arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to George Willis.
We prove that every infinite subgroup of a higher rank irreducible lattice in a semi-simple Lie group has finite index in the lattice, proving the Margulis-Zimmer conjecture for these lattices. The method of proof combines the method used in a work of Shalom and Willis and also some work of Raghunathan and Venkataramana.
It is shown that a flat subgroup, $H$, of the totally disconnected, locally compact group $G$ decomposes into a finite number of subsemigroups on which the scale function is multiplicative. The image, $P$, of a multiplicative semigroup in the quotient, $H/H(1)$, of $H$ by its uniscalar subgroup has a unique minimal generating set which determines a natural Cayley graph structure on $P$. For each compact, open subgroup $U$ of $G$, a graph is defined and it is shown that if $P$ is multiplicative over $U$ then this graph is a regular, rooted, strongly simple $P$-graph. This extends to higher rank the result of R. Möller that $U$ is tidy for $x$ if and only if a certain graph is a regular, rooted tree.
For each Baumslag-Solitar group BS(m,n) (m,n nonzero integers), a totally disconnected, locally compact group, G_{m,n}, is constructed so that BS(m,n) is identified with a dense subgroup of G_{m,n}. The scale function on G_{m,n}, a structural invariant for the topological group, is seen to distinguish the parameters m and n to the extent that the set of scale values is {(lcm(m,n)/|m|)^ρ, (lcm(m,n)/|n|)^ρ | ρ\in N}. It is also shown that G_{m,n} has flat rank 1 when |m|\neq |n| and 0 otherwise, and that G_{m,n} has a compact, open subgroup isomorphic to the product {(Z_p,+) | p is a prime divisor of the scale}.
To any automorphism, $α$, of a totally disconnected, locally compact group, $G$, there is associated a compact, $α$-stable subgroup of $G$, here called the \emph{nub} of $α$, on which the action of $α$ is topologically transitive. Topologically transitive actions of automorphisms of compact groups have been studied extensively in topological dynamics and results obtained transfer, via the nub, to the study of automorphisms of general locally compact groups. A new proof that the contraction group of $α$ is dense in the nub is given, but it is seen that the two-sided contraction group need not be dense. It is also shown that each pair $(G,α)$, with $G$ compact and $α$ topologically transitive, is an inverse limit of pairs that have `finite depth' and that analogues of the Schreier Refinement and Jordan-Hölder Theorems hold for pairs with finite depth.
We study Hecke algebras of groups acting on trees with respect to geometrically defined subgroups. In particular, we consider Hecke algebras of groups of automorphisms of locally finite trees with respect to vertex and edge stabilizers and the stabilizer of an end relative to a vertex stabilizer, assuming that the actions are sufficiently transitive. We focus on identifying the structure of the resulting Hecke algebras, give explicit multiplication tables of the canonical generators and determine whether the Hecke algebra has a universal C*-completion. The paper unifies past algebraic and analytic approaches by focusing on the common geometric thread.The results have implications for the general theory of totally disconnected locally compact groups.