Optimization in graphical small cancellation theory

Gromov (2003) constructed finitely generated groups whose Cayley graphs contain (in a certain weak sense) all graphs from a given infinite sequence of expander graphs of unbounded girth and bounded diameter-to-girth ratio. These so-called \emph{Gromov monster groups} provide examples of finitely generated groups that do not coarsely embed into Hilbert space, among other interesting properties. This approach was recently refined by Osajda (2020): in his modified onstruction, all the expander graphs in the sequence can be found as isometric subgraphs of the Cayley graph of the resulting group. This in turn leads to the construction of finitely generated groups with even stronger properties. In this short note, we simplify the combinatorial part of Osajda's construction, decreasing the number of generators of the resulting group significantly.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

The structure of quasi-transitive graphs avoiding a minor with applications to the domino problem

An infinite graph is quasi-transitive if its vertex set has finitely many orbits under the action of its automorphism group. In this paper we obtain a structure theorem for locally finite quasi-transitive graphs avoiding a minor, which is reminiscent of the Robertson-Seymour Graph Minor Structure Theorem. We prove that every locally finite quasi-transitive graph $G$ avoiding a minor has a tree-decomposition whose torsos are finite or planar; moreover the tree-decomposition is canonical, i.e. invariant under the action of the automorphism group of $G$. As applications of this result, we prove the following. (i) Every locally finite quasi-transitive graph attains its Hadwiger number, that is, if such a graph contains arbitrarily large clique minors, then it contains an infinite clique minor. This extends a result of Thomassen (1992) who proved it in the 4-connected case and suggested that this assumption could be omitted. (ii) Locally finite quasi-transitive graphs avoiding a minor are accessible (in the sense of Thomassen and Woess), which extends known results on planar graphs to any proper minor-closed family. (iii) Minor-excluded finitely generated groups are accessible (in the group-theoretic sense) and finitely presented, which extends classical results on planar groups. (iv) The domino problem is decidable in a minor-excluded finitely generated group if and only if the group is virtually free, which proves the minor-excluded case of a conjecture of Ballier and Stein (2018)

Twin-width IV: ordered graphs and matrices

We establish a list of characterizations of bounded twin-width for hereditary, totally ordered binary structures. This has several consequences. First, it allows us to show that a (hereditary) class of matrices over a finite alphabet either contains at least $n!$ matrices of size $n \times n$, or at most $c^n$ for some constant $c$. This generalizes the celebrated Stanley-Wilf conjecture/Marcus-Tardos theorem from permutation classes to any matrix class over a finite alphabet, answers our small conjecture [SODA '21] in the case of ordered graphs, and with more work, settles a question first asked by Balogh, Bollob\'as, and Morris [Eur. J. Comb. '06] on the growth of hereditary classes of ordered graphs. Second, it gives a fixed-parameter approximation algorithm for twin-width on ordered graphs. Third, it yields a full classification of fixed-parameter tractable first-order model checking on hereditary classes of ordered binary structures. Fourth, it provides a model-theoretic characterization of classes with bounded twin-width.Comment: 53 pages, 18 figure

Optimization in graphical small cancellation theory

10 pages, 1 figureGromov (2003) constructed finitely generated groups whose Cayley graphs contain (in a certain weak sense) all graphs from a given infinite sequence of expander graphs of unbounded girth and bounded diameter-to-girth ratio. These so-called \emph{Gromov monster groups} provide examples of finitely generated groups that do not coarsely embed into Hilbert space, among other interesting properties. This approach was recently refined by Osajda (2020): in his modified construction, all the expander graphs in the sequence can be found as isometric subgraphs of the Cayley graph of the resulting group. This in turn leads to the construction of finitely generated groups with even stronger properties. In this short note, we simplify the combinatorial part of Osajda's construction, decreasing the number of generators of the resulting group significantly

Coarse geometry of quasi-transitive graphs beyond planarity

15 pages, 1 figureWe study geometric and topological properties of infinite graphs that are quasi-isometric to a planar graph of bounded degree. We prove that every locally finite quasi-transitive graph excluding a minor is quasi-isometric to a planar graph of bounded degree. We use the result to give a simple proof of the result that finitely generated minor-excluded groups have Assouad-Nagata dimension at most 2 (this is known to hold in greater generality, but all known proofs use significantly deeper tools). We also prove that every locally finite quasi-transitive graph that is quasi-isometric to a planar graph is $k$-planar for some $k$ (i.e. it has a planar drawing with at most $k$ crossings per edge), and discuss a possible approach to prove the converse statement

Graphs with convex balls

In this paper, we investigate the graphs in which all balls are convex and the groups acting on them geometrically (which we call CB-graphs and CB-groups). These graphs have been introduced and characterized by Soltan and Chepoi (1983) and Farber and Jamison (1987). CB-graphs and CB-groups generalize systolic (alias bridged) and weakly systolic graphs and groups, which play an important role in geometric group theory. We present metric and local-to-global characterizations of CB-graphs. Namely, we characterize CB-graphs $G$ as graphs whose triangle-pentagonal complexes $X(G)$ are simply connected and balls of radius at most $3$ are convex. Similarly to systolic and weakly systolic graphs, we prove a dismantlability result for CB-graphs $G$: we show that their squares $G^2$ are dismantlable. This implies that the Rips complexes of CB-graphs are contractible. Finally, we adapt and extend the approach of Januszkiewicz and Swiatkowski (2006) for systolic groups and of Chalopin et al. (2020) for Helly groups, to show that the CB-groups are biautomatic

