Surface words are determined by word measures on groups

DOI10.1007/S11856-021-2113-5MaRDI QIDQ2022796zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Michael Magee, Doron Puder

Publication date 29 April 2021

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.04873

zbMATH Keywords

compact groupHaar-random elementsurface wordword measure

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Free nonabelian groups (20E05) Word problems, other decision problems, connections with logic and automata (group-theoretic aspects) (20F10) Braid groups; Artin groups (20F36) Geometric group theory (20F65) Probabilistic methods in group theory (20P05) Free probability and free operator algebras (46L54) Probability measures on groups or semigroups, Fourier transforms, factorization (60B15)

Abstract: Every word $w$ in a free group naturally induces a probability measure on every compact group $G$. For example, if $w=left[x,yight]$ is the commutator word, a random element sampled by the $w$-measure is given by the commutator $left[g,hight]$ of two independent, Haar-random elements of $G$. Back in 1896, Frobenius showed that if $G$ is a finite group and $psi$ an irreducible character, then the expected value of $psileft(left[g,hight]ight)$ is $frac1psileft(eight)$. This is true for any compact group, and completely determines the $left[x,yight]$-measure on these groups. An analogous result holds with the commutator word replaced by any surface word. We prove a converse to this theorem: if $w$ induces the same measure as $left[x,yight]$ on every compact group, then, up to an automorphism of the free group, $w$ is equal to $left[x,yight]$. The same holds when $left[x,yight]$ is replaced by any surface word. The proof relies on the analysis of word measures on unitary groups and on orthogonal groups, which appears in separate papers, and on new analysis of word measures on generalized symmetric groups that we develop here.

Review text

Let \(\mathbf{F}_r\) be the free group on \(r\) generators \(x_1,\ldots,x_r\) and let \(G\) be a group. Every element \(w \in \mathbb{F}_r\) induces a map \(w: G^{r} \rightarrow G\), called a word map defined by substitutions. For example, if \(w=x_{1}^{-1}x_{2}^{-1}x_{1}x_{2}=[x_1,x_2]\in \mathbf{F}_{2}\), then \(w(g,h)=[g,h] \in G\) and \(w\) is called the commutator word. Let \(G\) be a compact group, the push-forward via a word map \(w\) of the Haar probability measure \(G^{r}\) is called the \(w\)-measure on \(G\). If \(w\) is the commutator word, a random element sampled by the \(w\)-measure is given by the commutator \([g,h]\) of two independent, Haar-random elements of \(G\). Back in 1896, Frobenius showed that if \(G\) is a finite group and \(\psi\) is an irreducible character of \(G\), then the expected value of \(\psi([g,h])\) is \(\psi(e)^{-1}\). This is true for any compact group, and completely determines the \(w\)-measure on these groups. An analogous result holds with the commutator word replaced by any surface word. The paper under review is devoted to proving the converse (Theorem 1.4): Let \(w \in \mathbf{F}_{r}\). If \(w\) induces the same measure as \([x_1, y_1] \cdot \ldots \cdot [x_{\gamma}, y_{\gamma}]\) (resp. as \(x_{1}^{2}\cdot \ldots \cdot x_{\gamma}^{2}\)) on every compact group, then \(r \geq 2\gamma\) (resp. \(r \geq \gamma\)) and there is \(\theta \in \mathrm{Aut}(\mathbf{F}_{r})\) such that \(\theta(w)=[x_1, y_1] \cdot \ldots \cdot [x_{\gamma}, y_{\gamma}]\) (resp. \(\theta(w)=x_{1}^{2}\cdot \ldots \cdot x_{\gamma}^{2}\)). The strong conjecture that if \(w_1, w_2 \in \mathbf{F}_{r}\) and \(w_1\), \(w_2\) induce the same measure on every compact group, then \(\theta(w_{1})=w_{2}\) for some \(\theta \in \mathrm{Aut}(\mathbf{F}_{r})\) is open and seems to be extremely challenging.

Recommendations

• Some orbits of free words that are determined by measures on finite groups
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5234386
• How random are word maps?
• Measure preserving words are primitive
• Some results and problems in the theory of word maps.

Cites work

• CHARACTERS AND SOLUTIONS TO EQUATIONS IN FINITE GROUPS
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 412172 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5343239 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3526920 (Why is no real title available?)
• Matrix group integrals, surfaces, and mapping class groups. I. \(\mathrm{U}(\mathrm{n})\)
• Measure preserving words are primitive
• On the Fourier expansion of word maps.
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Cited in

(12)

• Random unitary representations of surface groups. I: Asymptotic expansions
• Matrix group integrals, surfaces, and mapping class groups. I. \(\mathrm{U}(\mathrm{n})\)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5234386 (Why is no real title available?)
• Measure preserving words are primitive
• The Asymptotic Statistics of Random Covering Surfaces
• Matrix group integrals, surfaces, and mapping class groups. II: \( \mathrm{O}\left( n\right)\) and \(\mathrm{Sp}\left( n\right) \)
• Word measures on \(\mathrm{GL}_N(q)\) and free group algebras
• Word measures on unitary groups: improved bounds for small representations
• Random surfaces and lattice Yang-Mills
• Fractional Gaussian forms and gauge theory: an overview
• Word measures on wreath products. I
• Prosolvable rigidity of surface groups

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