arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Kevin Schreve.
The action dimension of a discrete group $G$ is the minimum dimension of contractible manifold that admits a proper $G$-action. We compute the action dimension of the direct limit of a simple complex of groups for several classes of examples including: 1) Artin groups, 2) graph products of groups, and 3) fundamental groups of aspherical complements of arrangements of affine hyperplanes.
The Thurston norm of a 3-manifold measures the complexity of surfaces representing two-dimensional homology classes. We study the possible unit balls of Thurston norms of 3-manifolds $M$ with $b_1(M) = 2$, and whose fundamental groups admit presentations with two generators and one relator. We show that even among this special class, there are 3-manifolds such that the unit ball of the Thurston norm has arbitrarily many faces.
The action dimension of a group G is the minimal dimension of a contractible manifold that G acts on properly discontinuously. We show that if G acts properly and cocompactly on a thick Euclidean building, then the action dimension is bounded below by twice the dimension of the building. We also compute the action dimension of S-arithmetic groups over number fields, partially answering a question of Bestvina, Kapovich, and Kleiner.
Given a Coxeter system $(W,S)$ and a multiparameter $\mathbf{q}$ of real numbers indexed by $S$, one can define the weighted $L^2$-cohomology groups and associate to them a nonnegative real number called the weighted $L^2$-Betti number. We show that for ranges of $\mathbf{q}$ depending on certain subgroups of $W$, the weighted $L^2$-cohomology groups of $W$ are concentrated in low dimensions. We then prove new vanishing results for the weighted $L^2$-cohomology of certain low-dimensional Coxeter groups. Our arguments rely on computing the $L^2$-cohomology of certain complexes called ruins, as well as the resolution of the Strong Atiyah Conjecture for hyperbolic Coxeter groups. We conclude by extending to the weighted setting the computations of Davis and Okun for the case where the nerve of a right-angled Coxeter group is the barycentric subdivision of a PL-cellulation of an $(n-1)$-manifold with $n=6,8$.
In 1976 Thurston associated to a $3$-manifold $N$ a marked polytope in $H_1(N;\mathbb{R}),$ which measures the minimal complexity of surfaces representing homology classes and determines all fibered classes in $H^1(N;\mathbb{R})$. Recently the first and the last author associated to a presentation $π$ with two generators and one relator a marked polytope in $H_1(π;\mathbb{R})$ and showed that it determines the Bieri-Neumann-Strebel invariant of $π$. In this paper, we show that if the fundamental group of a 3-manifold $N$ admits such a presentation $π$, then the corresponding marked polytopes in $H_1(N;\mathbb{R})=H_1(π;\mathbb{R})$ agree.
The action dimension of a discrete group $Γ$ is the smallest dimension of a contractible manifold which admits a proper action of $Γ$. Associated to any flag complex $L$ there is a right-angled Artin group, $A_L$. We compute the action dimension of $A_L$ for many $L$. Our calculations come close to confirming the conjecture that if an $\ell^2$-Betti number of $A_L$ in degree $l$ is nonzero, then the action dimension of $A_L$ is $\ge 2l$.
We study group actions on manifolds that admit hierarchies, which generalizes the idea of Haken n-manifolds introduced by Foozwell and Rubinstein. We show that these manifolds satisfy the Singer conjecture in dimensions $n \le 4$. Our main application is to Coxeter groups whose Davis complexes are manifolds; we show that the natural action of these groups on the Davis complex has a hierarchy. Our second result is that the Singer conjecture is equivalent to the cocompact action dimension conjecture, which is a statement about all groups, not just fundamental groups of closed aspherical manifolds.
We provide new conditions for the Strong Atiyah conjecture to lift to finite group extensions. In particular, we show cocompact special groups satisfy these conditions, so the Strong Atiyah conjecture holds for virtually cocompact special groups.