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Sami Douba

Publications and source records attributed to Sami Douba.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Convex cocompact right-angled Gromov-Thurston polyhedra

Lee and Marquis exhibited convex cocompact hyperbolic reflection groups in dimension 5 whose limit sets are homeomorphic to the 3-sphere, but none of whose finite-index subgroups can be realized as 4-dimensional real hyperbolic lattices. Using different methods, we furnish right-angled examples.

math.GT

On transversality in flag manifolds and linearity of amalgams

We show that the fundamental group of the double of a complete negatively curved locally symmetric manifold along a closed geodesic is linear. More generally, we establish linearity of doubles of torsion-free transverse subgroups (also known in the literature as regular antipodal subgroups) of semisimple Lie groups along biproximal maximal cyclic subgroups.

math.GR

Convex cocompact groups with three-dimensional limit sets

We provide a general construction of convex cocompact hyperbolic reflection groups with three-dimensional limit sets. More precisely, our construction takes as input an arbitrary simplicial complex L of dimension 3 on n vertices, and outputs a convex cocompact right-angled reflection group acting on real hyperbolic n-space whose nerve is precisely the Przytycki-\'Swi\k{a}tkowski subdivision of L. Moreover, the output reflection group is a thin subgroup of an n-dimensional cocompact arithmetic hyperbolic lattice. This answers affirmatively a question of M. Kapovich concerning the existence of a convex cocompact group acting on some real hyperbolic space with limit set a \v{C}ech cohomology sphere other than the standard sphere.

math.GR

Matrix entries, unipotents, and linearity of amalgams

We investigate linearity of amalgams of subgroups of algebraic groups along intersections with algebraic subgroups. In the process, we establish linearity of certain "doubles" of linear groups, and obtain new examples of finitely generated residually finite groups that fail to be linear.

math.GR

Quasihomomorphisms to real algebraic groups

A quasihomomorphism is a map that satisfies the homomorphism relation up to bounded error. Fujiwara and Kapovich proved a rigidity result for quasihomomorphisms taking values in discrete groups, showing that all quasihomomorphisms can be built from homomorphisms and sections of bounded central extensions. We study quasihomomorphisms with values in real linear algebraic groups, and prove an analogous rigidity theorem.

math.GR

On reflections of congruence hyperbolic manifolds

We show that the standard method for constructing closed hyperbolic manifolds of arbitrary dimension possessing reflective symmetries typically produces reflections whose fixed point sets are nonseparating.

math.GT

Ping-pong in the projective plane over a nonarchimedean field

We show that any lattice in $\mathrm{SL}_3(k)$, where $k$ is a nonarchimedean local field, contains an undistorted subgroup isomorphic to the free product $\mathbb{Z}^2*\mathbb{Z}$. To our knowledge, the subgroups we construct give the first examples in the literature of finitely generated discrete subgroups of nonarchimedean Lie groups that are not virtually isomorphic to lattices in such Lie groups. Our result is in contrast to the case of $\mathrm{SL}_3(\mathbb{Z})$, in which the existence of a $\mathbb{Z}^2*\mathbb{Z}$ subgroup remains open.

math.GR

Zariski-Closures of Linear Reflection Groups

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a linear reflection group in the sense of Vinberg to be Zariski-dense in the ambient projective general linear group. As an application, we show that every irreducible right-angled Coxeter group of rank $N \geq 3$ virtually embeds Zariski-densely in $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{Z})$ for all $n \geq N$. This allows us to settle the existence of Zariski-dense surface subgroups of $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{Z})$ for all $n \geq 3$. Among the other applications are examples of Zariski-dense one-ended finitely generated subgroups of $\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{Z})$ that are not finitely presented for all $n \geq 6$.

math.GT

Convex cocompact groups in real hyperbolic spaces with limit set a Pontryagin sphere

