Kazhdan and Haagerup Properties in algebraic groups over local fields

Given a Lie algebra \s, we call Lie \s-algebra a Lie algebra endowed with a reductive action of \s. We characterize the minimal \s-Lie algebras with a nontrivial action of \s, in terms of irreducible representations of \s and invariant alternating forms. As a first application, we show that if \g is a Lie algebra over a field of characteristic zero whose amenable radical is not a direct factor, then \g contains a subalgebra which is isomorphic to the semidirect product of sl_2 by either a nontrivial irreducible representation or a Heisenberg group (this was essentially due to Cowling, Dorofaeff, Seeger, and Wright). As a corollary, if G is an algebraic group over a local field K of characteristic zero, and if its amenable radical is not, up to isogeny, a direct factor, then G(K) has Property (T) relative to a noncompact subgroup. In particular, G(K) does not have Haagerup's property. This extends a similar result of Cherix, Cowling and Valette for connected Lie groups, to which our method also applies. We give some other applications. We provide a characterization of connected Lie groups all of whose countable subgroups have Haagerup's property. We give an example of an arithmetic lattice in a connected Lie group which does not have Haagerup's property, but has no infinite subgroup with relative Property (T). We also give a continuous family of pairwise non-isomorphic connected Lie groups with Property (T), with pairwise non-isomorphic (resp. isomorphic) Lie algebras.Comment: 11 pages, no figur

Relative Kazhdan Property

We perform a systematic investigation of Kazhdan's relative Property (T) for pairs (G,X), where G a locally compact group and X is any subset. When G is a connected Lie group or a p-adic algebraic group, we provide an explicit characterization of subsets X of G such that (G,X) has relative Property (T). In order to extend this characterization to lattices of G, a notion of "resolutions" is introduced, and various characterizations of it are given. Special attention is paid to subgroups of SU(2,1) and SO(4,1).Comment: 36 pages, no figure; to appear in Ann. Sci. Ecole Norm. Su

Infinite groups with large balls of torsion elements and small entropy

We exhibit infinite, solvable, virtually abelian groups with a fixed number of generators, having arbitrarily large balls consisting of torsion elements. We also provide a sequence of 3-generator non-virtually nilpotent polycyclic groups of algebraic entropy tending to zero. All these examples are obtained by taking appropriate quotients of finitely presented groups mapping onto the first Grigorchuk group.Comment: 8 pages; to appear in Archiv der Mathemati

On conjugacy growth for solvable groups

We prove that a finitely generated solvable group which is not virtually nilpotent has exponential conjugacy growth.Comment: 7 pages, no figur

On groups with weak Sierpi\'nski subsets

In a group $G$, a weak Sierpi\'nski subset is a subset $E$ such that for some $g,h\in G$ and $a\neq b\in E$, we have $gE=E\smallsetminus \{a\}$ and $hE=E\smallsetminus \{b\}$. In this setting, we study the subgroup generated by $g$ and $h$, and show that it has a special presentation, namely of the form $G_k=\langle g,h\mid (h^{-1}g)^k\rangle$ unless it is free over $(g,h)$. In addition, in such groups $G_k$, we characterize all weak Sierpi\'nski subsets

Homological finiteness properties of wreath products

We study the homological finiteness property FPm of permutational wreath products

Isometric group actions on Hilbert spaces: growth of cocycles

We study growth of 1-cocycles of locally compact groups, with values in unitary representations. Discussing the existence of 1-cocycles with linear growth, we obtain the following alternative for a class of amenable groups G containing polycyclic groups and connected amenable Lie groups: either G has no quasi-isometric embedding into Hilbert space, or G admits a proper cocompact action on some Euclidean space. On the other hand, noting that almost coboundaries (i.e. 1-cocycles approximable by bounded 1-cocycles) have sublinear growth, we discuss the converse, which turns out to hold for amenable groups with "controlled" Folner sequences; for general amenable groups we prove the weaker result that 1-cocycles with sufficiently small growth are almost coboundaries. Besides, we show that there exist, on a-T-menable groups, proper cocycles with arbitrary small growth.Comment: 26 pages, no figure. To appear in Geom. Funct. Ana