On quasihomomorphisms with noncommutative targets. (Q2628930)

The concept of a quasihomomorphism was introduced by S. Ulam, who asked if they are close to group homomorphisms. Let \(G\) be a group and \(H\) be a group with some proper left-invariant metric \(d\). A map \(f\colon G\to H\) is called a quasihomomorphism if there exists a constant \(C\) such that \(d(f(xy),f(x)f(y))\leq C\) for all \(x,y\in G\). There are some easy examples. If the image of some map \(f\) is finite, this map is a quasihomomorphism. If for some subgroup of finite index \(G'\subset G\) the map \(f|_{G'}\colon G'\to H\) is a homomorphism, then \(f\) is a quasihomomorphism. For commutative \(H\) there are constructed many exotic quasihomomorphisms, i.e., ones which are not close to homomorphisms. But this is not the case for noncommutative \(H\). In this paper quasihomomorphisms are investigated in the case when the target group \(H\) is discrete and not commutative. One of the main goals for the authors was to explain why it is so difficult to construct exotic quasihomomorphisms to noncommutative groups, which are neither homomorphisms, nor come from some quasihomomorphisms with commutative targets. The main result is: every quasihomomorphism \(f\colon G\to H \) is constructible, i.e. can be obtained by some natural operations (passing to subgroups of finite index in \(G\), factorizing some subgroups in \(H\) by finitely generated abelian central subgroups). Then it is shown that the main theorem can be sharpened for some special classes of target groups \(H\), e.g., some periodic groups, hyperbolic groups, CAT (0) groups, mapping class groups and groups acting on simplicial trees. Also some variants of the notion of a quasihomomorphism are compared.