We exhibit two examples of convex cocompact subgroups of the isometry groups of real hyperbolic spaces with limit set a Pontryagin sphere: one generated by $50$ reflections of $\mathbb{H}^4$, and the other by a rotation of order $21$ and a reflection of $\mathbb{H}^6$. For each of them, we also locate convex cocompact subgroups with limit set a Menger curve.

math.GT

Density of systoles of hyperbolic manifolds

We show that for each $n \geq 2$, the systoles of closed hyperbolic $n$-manifolds form a dense subset of $(0, +\infty)$. We also show that for any $n\geq 2$ and any Salem number $\lambda$, there is a closed arithmetic hyperbolic $n$-manifold of systole $\log(\lambda)$. In particular, the Salem conjecture holds if and only if the systoles of closed arithmetic hyperbolic manifolds in some (any) dimension fail to be dense in $(0, +\infty)$.

math.GT

Systoles of hyperbolic hybrids

We exhibit closed hyperbolic manifolds with arbitrarily small systole in each dimension that are not quasi-arithmetic in the sense of Vinberg, and are thus not commensurable to those constructed by Agol, Belolipetsky--Thomson, and Bergeron--Haglund--Wise. This is done by taking hybrids of the manifolds constructed by the latter authors.

math.GR

Cubulated hyperbolic groups admit Anosov representations

We prove that any hyperbolic group acting properly discontinuously and cocompactly on a $\mathrm{CAT}(0)$ cube complex admits a projective Anosov representation into $\mathrm{SL}(d, \mathbb{R})$ for some $d$. More specifically, we show that if $\Gamma$ is a hyperbolic quasiconvex subgroup of a right-angled Coxeter group $C$, then a generic representation of $C$ by reflections restricts to a projective Anosov representation of $\Gamma$.

math.GR

On regular subgroups of $\mathsf{SL}_3(\mathbb{R})$

Motivated by a question of M. Kapovich, we show that the $\mathbb{Z}^2$ subgroups of $\mathsf{SL}_3(\mathbb{R})$ that are regular in the language of Kapovich--Leeb--Porti, or divergent in the sense of Guichard--Wienhard, are precisely the lattices in minimal horospherical subgroups. This rules out any relative Anosov subgroups of $\mathsf{SL}_3(\mathbb{R})$ that are not in fact Gromov-hyperbolic. By work of Oh, it also follows that a Zariski-dense discrete subgroup $\Gamma$ of $\mathsf{SL}_3(\mathbb{R})$ contains a regular $\mathbb{Z}^2$ if and only if $\Gamma$ is commensurable to a conjugate of $\mathsf{SL}_3(\mathbb{Z})$. In particular, a Zariski-dense regular subgroup of $\mathsf{SL}_3(\mathbb{R})$ contains no $\mathbb{Z}^2$ subgroups.

math.GR

Geometric and arithmetic properties of L\"obell polyhedra

The L\"obell polyhedra form an infinite family of compact right-angled hyperbolic polyhedra in dimension $3$. We observe, through both elementary and more conceptual means, that the ``systoles'' of the L\"obell polyhedra approach $0$, so that these polyhedra give rise to particularly straightforward examples of closed hyperbolic $3$-manifolds with arbitrarily small systole, and constitute an infinite family even up to commensurability. By computing number theoretic invariants of these polyhedra, we refine the latter result, and also determine precisely which of the L\"obell polyhedra are quasi-arithmetic.

math.GT

Anosov groups that are indiscrete in rank one

We exhibit Anosov subgroups of $\mathsf{SL}_d(\mathbb{R})$ that do not embed discretely in any rank-$1$ simple Lie group of noncompact type, or indeed, in any finite product of such Lie groups. These subgroups are isomorphic to free products $\Gamma * \Delta$, where $\Gamma$ is a uniform lattice in $\mathsf{F}_4^{(-20)}$ and $\Delta$ is a uniform lattice in $\mathsf{Sp}(m,1)$, $m \geq 51$.

math.GR