Graphs with convex balls

In this paper, we investigate the graphs in which all balls are convex and the groups acting on them geometrically (which we call CB-graphs and CB-groups). These graphs have been introduced and characterized by Soltan and Chepoi (1983) and Farber and Jamison (1987). CB-graphs and CB-groups generalize systolic (alias bridged) and weakly systolic graphs and groups, which play an important role in geometric group theory. We present metric and local-to-global characterizations of CB-graphs. Namely, we characterize CB-graphs $G$ as graphs whose triangle-pentagonal complexes $X(G)$ are simply connected and balls of radius at most $3$ are convex. Similarly to systolic and weakly systolic graphs, we prove a dismantlability result for CB-graphs $G$: we show that their squares $G^2$ are dismantlable. This implies that the Rips complexes of CB-graphs are contractible. Finally, we adapt and extend the approach of Januszkiewicz and Swiatkowski (2006) for systolic groups and of Chalopin et al. (2020) for Helly groups, to show that the CB-groups are biautomatic

The structure of quasi-transitive graphs avoiding a minor with applications to the domino problem

International audienceAn infinite graph is quasi-transitive if its vertex set has finitely many orbits under the action of its automorphism group. In this paper we obtain a structure theorem for locally finite quasi-transitive graphs avoiding a minor, which is reminiscent of the Robertson-Seymour Graph Minor Structure Theorem. We prove that every locally finite quasi-transitive graph $G$ avoiding a minor has a tree-decomposition whose torsos are finite or planar; moreover the tree-decomposition is canonical, i.e. invariant under the action of the automorphism group of $G$. As applications of this result, we prove the following. * Every locally finite quasi-transitive graph attains its Hadwiger number, that is, if such a graph contains arbitrarily large clique minors, then it contains an infinite clique minor. This extends a result of Thomassen (1992) who proved it in the 4-connected case and suggested that this assumption could be omitted. * Locally finite quasi-transitive graphs avoiding a minor are accessible (in the sense of Thomassen and Woess), which extends known results on planar graphs to any proper minor-closed family. * Minor-excluded finitely generated groups are accessible (in the group-theoretic sense) and finitely presented, which extends classical results on planar groups. * The domino problem is decidable in a minor-excluded finitely generated group if and only if the group is virtually free, which proves the minor-excluded case of a conjecture of Ballier and Stein (2018)

Twin-width V: linear minors, modular counting, and matrix multiplication

We continue developing the theory around the twin-width of totally ordered binary structures (or equivalently, matrices over a finite alphabet), initiated in the previous paper of the series. We first introduce the notion of parity and linear minors of a matrix, which consists of iteratively replacing consecutive rows or consecutive columns with a linear combination of them. We show that a matrix class (i.e., a set of matrices closed under taking submatrices) has bounded twin-width if and only if its linear-minor closure does not contain all matrices. We observe that the fixed-parameter tractable (FPT) algorithm for first-order model checking on structures given with an O(1)-sequence (certificate of bounded twin-width) and the fact that first-order transductions of bounded twin-width classes have bounded twin-width, both established in Twin-width I, extend to first-order logic with modular counting quantifiers. We make explicit a win-win argument obtained as a by-product of Twin-width IV, and somewhat similar to bidimensionality, that we call rank-bidimensionality. This generalizes the seminal work of Guillemot and Marx [SODA '14], which builds on the Marcus-Tardos theorem [JCTA '04]. It works on general matrices (not only on classes of bounded twin-width) and, for example, yields FPT algorithms deciding if a small matrix is a parity or a linear minor of another matrix given in input, or exactly computing the grid or mixed number of a given matrix (i.e., the maximum integer k such that the row set and the column set of the matrix can be partitioned into k intervals, with each of the k 2 defined cells containing a non-zero entry, or two distinct rows and two distinct columns, respectively). Armed with the above-mentioned extension to modular counting, we show that the twin-width of the product of two conformal matrices A, B (i.e., whose dimensions are such that AB is defined) over a finite field is bounded by a function of the twin-width of A, of B, and of the size of the field. Furthermore, if A and B are n × n matrices of twin-width d over Fq, we show that AB can be computed in time O d,q (n 2 log n). We finally present an ad hoc algorithm to efficiently multiply two matrices of bounded twinwidth, with a single-exponential dependence in the twin-width bound. More precisely, pipelined to observations and results of Pilipczuk et al. [STACS '22], we obtain the following. If the inputs are given in a compact tree-like form (witnessing twin-width at most d), called twin-decomposition of width d, then two n × n matrices A, B over F2 can be multiplied in time 4 d+o(d) n, in the sense that a twin-decomposition of their product AB, with width 2 d+o(d) , is output within that time, and each entry of AB can be queried in time O d (log log n). Furthermore, for every ε > 0, the query time can be brought to constant time O(1/ε) if the running time is increased to near-linear 4 d+o(d) n 1+ε. Notably, the running time is sublinear (essentially square root) in the number of (non-zero) entries