Commutators in groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms

DOI10.1016/J.AIM.2018.04.006MaRDI QIDQ1639635zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors José Burillo, Yash Lodha, Lawrence Reeves

Publication date 13 June 2018

Published in Advances in Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.04586

zbMATH Keywords

Lodha-Moore groupspiecewise projective maps of the real linesimple commutator subgroups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Subgroup theorems; subgroup growth (20E07) Simple groups (20E32) Generators, relations, and presentations of groups (20F05) Means on groups, semigroups, etc.; amenable groups (43A07) Topological methods in group theory (57M07)

Abstract: In 2012 Monod introduced examples of groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms which are not amenable and which do not contain free subgroups, and later Lodha and Moore introduced examples of finitely presented groups with the same property. In this article we examine the normal subgroup structure of these groups. Two important cases of our results are the groups $H$ and $G_0$. We show that the group $H$ of piecewise projective homeomorphisms of $mathbbR$ has the property that $$ is simple and that every proper quotient of $H$ is metabelian. We establish simplicity of the commutator subgroup of the group $G_0$, which admits a presentation with $3$ generators and $9$ relations. Further we show that every proper quotient of $G_0$ is abelian. It follows that the normal subgroups of these groups are in bijective correspondence with those of the abelian (or metabelian) quotient.

Review text

A discrete group \(G\) is said to be amenable, according to the definition of \textit{J. von Neumann} [Fundam. Math. 13, 73--116 (1929; JFM 55.0151.01)] if it has a finitely additive, left-invariant measure such that the measure of \(G\) is \(1\). \textit{A. Tarski} [C. R. Soc. Sci. Varsovie, Cl. III 22, 114--117 (1929; JFM 57.1389.03); Fundam. Math. 31, 47--66 (1938; Zbl 0019.05403)] proved that these are exactly the groups for which no paradoxical decompositions à la \textit{S. Banach} and \textit{A. Tarski} [Fund. Math. 6, 244--277 (1924; JFM 50.0370.02)] exist. A discrete group containing a non-abelian free group is known not to be amenable. Von Neumann asked whether the converse is true. This was settled in the negative by \textit{A. Yu. Ol'shanskij} with his construction of the Tarski monster groups [Math. USSR, Izv. 16, 279--289 (1981; Zbl 0475.20025); translation from Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 44, 309--321 (1980)]. Several other examples, including finitely presented ones, followed. \textit{N. Monod} [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110, No. 12, 4524--4527 (2013; Zbl 1305.57002)] produced examples of groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms of the reals which are not amenable, and do not contain non-abelian free subgroups. \textit{Y. Lodha} and \textit{J. T. Moore} [Groups Geom. Dyn. 10, No. 1, 177--200 (2016; Zbl 1336.43001)] showed that certain subgroups \(G_{0}\) and \(G\) of one of the groups of Monod [loc. cit.] are finitely-presented examples. The main goal of the paper under review is to exhibit the following interesting properties of these groups. It is shown that the derived subgroup \(G_{0}'\) of \(G_{0}\) is simple, that every proper quotient of \(G_{0}\) is abelian, and that the subgroups of \(G_{0}\) of finite index are normal in \(G_{0}\). As to \(G\), one has that \(G < G'\) is simple and equals \(G_{0}'\), and that every proper quotient of \(G\) is metabelian.

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Cites work

• A nonamenable finitely presented group of piecewise projective homeomorphisms
• Geometric presentations for Thompson's groups.
• Groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3091883 (Why is no real title available?)
• Introductory notes on Richard Thompson's groups
• Means for the Bounded Functions and Ergodicity of the Bounded Representations of Semi-Groups

Cited in

(19)

• Non-amenable finitely presented torsion-by-cyclic groups.
• Piecewise projective homeomorphisms and a noncommutative Steinberg extension
• Commensurating actions for groups of piecewise continuous transformations
• Conjugacy and centralizers in groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms
• Signature for piecewise continuous groups
• Hyperbolicity as an obstruction to smoothability for one-dimensional actions
• Finitely generated infinite simple groups of homeomorphisms of the real line
• A nonamenable finitely presented group of piecewise projective homeomorphisms
• Quasi-simplicity of some homeomorphism and diffeomorphism groups
• Homeomorphism groups of commutator width one
• The BNSR-invariants of the Lodha–Moore groups, and an exotic simple group of type
• Groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms
• A finitely presented infinite simple group of homeomorphisms of the circle
• An upper bound for the Tarski numbers of nonamenable groups of piecewise projective homeomorphisms
• On the structure of the commutator subgroup of certain homeomorphism groups
• An n -adic generalization of the Lodha–Moore group
• A family of exotic group C*-algebras
• Generic algebraic properties in spaces of enumerated groups
• Property (NL) for group actions on hyperbolic spaces

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