Strong approximation methods in group theory, an LMS/EPSRC Short course lecture notes

These are the lecture notes for the LMS/EPSRC short course on strong approximation methods in linear groups organized by Dan Segal in Oxford in September 2007.Comment: v4: Corollary 6.2 corrected, added a few small remark

Strange images of profinite groups

We investigate whether a finitely generated profinite group G could have a finitely generated infinite image. A result of Dan Segal shows that this is impossible if G is prosoluble. We prove that such an image does not exist if G is semisimple or nonuniversal. We also investigate the existense of dense normal subgroups in $G$.Comment: The results of this preprint have been superceded by http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.3037 which answers the questions posed her

Algebraic properties of profinite groups

Recently there has been a lot of research and progress in profinite groups. We survey some of the new results and discuss open problems. A central theme is decompositions of finite groups into bounded products of subsets of various kinds which give rise to algebraic properties of topological groups.Comment: This version has some references update

Words with few values in finite simple groups

We construct words with small image in a given finite alternating or unimodular group. This shows that word width in these groups is unbounded in general.Comment: 7 page

Rank gradient, cost of groups and the rank versus Heegaard genus problem

We study the growth of the rank of subgroups of finite index in residually finite groups, by relating it to the notion of cost. As a by-product, we show that the `Rank vs. Heegaard genus' conjecture on hyperbolic 3-manifolds is incompatible with the `Fixed Price problem' in topological dynamics

A non-LEA Sofic Group

We describe elementary examples of finitely presented sofic groups which are not residually amenable (and thus not initially subamenable or LEA, for short). We ask if an amalgam of two amenable groups over a finite subgroup is residually amenable and answer this positively for some special cases, including countable locally finite groups, residually nilpotent groups and others.Comment: The main theorem is strengthened so that the Sofic examples are shown to have no co-amenable LEA subgroup

On finitely generated profinite groups I: strong completeness and uniform bounds

We prove that in every finitely generated profinite group, every subgroup of finite index is open; this implies that the topology on such groups is determined by the algebraic structure. This is deduced from the main result about finite groups: let $w$ be a `locally finite' group word and $d\in\mathbb{N}$. Then there exists $f=f(w,d)$ such that in every $d$-generator finite group $G$, every element of the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is equal to a product of $f$ $w$-values. An analogous theorem is proved for commutators; this implies that in every finitely generated profinite group, each term of the lower central series is closed. The proofs rely on some properties of the finite simple groups, to be established in Part II.Comment: 66 page

On finitely generated profinite groups II, products in quasisimple groups

We prove two results. (1) There is an absolute constant $D$ such that for any finite quasisimple group $S$, given 2D arbitrary automorphisms of $S$, every element of $S$ is equal to a product of $D$ `twisted commutators' defined by the given automorphisms. (2) Given a natural number $q$, there exist $C=C(q)$ and $M=M(q)$ such that: if $S$ is a finite quasisimple group with $| S/\mathrm{Z}(S)| >C$, $\beta_{j}$ $(j=1,...,M)$ are any automorphisms of $S$, and $q_{j}$ $(j=1,...,M)$ are any divisors of $q$, then there exist inner automorphisms $\alpha_{j}$ of $S$ such that $S=\prod_{1}^{M}[S,(\alpha_{j}\beta_{j})^{q_{j}}]$. These results, which rely on the Classification of finite simple groups, are needed to complete the proofs of the main theorems of Part I.Comment: 34 page

Product decompositions of quasirandom groups and a Jordan type theorem

We first note that a result of Gowers on product-free sets in groups has an unexpected consequence: If k is the minimal degree of a representation of the finite group G, then for every subset B of G with $|B| > |G| / k^{1/3}$ we have B^3 = G. We use this to obtain improved versions of recent deep theorems of Helfgott and of Shalev concerning product decompositions of finite simple groups, with much simpler proofs. On the other hand, we prove a version of Jordan's theorem which implies that if k>1, then G has a proper subgroup of index at most ck^2 for some absolute constant c, hence a product-free subset of size at least $|G| / c'k$. This answers a question of Gowers.Comment: 18 pages. In this third version we added an Appendix with a short proof of Proposition