Locally compact sofic groups (Q2689229)

A countable discrete group \(\Gamma\) is sofic if there exist maps \(\sigma_{i} : \Gamma \rightarrow \mathrm{Sym}(V_{i})\) (where each \(V_{i}\) is a finite set and \(\mathrm{Sym}(V_{i})\) is its permutation group) satisfying \begin{align*} &\lim_{i \rightarrow \infty}|V_{i}|^{-1} \Big | \big \{ v \in V_{i} : \sigma_{i}(g)\sigma_{i}(h)v=\sigma_{i}(gh)v \big \} \Big |=1 & \boldsymbol{\forall} g,h \in \Gamma \\ & \lim_{i \rightarrow \infty}|V_{i}|^{-1} \Big | \big \{ v \in V_{i} : \sigma_{i}(g)v \not = v \big \} \Big |=1 & \boldsymbol{\forall} g \in \Gamma. \end{align*} The first condition ensures that the maps behave asymptotically like homomorphisms and the second condition ensures that, asymptotically, every nontrivial element of \(\Gamma\) behaves like a fixed point-free map on \(V_{i}\) (this definition differs from the standard one). The main results of the paper under review can be summarized as follows \begin{itemize} \item[\(\bullet\)] Every sofic group is unimodular (Theorem 3.2). \item[\(\bullet\)] Every unimodular locally compact second countable amenable group is sofic (Theorem 3.3). \item[\(\bullet\)] A sequence of local G-spaces is a sofic approximation if and only if the essential injectivity radius of the sequence is infinite (Theorem 3.5). \item[\(\bullet\)] The new definition of sofic given in this paper generalizes the previous definitions for discrete countable groups (Theorem 3.7). \item[\(\bullet\)] If \(G\) admits a sofic lattice subgroup then \(G\) is sofic (Theorem 3.9). \item[\(\bullet\)] The following groups are sofic: semi-simple Lie groups, the automorphism group of a regular tree (Corollary 3.10). \item[\(\bullet\)] If \(G\) is sofic and \(H \leq G\) is an open subgroup then H is sofic (Proposition 3.11) \end{itemize} The final section is dedicated to presenting a list of nineteen open problems which constitute a guide for future research on the topic.