On geometric group theory (Q2055089)

The chapter under review is an interesting survey paper on geometric group theory and its ties with differential geometry, singularity theory, and low-dimensional topology. It presents an original overview of some very general topological tameness conditions at infinity of finitely presented groups, with special emphasis on the role of \textit{geometric simple connectivity} (GSC). All this explained in a conversational, fluent and very readable style. Among the topics discussed in detail in the paper, one find the properties of \textit{(inverse)-REPRESENTATIONS}, QSF (\textit{quasi-simple filtration}) and the so-called \textit{Whitehead nightmare}. The paper is subdivided into some parts: the first one defines finitely presented groups from several points of view, the second one focuses on the notions of \textit{simple connectivity at infinity} and \textit{quasi-simple filtration}, by illustrating also their relationships and the history behind their appereance for discrete groups. The third part deals with \textit{(inverse)-REPRESENTATIONS} and Poénaru's recent announcement of the QSF Theorem (``ALL finitely presented groups are QSF''), together with some other conjectures related to this issue. The fourth part is the newest and the most technical one, since it concerns the strange and unexpected connection between GSC and A. Connes' non-commutative geometry. Actually, the author presents a method for constructing, starting from a 4-dimensional space, some spaces which, in the GSC setting, are smooth 3-manifolds, but in other special situations when the GSC condition is completely violated, the same construction should lead to non-commutative spaces. In the appendix, the author provides further details which may help with the understanding of the whole paper. To be a little more precise, let us end our review by presenting the general setting where this paper fits. Immediately next to the Poincaré Conjecture, the statement that for all closed 3-manifolds \(M^3\) one has \(\pi_1 ^\infty \widetilde M ^3=0\), or, equivalently, that for an irreducible \(M^3\) one has \(\widetilde M^3 \simeq \mathbb R^3\), has been a highly desired result in low-dimensional topology. Of course, today, once Perelman has proved the full Thurston Geometrization Conjecture, this \(\pi_1 ^\infty \widetilde M^3=0\) is just a corollary of that work. But still, there is no direct topological proof for the issue \(\pi_1^{\infty} \widetilde M^3=0\)! In the 80's, V. Poénaru deeply studied this problem and developed several methods for proving the simple connectivity at infinity of universal covers of closed 3-manifolds. Actually, he was able to relate it, firstly with the \textsc{GSC}, and then with another particular topological notion called \textit{inverse-REPRESENTATION}. The first `representation theorem' was proved by Poénaru for homotopy 3-spheres; then, in collaboration with C. Tanasi, he completed his program for representing general open 3-manifolds and universal covering spaces of closed 3-manifolds. Finally, more recently, he became interested in inverse-representations of finitely presented discrete groups. In very general terms, an \textit{inverse-REPRESENTATION} for a topological space \(Y\) (e.g. a simplicial complex or a manifold) is a non-degenerate simplicial map \(f\) from some 2-complex \(X\) (which satisfies several topological properties) to \(Y\), with a strong control over the singularities. The general idea being that this 2-complex \(X\) is a sort of nice 2-spine of the represented space \(Y\), containing the most relevant topological information. Besides its own initial usefulness for 3-manifolds, it turns out that this notion is very helpful for groups, too. For instance, Poénaru has even developed a (very long and complicated) program for possibly showing that \textbf{any} finitely presented group admits a `nice' (called easy) inverse-REPRESENTATION. This result, as soon as it will be fully proved and verified, would have a major impact in the fields of Geometric Group Theory and Geometric Topology. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1466.57001].