arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Romain Tessera.
We construct a finitely generated group which is an extension of two finitely generated groups coarsely embeddable into Hilbert space but which itself does not coarsely embed into Hilbert space. Our construction also provides a new infinite monster group: the first example of a finitely generated group that does not coarsely embed into Hilbert space and yet does not contain a weakly embedded expander.
We show that Gromov's monster groups arising from i.i.d. labelings of expander graphs do not admit non-elementary actions on geodesic hyperbolic spaces. The proof relies on comparing properties of random walks on randomly labeled graphs and on groups acting non-elementarily on hyperbolic spaces.
A locally compact group $G$ has property PL if every isometric $G$-action either has bounded orbits or is (metrically) proper. For $p>1$, say that $G$ has property $BP_{L^p}$ if the same alternative holds for the smaller class of affine isometric actions on $L^p$-spaces. We explore properties PL and $BP_{L^p}$ and prove that they are equivalent for some interesting classes of groups: abelian groups, amenable almost connected Lie groups, amenable linear algebraic groups over a local field of characteristic 0. The appendix by Corina Ciobotaru provides new examples of groups with property PL, including non-linear ones.
We study the Dehn function of connected Lie groups. We show that this function is always exponential or polynomially bounded, according to the geometry of weights and of the 2-cohomology of their Lie algebras. Our work, which also addresses algebraic groups over local fields, uses and extends Abels' theory of multiamalgams of graded Lie algebras, in order to provide workable presentations of these groups.
We exhibit a finitely generated group $G$ and a sequence of finite index normal subgroups $N_n\trianglelefteq G$ such that for every finite generating subset $S\subseteq G$, the sequence of finite Cayley graphs $(G/N_n, S)$ does not coarsely embed into any $L^p$-space for $1\leqslant p<\infty$ (moreover, into any uniformly curved Banach space), and yet admits no weakly embedded expander. The reason why our examples do not coarsely embed is a new phenomenon called relative expansion, which we define in terms of Poincaré inequalities.
A vertex-transitive graph X is called local-to-global rigid if there exists R such that every other graph whose balls of radius R are isometric to the balls of radius R in X is covered by X. Let $d\geq 4$. We show that the 1-skeleton of an affine Bruhat-Tits building of type $\widetilde A_{d-1}$ is local-to-global rigid if and only if the underlying field has characteristic 0. For example the Bruhat-Tits building of $SL(d,F_p((t)))$ is not local-to-global rigid, while the Bruhat-Tits building of $SL(d,Q_p)$ is local-to-global rigid.
Our main result is an extension of Pansu's theorem to random metrics, where the edges of the Cayley are i.i.d. random variable with some finite exponential moment. Based on a previous work by the second author, the proof relies on Talagrand's concentration inequality, and on Pansu's theorem. Adapting a well-known argument for Z^d, we prove a sublinear estimate on the variance for virtually nilpotent groups which are not virtually isomorphic to Z. We further discuss the asymptotic cones of first-passage percolation on general infinite connected graphs: we prove that the asymptotic cones are a.e. deterministic if and only the volume growth is subexponential.
We give an elementary proof that Talagrand's sub-Gaussian concentration inequality implies a limit shape theorem for first passage percolation on any Cayley graph of Z^d, with a bound on the speed of convergence that slightly improves Alexander's bounds. Our approach, which does not use the subadditive theorem, is based on proving that the average distance is close to being geodesic. Our key observation, of independent interest, is that the problem of estimating the rate of convergence for the average distance is equivalent (in a precise sense) to estimating its "level of geodesicity".
Let $(X_n)$ be an unbounded sequence of finite, connected, vertex transitive graphs such that $ |X_n | = o(diam(X_n)^q)$ for some $q>0$. We show that up to taking a subsequence, and after rescaling by the diameter, the sequence $(X_n)$ converges in the Gromov Hausdorff distance to a torus of dimension $ 1$ sufficiently small, we prove, this time by elementary means, that $(X_n)$ converges to a circle.
Let $Γ_g$ be a surface group of genus $g\geq 2$. It is known that the canonical central extension $\tildeΓ_g$ and the direct product $Γ_g\times \mathbb{Z}$ are quasi-isometric. It is also easy to see that they are measure equivalent. By contrast, in this paper, we prove that quasi-isometry and measure equivalence cannot be achieved "in a compatible way". More precisely, these two groups are not uniform (nor even integrable) measure equivalent. In particular, they cannot act continuously, properly and cocompactly by isometries on the same proper metric space, or equivalently they are not uniform lattices in a same locally compact group.
We characterize those Lie groups, and algebraic groups over a local field of characteristic zero, whose first reduced L^p-cohomology is zero for all p>1, extending a result of Pansu. As an application, we obtain a description of Gromov-hyperbolic groups among those groups. In particular we prove that any non-elementary Gromov-hyperbolic algebraic group over a non-Archimedean local field of zero characteristic is quasi-isometric to a 3-regular tree. We also extend the study to semidirect products of a general locally compact group by a cyclic group acting by contracting automorphisms.
We give a complete characterization of the locally compact groups that are non-elementary Gromov-hyperbolic and amenable. They coincide with the class of mapping tori of discrete or continuous one-parameter groups of compacting automorphisms. We moreover give a description of all Gromov-hyperbolic locally compact groups with a cocompact amenable subgroup: modulo a compact normal subgroup, these turn out to be either rank one simple Lie groups, or automorphism groups of semi-regular trees acting doubly transitively on the set of ends. As an application, we show that the class of hyperbolic locally compact groups with a cusp-uniform non-uniform lattice, is very restricted.
We prove that Abels' group over an arbitrary nondiscrete locally compact field has a quadratic Dehn function. As applications, we exhibit connected Lie groups and polycyclic groups whose asymptotic cones have uncountable abelian fundamental group. We also obtain, from the case of finite characteristic, uncountably many non-quasi-isometric finitely generated solvable groups, as well as peculiar examples of fundamental groups of asymptotic cones.
We show that the space of left-orderings of a countable virtually solvable group is either finite or homeomorphic to a Cantor set. We also provide an explicit description of the space of left-orderings of $SOL=\Z^2\rtimes_T\Z$.
Initial steps are presented towards understanding which finitely generated groups are almost surely generated as semigroups by the path of a random walk on the group.
We consider finitely generated shift-invariant spaces (SIS) with additional invariance in $L^2(\R^d)$. We prove that if the generators and their translates form a frame, then they must satisfy some stringent restrictions on their behavior at infinity. Part of this work (non-trivially) generalizes recent results obtained in the special case of a principal shift-invariant spaces in $L^2(\R)$ whose generator and its translates form a Riesz basis.
We prove that groups in a certain class of metabelian locally compact groups, have quadratic Dehn function. As an application, we embed the solvable Baumslag-Solitar groups into finitely presented metabelian groups with quadratic Dehn function. Also, we prove that Baumslag's finitely presented metabelian groups, in which the lamplighter groups embed, have quadratic Dehn function.
We study a large class of amenable locally compact groups containing all solvable algebraic groups over a local field and their discrete subgroups. We show that the isoperimetric profile of these groups is in some sense optimal among amenable groups. We use this fact to compute the probability of return of symmetric random walks, and to derive various other geometric properties which are likely to be only satisfied by these groups.