Generic Phenomena in Groups -- Some Answers and Many Questions
We give a survey of some known results and of the many open questions in the study of generic phenomena in geometrically interesting groups.
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arXiv subjects
Igor Rivin
Publications and source records attributed to Igor Rivin.
The distribution of zeros of the derivative of a random polynomial
In this note we initiate the probabilistic study of the critical points of polynomials of large degree with a given distribution of roots. Namely, let f be a polynomial of degree n whose zeros are chosen IID from a probability measure mu on the complex numbers. We conjecture that the zero set of f' always converges in distribution to mu as n goes to infinity. We prove this for measures with finite one-dimensional energy. When mu is uniform on the unit circle this condition fails. In this special case the zero set of f' converges in distribution to that the IID Gaussian random power series, a well known determinantal point process.
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Rigidity of Fibering
Given a manifold M, it is natural to ask in how many ways it fibers (we mean fibering in a general way, where the base might be an orbifold -- this could be described as Seifert fibering)There are group-theoretic obstructions to the existence of even one fibering, and in some cases (such as Kahler manifolds or three-dimensional manifolds) the question reduces to a group-theoretic question. In this note we summarize the author's state of knowledge of the subject.
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Geodesics with one self-intersection, and other stories
In this note we show that for any hyperbolic surface S, the number of geodesics of length bounded above by L in the mapping class group orbit of a fixed closed geodesic with a single double point is asymptotic to L raised to the dimension of the Teichmuller space of S. Since closed geodesics with one double point fall into a finite number of orbits under the mapping class group of S, we get the same asympotic estimate for the number of such geodesics of length bounded by L. We also use our (elementary) methods to do a more precise study of geodesics with a single double point on a punctured torus, including an extension of McShane's identity to such geodesics. In the second part of the paper we study the question of when a covering of the boundary of an oriented surface S can be extended to a covering of the surface S itself, we obtain a complete answer to that question, and also to the question of when we can further require the extension to be a \emph{regular} covering of S. We also analyze the question (first raised by K. Bou-Rabee) of the minimal index of a subgroup in a surface group which does not contain a given element. We give a (conjecturally) sharp result graded by the depth of an element in the lower central series, as well as "ungraded" results.
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Walks on Free Groups and other Stories -- twelve years later
We start by studying the distribution of (cyclically reduced) elements of the free groups Fn with respect to their abelianization (or equivalently, their integer homology class. We derive an explicit generating function, and a limiting distribution, by means of certain results (of independent interest) on Chebyshev polynomials; we also prove that the reductions modulo an arbitrary prime of these classes are asymptotically equidistributed, and we study the deviation from equidistribution. We extend our techniques to a more general setting and use them to study the statistical properties of long cycles (and paths) on regular (directed and undirected) graphs. We return to the free group to study some growth functions of the number of conjugacy classes as a function of their cyclically reduced length.
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On extension of coverings
We address the question of when a covering of the boundary of a surface can be extended to a covering of the surface (equivalently: when is there a branched cover with a prescribed monodromy). If such an extension is possible, when can the total space be taken to be connected? When can the extension be taken to be regular? We give necessary and sufficient conditions for both finite and infinite covers (infinite covers are our main focus). In order to prove our results, we show group-theoretic results of independent interests, such as the following extension (and simplification) of the theorem of Ore}: every element of the infinite symmetric group is the commutator of two elements which, together, act transitively
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Simplices and spectra of graphs, continued
In this note we show that the n-2-dimensional volumes of codimension 2 faces of an n-dimensional simplex are algebraically independent quantities of the volumes of its edge-lengths. The proof involves computation of the eigenvalues of Kneser graphs. We also construct families of non-congurent simplices not determined by their codimension-2 areas.
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Simplices and spectra of graphs
In this note we show the n-2-dimensional volumes of codimension 2 faces of an n-dimensional simplex are algebraically independent functions of the lengths of edges. In order to prove this we compute the complete spectrum of a combinatorially interesting graph.
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Asymptotics of Convex sets in En and Hn
We study convex sets C of finite (but non-zero volume in Hn and En. We show that the intersection of any such set with the ideal boundary of Hn has Minkowski (and thus Hausdorff) dimension of at most (n-1)/2, and this bound is sharp. In the hyperbolic case we show that for any k <= (n-1)/2 there is a bounded section S of C through any prescribed point p, and we show an upper bound on the radius of the ball centered at p containing such a section. We show similar bounds for sections through the origin of convex body in En, and give asymptotic estimates as 1 << k << n.
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Walks on groups, counting reducible matrices, polynomials, and surface and free group automorphisms
We prove sharp limit theorems on random walks on graphs with values in finite groups. We then apply these results (together with some elementary algebraic geometry, number theory, and representation theory) to finite quotients of lattices in semisimple Lie groups (specifically SL(n,Z) and Sp(2n, Z) to show that a ``random'' element in one of these lattices has irreducible characteristic polynomials (over the integers. The term ``random'' can be defined in at least two ways (in terms of height and also in terms of word length in terms of a generating set) -- we show the result using both definitions. We use the above results to show that a random (in terms of word length) element of the mapping class group of a surface is pseudo-Anosov, and that a a random free group automorphism is irreducible with irreducible powers (or strongly irreducible).
