arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Simon André.
We prove that $\mathrm{SL}_3(\mathbb{Z})$ contains a non-split sharply 2-transitive subgroup, answering a question of Glasner and Gulko. We also prove that $\mathrm{SL}_4(\mathbb{Z})$ contains a non-split sharply 3-transitive subgroup, but that $\mathrm{SL}_3(\mathbb{Z})$ does not contain an infinite sharply 3-transitive subgroup.
We prove that affine Coxeter groups, even hyperbolic Coxeter groups and one-ended hyperbolic Coxeter groups are homogeneous in the sense of model theory. More generally, we prove that many (Gromov) hyperbolic groups generated by torsion elements are homogeneous. In contrast, we construct split crystallographic groups that are not homogeneous, and hyperbolic (in fact, virtually free) Coxeter groups that are not homogeneous (or, to be more precise, not $\mathrm{EAE}$-homogeneous). We also prove that, on the other hand, irreducible split crystallographic groups and torsion-generated hyperbolic groups are almost homogeneous. We also prove that finitely generated abelian-by-finite groups are homogeneous if and only if they are profinitely homogeneous, i.e., any tuple of words from the group is profinitely rigid. We use this to deduce that affine Coxeter groups are profinitely homogeneous, a result of independent interest in the profinite context.
By the work of Sela, for any free group $F$, the Coxeter group $W_3 = \mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z} \ast \mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z} \ast \mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ is elementarily equivalent to $W_3 \ast F$, and so Coxeter groups are not closed under elementary equivalence among finitely generated groups. We study what happens after restricting to models generated by finitely many torsion elements, which we call finitely torsion-generated. We prove that if $(W,S)$ is a Coxeter system whose irreducible components are finite, affine, or non-elementary hyperbolic, and $G$ is finitely torsion-generated and elementarily equivalent to $W$, then $G$ is a Coxeter group. This combines results from [22, 25] with the following hyperbolic result: if $W$ is a hyperbolic Coxeter group and $G$ is finitely torsion-generated and $\mathrm{AE}$-equivalent to $W$, then $G$ is isomorphic to one of finitely many Coxeter groups. We also construct two non-isomorphic hyperbolic Coxeter groups that are $\mathrm{AE}$-equivalent. We then consider first-order torsion-rigidity, meaning that $W$ is the only finitely torsion-generated model of its theory, and prove it for even hyperbolic Coxeter groups and for free products of one-ended or finite hyperbolic Coxeter groups. We conjecture that analogous phenomena hold for all Coxeter groups. Finally, we prove that elementarily equivalent even Coxeter groups are isomorphic, generalizing the analogous result for right-angled Coxeter groups from [11].
It is well-known that every sharply 2-transitive group of characteristic 3 splits. Here we construct the first examples of non-split sharply 2-transitive groups in odd positive characteristic $p$, for sufficiently large primes $p$. Furthermore, we show that any group without 2-torsion can be embedded into a non-split sharply 2-transitive group of characteristic $p$ for all sufficiently large primes $p$, yielding $2^{\aleph_0}$ many pairwise non-isomorphic countable non-split sharply 2-transitive groups in any sufficiently large characteristic.
We construct the first examples of infinite sharply 2-transitive groups which are finitely generated. Moreover, we construct such a group that has Kazhdan property (T), is simple, has exactly four conjugacy classes, and we show that this number is as small as possible.
We prove that two co-Hopfian finitely generated virtually free groups are elementarily equivalent if and only if they are isomorphic. We also prove that co-Hopfian finitely generated virtually free groups are homogeneous in the sense of model theory.
We construct simple sharply 2-transitive groups. Our result answers an open question of Peter Neumann. In fact, we prove that every sharply 2-transitive group of characteristic 0 embeds into a simple sharply 2-transitive group.
We generalise Merzlyakov's theorem about the first-order theory of non-abelian free groups to all acylindrically hyperbolic groups. As a corollary, we deduce that if $G$ is an acylindrically hyperbolic group and $E(G)$ denotes the unique maximal finite normal subgroup of $G$, then $G$ and the HNN extension $G\dot{\ast}_{E(G)}$, which is simply the free product $G\ast\mathbb{Z}$ when $E(G)$ is trivial, have the same $\forall\exists$-theory. As a consequence, we prove the following conjecture, formulated by Casals-Ruiz, Garreta and de la Nuez González: acylindrically hyperbolic groups have trivial positive theory. In particular, one recovers a result proved by Bestvina, Bromberg and Fujiwara, stating that, with only the obvious exceptions, verbal subgroups of acylindrically hyperbolic groups have infinite width.
Let $G$ be a finitely presented group, and let $H$ be a subgroup of $G$. We prove that if $H$ is acylindrically hyperbolic and existentially closed in $G$, then $G$ is acylindrically hyperbolic. As a corollary, any finitely presented group which is existentially equivalent to the mapping class group of a surface of finite type, to $\mathrm{Out}(F_n)$ or $\mathrm{Aut}(F_n)$ for $n\geq 2$ or to the Higman group, is acylindrically hyperbolic.
We give a description of elementary subgroups (in the sense of first-order logic) of finitely generated virtually free groups. In particular, we recover the fact that elementary subgroups of finitely generated free groups are free factors. Moreover, we give an algorithm that takes as input a finite presentation of a virtually free group $G$ and a finite subset $X$ of $G$, and decides if the subgroup of $G$ generated by $X$ is $\exists\forall\exists$-elementary. We also prove that every elementary embedding of an equationally noetherian group into itself is an automorphism.
We give a complete classification of finitely generated virtually free groups up to $\forall\exists$-elementary equivalence. As a corollary, we give an algorithm that takes as input two finite presentations of virtually free groups, and decides whether these groups have the same $\forall\exists$-theory or not.
Free groups are known to be homogeneous, meaning that finite tuples of elements which satisfy the same first-order properties are in the same orbit under the action of the automorphism group. We show that virtually free groups have a slightly weaker property, which we call uniform almost-homogeneity: the set of $k$-tuples which satisfy the same first-order properties as a given $k$-tuple $\mathbf{u}$ is the union of a finite number of $\mathrm{Aut}(G)$-orbits, and this number is bounded independently from $\mathbf{u}$ and $k$. Moreover, we prove that there exists a virtually free group which is not $\exists$-homogeneous. We also prove that all hyperbolic groups are homogeneous in a probabilistic sense.
The following properties are preserved under elementary equivalence, among finitely generated groups: being hyperbolic (possibly with torsion), being hyperbolic and cubulable, and being a subgroup of a hyperbolic group. In other words, if a finitely generated group G has the same first-order theory as a group possessing one of the previous property, then G enjoys this property as well.