Groups of PL homeomorphisms of cubes (Q318721)

Suppose that \(M\) is a piecewise linear manifold and \(K\) is a closed submanifold. The group of PL homeomorphisms from \(M\) to itself that fix \(K\) pointwise is denoted by \(\text{PL}(M,K)\). In the case when \(M\) is orientable, \(\text{PL}_+(M,K)\) denotes the subgroup of orientation preserving homeomorphisms. The authors show that if \(M\) is connected and \(K\) has codimension at most one, then \(\text{PL}_+(M,K)\) is left orderable: it has a total order that is preserved under left multiplication. On the other hand, for the \(n\)-dimensional cube \(I^n\), it is shown that \(\text{PL}(I^n,\partial I^n)\) is not bi-orderable when \(n\geq 2\). That is, it does not have a total order that is perserved under both left and right multiplication (in contrast, it is known that \(\text{PL}(I,\partial I)\) is bi-orderable). Other properties of cubes of dimension \(n\geq 2\) are found. In particular, \(\text{PL}(I^n,\partial I^n)\) is demonstrated to possess a nonabelian free subgroup. Moreover, every right-angled Artin group embeds in \(\text{PL}_\omega(I^n,\partial I^n)\), the subgroup of PL homeomorphisms that preserve the standard volume form \(\omega\) on \({\mathbb R}^n\). The distortion, as well as the triangle numbers, of group elements in \(\text{PL}(I^n,\partial I^n)\) are investigated. The circular orderability of \(\text{PL}_+(M,K)\), where \(K\) is a codimension two submanifold, is also briefly addressed.