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Walks on graphs and lattices -- effective bounds and applications
We consider the following situation: G is a finite directed graph, where to each vertex of G is assigned an element of a finite group Gamma. We consider all walks of length N on G, starting from v_i and ending at v_j To each such walk $w$ we assign the element of Gamma equal to the product of the elements along the walk. The set of all walks of length N from v_i to v_j thus induces a probability distribution $F_N on Gamma In previous work we have given necessary and sufficient conditions for the limit as N goes to infinity of F_N to exist and to be the uniform density on Gamma. The convergence speed is then exponential in N. In this paper we consider (G, Gamma) where Gamma is a group possessing Kazhdan's property T (or, less restrictively, property tau with respect to representations with finite image), and a family of homomorphismsψ_k: Gamma -> Gamma_k with finite image. Each F_N induces a distribution $F_{N, k} on Gamma_k (by push-forward). Our main result is that, under mild technical assumptions, the exponential rate of convergence of $F_{N, k} to the uniform distribution on Gamma_k does not depend on k. As an application, we prove effective versions of the results of the author on the probability that a random (in a suitable sence) element of SL(n, Z) or Sp(n, Z) has irreducible characteristic polynomial, generic Galois group, etc.
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Counting Reducible Matrices, Polynomials, and Surface and Free Group Automorphisms
We give upper bounds on the numbers of various classes of polynomials reducible over the integers and over integers modulo a prime and on the number of matrices in SL(n), GL(n) and Sp(2n) with reducible characteristic polynomials, and on polynomials with non-generic Galois groups. We use our result to show that a random (in the appropriate sense) element of the mapping class group of a closed surface is pseudo-Anosov, and that a random automorphism of a free group is strongly irreducible (aka irreducible with irreducible powers). We also give a necessary condition for all powers of an algebraic integers to be of the same degree, and give a simple proof (in the Appendix) that the distribution of cycle structures modulo a prime p for polynomials with a restricted coefficient is the same as that for general polynomials.
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On the absence of McShane-type identities for the outer space
A remarkable result of McShane states that for a punctured torus with a complete finite volume hyperbolic metric we have \[ \sum_γ \frac{1}{e^{\ell(γ)}+1}={1/2} \] where $γ$ varies over the homotopy classes of essential simple closed curves and $\ell(γ)$ is the length of the geodesic representative of $γ$. We prove that there is no reasonable analogue of McShane's identity for the Culler-Vogtmann outer space of a free group.
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Volumes and degeneration -- on a conjecture of J. W. Milnor
In his paper "On the Schlafli differential equality", J. Milnor conjectured that the volume of n-dimensional hyperbolic and spherical simplices, as a function of the dihedral angles, extends continuously to the closure of the space of allowable angles (``The continuity conjecture''), and furthermore, the limit at a boundary point is equal to 0 if and only if the point lies in the closure of the space of angles of Euclidean tetrahedra (``the Vanishing Conjecture''). A proof of the Continuity Conjecture was given by F. Luo -- Luo's argument uses Kneser's formula for the volume together with some delicate geometric estimates). In this paper we give a simple proof of both parts of Milnor's conjecture, prove much sharper regularity results, and then extend the method to apply to all convex polytopes. We also give a precise description of the boundary of the space of angles of convex polyhedra in and sharp estimates on the diameter of a polyhedron in terms of the length of the shortest closed geodesic of the polar metric.
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A simpler proof of Mirzakhani's simple curve asymptotics
Maryam Mirzakhani (in her doctoral dissertation) has proved the author's conjecture that the number of simple curves of length bounded by L on a hyperbolic surface S is assymptotic to a constant times L to the power d, where d is the dimension of the Teichmuller space of S. In this note we clarify and simplify Mirzakhani's argument.
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Densities in free groups and $\mathbb{Z}^k$, Visible Points and Test Elements
In this article we relate two different densities. Let $F_k$ be the free group of finite rank $k \ge 2$ and let $α$ be the abelianization map from $F_k$ onto $ \mathbb{Z}^k$. We prove that if $S \subseteq \mathbb{Z}^k$ is invariant under the natural action of $SL(k, \mathbb{Z})$ then the asymptotic density of $S$ in $\mathbb Z^k$ and the annular density of its full preimage $α^{-1}(S)$ in $F_k$ are equal. This implies, in particular, that for every integer $t\ge 1$, the annular density of the set of elements in $F_k$ that map to $t$-th powers of primitive elements in $\mathbb{Z}^k$ is equal to to $\frac{1}{t^kζ(k)}$, where $ζ$ is the Riemann zeta-function. An element $g$ of a group $G$ is called a \emph{test element} if every endomorphism of $G$ which fixes $g$ is an automorphism of $G$. As an application of the result above we prove that the annular density of the set of all test elements in the free group $F(a,b)$ of rank two is $1-\frac{6}{π^2}$. Equivalently, this shows that the union of all proper retracts in $F(a,b)$ has annular density $\frac{6}{π^2}$. Thus being a test element in $F(a,b)$ is an ``intermediate property'' in the sense that the probability of being a test element is strictly between 0 and 1.
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Triangulations into Groups
If a (cusped) surface S admits an ideal triangulation T with no shears, we show an efficient algorithm to give S as a quotient of hypebolic plane by a subgroup of PSL(2, Z). The algorithm runs in time O(n log n), where n is the number of triangles in the triangulation T. The algorithm generalizes to producing fundamental groups of general surfaces and geometric manifolds of higher dimension.
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