Cusps of lattices in rank 1 Lie groups over local fields

Let G be the group of rational points of a semisimple algebraic group of rank 1 over a nonarchimedean local field. We improve upon Lubotzky's analysis of graphs of groups describing the action of lattices in G on its Bruhat-Tits tree assuming a condition on unipotents in G. The condition holds for all but a few types of rank 1 groups. A fairly straightforward simplification of Lubotzky's definition of a cusp of a lattice is the key step to our results. We take the opportunity to reprove Lubotzky's part in the analysis from this foundation.Comment: to appear in Geometriae Dedicat

Contraction groups and scales of automorphisms of totally disconnected locally compact groups

We study contraction groups for automorphisms of totally disconnected locally compcat groups using the scale of the automorphism as a tool. The contraction group is shown to be unbounded when the inverse automorphism has non-trivial scale and this scale is shown to be the inverse value of the modular function on the closure of the contraction group at the automorphism. The closure of the contraction group is represented as acting on a homogenous tree and closed contraction groups are characterised.Comment: revised version, 29 pages, to appear in Israel Journal of Mathematics, please note that document starts on page

Flat rank of automorphism groups of buildings

The flat rank of a totally disconnected locally compact group G, denoted flat-rk(G), is an invariant of the topological group structure of G. It is defined thanks to a natural distance on the space of compact open subgroups of G. For a topological Kac-Moody group G with Weyl group W, we derive the inequalities: alg-rk(W)\le flat-rk(G)\le rk(|W|\_0). Here, alg-rk(W) is the maximal $\mathbb{Z}$-rank of abelian subgroups of W, and rk(|W|\_0) is the maximal dimension of isometrically embedded flats in the CAT0-realization |W|\_0. We can prove these inequalities under weaker assumptions. We also show that for any integer n \geq 1 there is a topologically simple, compactly generated, locally compact, totally disconnected group G, with flat-rk(G)=n and which is not linear

Scale-multiplicative semigroups and geometry: automorphism groups of trees

A scale-multiplicative semigroup in a totally disconnected, locally compact group $G$ is one for which the restriction of the scale function on $G$ is multiplicative. The maximal scale-multiplicative semigroups in groups acting 2-transitively on the set of ends of trees without leaves are determined in this paper and shown to correspond to geometric features of the tree.Comment: submitted to Groups, Geometry, and Dynamic

Scales for co-compact embeddings of virtually free groups

Let $\Gamma$ be a group which is virtually free of rank at least 2 and let $\mathcal{F}_{td}(\Gamma)$ be the family of totally disconnected, locally compact groups containing $\Gamma$ as a co-compact lattice. We prove that the values of the scale function with respect to groups in $\mathcal{F}_{td}(\Gamma)$ evaluated on the subset $\Gamma$ have only finitely many prime divisors. This can be thought of as a uniform property of the family $\mathcal{F}_{td}(\Gamma)$.Comment: 12 pages; key words: uniform lattice, virtually free group, totally disconnected group, scale function (Error in references corrected in version 2

A compactly generated group whose Hecke algebras admit no bounds on their representations

We construct a compactly generated, totally disconnected, locally compact group whose Hecke algebra with respect to any compact open subgroup does not have a C∗-enveloping algebra. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 20C08

Hecke algebras from groups acting on trees and HNN extensions

We study Hecke algebras of groups acting on trees with respect to geometrically defined subgroups. In particular, we consider Hecke algebras of groups of automorphisms of locally finite trees with respect to vertex and edge stabilizers and the stabilizer of an end relative to a vertex stabilizer, assuming that the actions are sufficiently transitive. We focus on identifying the structure of the resulting Hecke algebras, give explicit multiplication tables of the canonical generators and determine whether the Hecke algebra has a universal C*-completion. The paper unifies past algebraic and analytic approaches by focusing on the common geometric thread.The results have implications for the general theory of totally disconnected locally compact groups