arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Dennis Dreesen.
We give a means of estimating the equivariant compression of a group G in terms of properties of open subgroups G_i whose direct limit is G. Quantifying a result by S.R. Gal, we also study the behaviour of the equivariant compression under amalgamated free products G1*_H G2 where H is of finite index in both G_1 and G_2.
In the last years, there has been a large amount of research on embeddability properties of finitely generated hyperbolic groups. In this paper, we elaborate on the more general class of locally compact hyperbolic groups. We compute the equivariant $L_p$-compression in a number of locally compact examples, such as the groups $SO(n,1)$: by proving that the equivariant $L_p$-compression of a locally compact compactly generated group is minimal for $p=2$, we calculate all equivariant $L_p$-compressions of $SO(n,1)$. Next, we show that although there are locally compact, non-discrete hyperbolic groups $G$ with Kazhdan's property ($T$), it is true that any locally compact hyperbolic group admits a proper affine isometric action on an $L_p$-space for $p$ larger than the Ahlfors regular conformal dimension of $\partial G$. This answers a question asked by Yves de Cornulier. Finally, we elaborate on the locally compact version of property $(A)$ and show that, as in the discrete case, a locally compact second countable group has property (A) if its non-equivariant compression is greater than 1/2.
The Haagerup property, which is a strong converse of Kazhdan's property $(T)$, has translations and applications in various fields of mathematics such as representation theory, harmonic analysis, operator K-theory and so on. Moreover, this group property implies the Baum-Connes conjecture and related Novikov conjecture. The Haagerup property is not preserved under arbitrary group extensions and amalgamated free products over infinite groups, but it is preserved under wreath products and amalgamated free products over finite groups. In this paper, we show that it is also preserved under graph products. We moreover give bounds on the equivariant and non-equivariant $L_p$-compressions of a graph product in terms of the corresponding compressions of the vertex groups. Finally, we give an upper bound on the asymptotic dimension in terms of the asymptotic dimensions of the vertex groups. This generalizes a result from Dranishnikov on the asymptotic dimension of right-angled Coxeter groups.
Given two finitely generated groups that coarsely embed into a Hilbert space, it is known that their wreath product also embeds coarsely into a Hilbert space. We introduce a wreath product construction for general metric spaces X,Y,Z and derive a condition, called the (delta-polynomial) path lifting property, such that coarse embeddability of X,Y and Z implies coarse embeddability of X\wr_Z Y. We also give bounds on the compression of X\wr_Z Y in terms of delta and the compressions of X,Y and Z. Next, we investigate the stability of the property of admitting a box space which coarsely embeds into a Hilbert space under the taking of wreath products. We show that if an infinite finitely generated residually finite group H has a coarsely embeddable box space, then G\wr H has a coarsely embeddable box space if G is finitely generated abelian. This leads, in particular, to new examples of bounded geometry coarsely embeddable metric spaces without property A.
All sigma-compact, locally compact groups acting sharply n-transitively and continuously on compact spaces M have been classified, except for n=2,3 when M is infinite and disconnected. We show that no such actions exist for n=2 and that these actions for n=3 coincide with the action of a hyperbolic group on a space equivariantly homeomorphic to its hyperbolic boundary. We further give a characterization of non-compact groups acting 3-properly and transitively on infinite compact sets as non-elementary boundary transitive hyperbolic groups. The main tool is a generalization to locally compact groups of Bowditch's topological characterization of hyperbolic groups. Finally, in contrast to the case n=3, we show that for n>3, if a locally compact group acts continuously, n-properly and n-cocompactly on a locally connected metrizable compactum M, then M has a local cut point.
We find bounds on the Hilbert space compression of the limit of a directed metric system of groups. We also give estimates on the Hilbert space compression of group extensions of a group $H$ by a a word-hyperbolic group or a group of polynomial growth.
Given the Hilbert space compression of two groups, we find bounds on the Hilbert space compression of their free product. We also investigate the Hilbert space compression of an HNN-extension of a group relative to a finite normal subgroup or a finite index subgroup.
Given a closed connected Riemannian manifold M and a connected Riemannian manifold N, we study fiberwise volume decreasing diffeomorphisms on the product M x N. Our main theorem shows that in the presence of certain cohomological condition on M and N such diffeomorphisms must map a fiber diffeomorphically onto another fiber and are therefore fiber volume preserving. As a first corollary, we show that the isometries of M x N split. We also study properly discontinuous actions of a discrete group on M x N. In this case, we generalize the first Bieberbach theorem and prove a special case of an extension of Talelli's conjecture.