survey and Open Problems

Most common public key cryptosystems and public key exchange protocols presently in use, such as the RSA algorithm, Diffie-Hellman, and elliptic curve methods are number theory based and hence depend on the structure of abelian groups. The strength of computing machinery has made these techniques theoretically susceptible to attack and hence recently there has been an active line of research to develop cryptosystems and key exchange protocols using noncommutative cryptographic platforms. This line of investigation has been given the broad title of noncommutative algebraic cryptography. This was initiated by two public key protocols that used the braid groups, one by Ko, Lee et.al.and one by Anshel, Anshel and Goldfeld. The study of these protocols and the group theory surrounding them has had a large effect on research in infinite group theory. In this paper we survey these noncommutative group based methods and discuss several ideas in abstract infinite group theory that have arisen from them. We then present a set of open problems

On the genericity of Whitehead minimality

We show that a finitely generated subgroup of a free group, chosen uniformly at random, is strictly Whitehead minimal with overwhelming probability. Whitehead minimality is one of the key elements of the solution of the orbit problem in free groups. The proofs strongly rely on combinatorial tools, notably those of analytic combinatorics. The result we prove actually depends implicitly on the choice of a distribution on finitely generated subgroups, and we establish it for the two distributions which appear in the literature on random subgroups

Generic complexity of the Conjugacy Problem in HNN-extensions and algorithmic stratification of Miller's groups

We discuss time complexity of The Conjugacy Problem in HNN-extensions of groups, in particular, in Miller's groups. We show that for "almost all", in some explicit sense, elements, the Conjugacy Problem is decidable in cubic time. It is worth noting that the Conjugacy Problem in a Miller group may have be undecidable. Our results show that "hard" instances of the problem comprise a negligibly small part of the group

Stable group theory and approximate subgroups

We note a parallel between some ideas of stable model theory and certain topics in finite combinatorics related to the sum-product phenomenon. For a simple linear group G, we show that a finite subset X with |X X \^{-1} X |/ |X| bounded is close to a finite subgroup, or else to a subset of a proper algebraic subgroup of G. We also find a connection with Lie groups, and use it to obtain some consequences suggestive of topological nilpotence. Combining these methods with Gromov's proof, we show that a finitely generated group with an approximate subgroup containing any given finite set must be nilpotent-by-finite. Model-theoretically we prove the independence theorem and the stabilizer theorem in a general first-order setting.Comment: Further local corrections, thanks to two anonymous referre

Non-unitarisable representations and random forests

We establish a connection between Dixmier's unitarisability problem and the expected degree of random forests on a group. As a consequence, a residually finite group is non-unitarisable if its first L2-Betti number is non-zero or if it is finitely generated with non-trivial cost. Our criterion also applies to torsion groups constructed by D. Osin, thus providing the first examples of non-unitarisable groups not containing a non-Abelian free subgroup

Uniform rank gradient, cost and local-global convergence

We analyze the rank gradient of finitely generated groups with respect to sequences of subgroups of finite index that do not necessarily form a chain, by connecting it to the cost of p.m.p. actions. We generalize several results that were only known for chains before. The connection is made by the notion of local-global convergence. In particular, we show that for a finitely generated group $\Gamma$ with fixed price $c$, every Farber sequence has rank gradient $c-1$. By adapting Lackenby's trichotomy theorem to this setting, we also show that in a finitely presented amenable group, every sequence of subgroups with index tending to infinity has vanishing rank gradient.Comment: Corrected typing mistakes, added comments. 25 page

Soluble groups with no Z≀Z\mathbb{Z} \wr \mathbb{Z} sections

In this article, we examine how the structure of soluble groups of infinite torsion-free rank with no section isomorphic to the wreath product of two infinite cyclic groups can be analysed. As a corollary, we obtain that if a finitely generated soluble group has a defined Krull dimension and has no sections isomorphic to the wreath product of two infinite cyclic groups then it is a group of finite torsion-free rank. There are further corollaries including applications to return probabilities for random walks. The paper concludes with constructions of examples that can be compared with recent constructions of Brieussel and Zheng