arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Clara Loeh.
We establish a straightforward estimate for the number of open sets with fundamental group constraints needed to cover the total space of fibrations. This leads to vanishing results for simplicial volume and minimal volume entropy, e.g., for certain mapping tori.
A one-relator group is a group $G_r$ that admits a presentation $\langle S \mid r \rangle$ with a single relation $r$. One-relator groups form a rich classically studied class of groups in Geometric Group Theory. If $r \in F(S)'$, the commutator subgroup of $F(S)$, we introduce the simplicial volume of $\| G_r \|$. We relate this invariant to the stable commutator length $\textrm{scl}_S(r)$ of the element $r \in F(S)$. We show that often (though not always) the linear relationship $\| G_r \| = 4 \cdot \textrm{scl}_S(r) - 2$ holds and that every rational number modulo $1$ is the simplicial volume of a one-relator group. Moreover, we show that this relationship holds approximately for proper powers and for elements satisfying the small cancellation condition $C'(1/N)$, with a multiplicative error of $O(1/N)$. This allows us to prove for random elements of $F(S)'$ of length $n$ that $\| G_r \|$ is $2 \log(2 |S| - 1)/3 \cdot n / \log(n) + o(n/\log(n))$ with high probability, using an analogous result of Calegari-Walker for stable commutator length.
We show that non-elliptic prime 3-manifolds satisfy integral approximation for the simplicial volume, i.e., that their simplicial volume equals the stable integral simplicial volume. The proof makes use of integral foliated simplicial volume and tools from ergodic theory.
We show that the epimorphism problem is solvable for targets that are virtually cyclic or a product of an Abelian group and a finite group.
Amenable category is a variant of the Lusternik-Schnirelman category, based on covers by amenable open subsets. We study the monotonicity problem for degree-one maps and amenable category and the relation between amenable category and topological complexity.
We show that there exist closed manifolds with arbitrarily small transcendental simplicial volumes. Moreover, we exhibit an explicit uncountable family of (transcendental) real numbers that are not realised as the simplicial volume of a closed manifold.
We show that, in dimension at least $4$, the set of locally finite simplicial volumes of oriented connected open manifolds is $[0, \infty]$. Moreover, we consider the case of tame open manifolds and some low-dimensional examples.
New constructions in group homology allow us to manufacture high-dimensional manifolds with controlled simplicial volume. We prove that for every dimension bigger than 3 the set of simplicial volumes of orientable closed connected manifolds is dense in $\mathbb{R}_{\geq 0}$. In dimension 4 we prove that every non-negative rational number is the simplicial volume of some orientable closed connected 4-manifold. Our group theoretic results relate stable commutator length to the $l^1$-semi-norm of certain singular homology classes in degree 2. The output of these results is translated into manifold constructions using cross-products and Thom realisation.
Gromov and Ivanov established an analogue of Leray's theorem on cohomology of contractible covers for bounded cohomology of amenable covers. We present an alternative proof of this fact, using classifying spaces of families of subgroups.
We show that the Connes-Consani semi-norm on singular homology with real coefficients, defined via s-modules, coincides with the ordinary $\ell^1$-semi-norm on singular homology in all dimensions.
We define and study generalizations of simplicial volume over arbitrary seminormed rings with a focus on $p$-adic simplicial volumes. We investigate the dependence on the prime and establish homology bounds in terms of $p$-adic simplicial volumes. As the main examples we compute the weightless and $p$-adic simplicial volumes of surfaces. This gives a way to calculate classical simplicial volume of surfaces without hyperbolic straightening and shows that surfaces satisfy mod $p$ and $p$-adic approximation of simplicial volume.
We introduce polynomially weighted $\ell^p$-norms on the bar complex of a finitely generated group. We prove that, for groups of polynomial or exponential growth, the homology of the completed complex does not depend on the value of $p$ in the range $(1,\infty)$.
For primes $p$, we investigate an $\mathbb{F}_p$-version of simplicial volume and compare these invariants with their siblings over other coefficient rings. We will also consider the associated gradient invariants, obtained by stabilisation along finite coverings. Throughout, we will discuss the relation between such simplicial volumes and Betti numbers.
We show that integral foliated simplicial volume of closed manifolds gives an upper bound for the cost of the corresponding fundamental groups.
We introduce the notion of residual finiteness for categories. In analogy with the group-theoretic setting, we prove that free categories and finitely generated subcategories of finite-dimensional vector spaces are residually finite. Moreover, finitely generated residually finite categories are Hopfian and finitely presented residually finite categories have solvable word problem.
The uniform boundary condition in a normed chain complex asks for a uniform linear bound on fillings of null-homologous cycles. For the $\ell^1$-norm on the singular chain complex, Matsumoto and Morita established a characterisation of the uniform boundary condition in terms of bounded cohomology. In particular, spaces with amenable fundamental group satisfy the uniform boundary condition in every degree. We will give an alternative proof of statements of this type, using geometric Følner arguments on the chain level instead of passing to the dual cochain complex. These geometric methods have the advantage that they also lead to integral refinements. In particular, we obtain applications in the context of integral foliated simplicial volume.
Graph manifolds are manifolds that decompose along tori into pieces with a tame $S^1$-structure. In this paper, we prove that the simplicial volume of graph manifolds (which is known to be zero) can be approximated by integral simplicial volumes of their finite coverings. This gives a uniform proof of the vanishing of rank gradients, Betti number gradients and torsion homology gradients for graph manifolds.
By Gromov's mapping theorem for bounded cohomology, the projection of a group to the quotient by an amenable normal subgroup is isometric on group homology with respect to the $\ell^1$-semi-norm. Gromov's description of the diffusion of cycles also implicitly produces efficient cycles in this situation. We present an elementary version of this explicit construction.