Bounded generation and lattices that cannot act on the line

DOI10.4310/PAMQ.2008.V4.N1.A4zbMATH Open1146.22014arXivmath/0604612OpenAlexW2962806438MaRDI QIDQ930805FDOQ930805

Authors: L. Lifschitz, David Witte Morris 

Publication date: 1 July 2008

Published in: Pure and Applied Mathematics Quarterly (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Let D be an irreducible lattice in a connected, semisimple Lie group G with finite center. Assume that the real rank of G is at least two, that G/D is not compact, and that G has more than one noncompact simple factor. We show that D has no orientation-preserving actions on the real line. (In algebraic terms, this means that D is not right orderable.) Under the additional assumption that no simple factor of G is isogenous to SL(2,R), applying a theorem of E.Ghys yields the conclusion that any orientation-preserving action of D on the circle must factor through a finite, abelian quotient of D. The proof relies on the fact, proved by D.Carter, G.Keller, and E.Paige, that SL(2,A) is boundedly generated by unipotents whenever A is a ring of integers with infinitely many units. The assumption that G has more than one noncompact simple factor can be eliminated if all noncocompact lattices in SL(3,R) and SL(3,C) are virtually boundedly generated by unipotents.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0604612

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zbMATH Keywords

Lie groupirreducible latticeunipotents

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Discrete subgroups of Lie groups (22E40) Semisimple Lie groups and their representations (22E46)

Cited In (10)

• Arithmetic Groups of Higher ℚ-Rank Cannot Act on 1-Manifolds
• On the dynamics of (left) orderable groups.
• Can lattices in \(\mathrm{SL}(n,\mathbb R)\) act on the circle?
• Some arithmetic groups that do not act on the circle
• Almost-minimal nonuniform lattices of higher rank
• Uniformly perfect finitely generated simple left orderable groups
• Bounded generation does not imply finite presentation
• Minimal anisotropic groups of higher real rank
• \(C^1\) actions on manifolds by lattices in Lie groups
• Noncoherence of arithmetic hyperbolic lattices

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