Character varieties and actions on products of trees

DOI10.1007/S11856-018-1683-3MaRDI QIDQ1650464zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors David Fisher, Matthew Stover, Michael Larsen, Ralf Spatzier

Publication date 3 July 2018

Published in Israel Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.05163

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Geometric group theory (20F65) Discrete subgroups of Lie groups (22E40) Dynamics induced by group actions other than (mathbb{Z}) and (mathbb{R}), and (mathbb{C}) (37C85) Group actions on manifolds and cell complexes in low dimensions (57M60)

Abstract: It is well known that surface groups admit free and proper actions on finite products of infinite valence trees. In this note, we address the question of whether there can be a free and proper action on a finite product of bounded valence trees. We provide some obstructions and an arithmetic criterion for existence. The bulk of the paper is devoted to an approach to verifying the arithmetic criterion by studying the character variety of certain surface groups over fields of positive characteristic. The methods may be useful for attempting to determine when groups admit good linear representations in other contexts.

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Cited in

(6)

• Character varieties and harmonic maps to \(\mathbb{R}\)-trees
• Bushy pseudocharacters and group actions on quasitrees
• Strongly dense free subgroups of semisimple algebraic groups. II
• Commensurators of normal subgroups of lattices
• Greenberg-Shalom's commensurator hypothesis and applications
• Groups acting on products of locally finite trees

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