Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Volodymyr Nekrashevych

Publications and source records attributed to Volodymyr Nekrashevych.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Commensurating actions and self-similar groups

Commensurating actions govern how a group can act on non-positively curved cube complexes. We obtain a complete picture of them for a class of finitely generated groups acting on rooted trees: contracting self-similar branch groups. The main application is a proof of Property FW for the iterated monodromy group of the subdivision rule generating the classical square Sierpiński carpet. This is the first example of an infinite finitely generated amenable group with Property FW, answering a question of Cornulier. As another application, we show that a contracting self-similar regular branch group does not have Property PW. In particular, the Grigorchuk group does not have Property PW, answering another question in the literature.

math.GR↗
arXiv2025

Semigroups, groups, and algebras of dynamical origin

The paper is an overview of recent results on algebraic structures (semigroups, groupoids, algebras, inverse semigroups, and groups) associated with objects with a rich set of partial symmetries. We discuss etale groupoids and inverse semigroups, Steinberg algebras, C*-algebras, topological full groups etc.. In particular, we describe in detail the main definitions and constructions related to contracting self-similar inverse semigroups. They are illustrated by several examples, including the semigroup generated by the golden mean rotation and the tiling semigroup of the Penrose tiling.

math.OA↗
arXiv2025

Liouville property for groups and conformal dimension

Conformal dimension is a fundamental invariant of metric spaces, particularly suited to the study of self-similar spaces, such as spaces with an expanding self-covering (e.g. Julia sets of complex rational functions). The dynamics of these systems are encoded by the associated iterated monodromy groups, which are examples of contracting self-similar groups. Their amenability is a well-known open question. We show that if $G$ is an iterated monodromy group, and if the (Alfhors-regular) conformal dimension of the underlying space is strictly less than 2, then every symmetric random walk with finite second moment on $G$ has the Liouville property. As a corollary, every such group is amenable. This criterion applies to all examples of contracting groups previously known to be amenable, and to many new ones. In particular, it implies that for every sub-hyperbolic complex rational function $f$ whose Julia set is not the whole sphere, the iterated monodromy group of $f$ is amenable.

math.GR↗
arXiv2025

Simplicity of $C^*$-algebras of contracting self-similar groups

We show that the $C^*$-algebra associated by Nekrashevych to a contracting self-similar group is simple if and only if the corresponding complex $\ast$-algebra is simple. We also improve on Steinberg and Szakać's algorithm to determine if the $\ast$-algebra is simple. This provides an interesting class of non-Hausdorff amenable, effective and minimal ample groupoids for which simplicity of the $C^*$-algebra and the complex $\ast$-algebra are equivalent.

math.OA↗
arXiv2023

Self-similar groups and topological dimension

We give various characterizations of the covering dimension of the limit space of a contracting self-similar group. In particular, we show that it is equal to the minimal dimension of a contracting affine model, to the asymptotic dimension of the orbital graphs of its action on the boundary of the tree, to the dynamical asymptotic dimension of its groupoid of germs, and give a combinatorial description of the dimension in terms of a partition of the levels of the tree. We analyze separately the one-dimensional example. In particular, we show that the limit space is one-dimensional if and only if the group is the faithful quotient of a self-similar contracting virtually free group.

math.GR↗
arXiv2022

Growth of groups with linear Schreier graphs

We introduce a new method of proving upper estimates of growth of finitely generated groups and constructing groups of intermediate growth using graphs of their actions. These estimates are of the form $\exp(n^α)$ for some $α<1$, and provide the first examples of such bounds for simple groups of intermediate growth.

math.GR↗
arXiv2020

Locally connected Smale spaces, pinched spectrum, and infra-nilmanifolds

We show that if (X, f) is a locally connected Smale space such that the local product structure on X can be lifted by a covering with virtually nilpotent group of deck transformations to a global direct product, then (X, f) is topologically conjugate to a hyperbolic infra-nilmanifold automorphism. We use this result to give a generalization to Smale spaces of a theorem of M. Brin and A. Manning on Anosov diffeomorphisms with pinched spectrum, and to show that every locally connected codimension one Smale space is topologically conjugate to a hyperbolic automorphism of a torus.

math.DS↗
arXiv2020

Substitutional subshifts and growth of groups

We show how to use symbolic dynamics of Schreier graphs to embed the Grigorchuk group into a simple torsion group of intermediate growth and to construct uncountably many growth types of simple torsion groups.

math.GR↗
arXiv2017

Simple groups of dynamical origin

We associate with every etale groupoid G two normal subgroups S(G) and A(G) of the topological full group of G, which are analogs of the symmetric and alternating groups. We prove that if G is a minimal groupoid of germs (e.g., of a group action), then A(G) is simple and is contained in every non-trivial normal subgroup of the full group. We show that if G is expansive (e.g., is the groupoid of germs of an expansive action of a group), then A(G) is finitely generated. We also show that S(G)/A(G) is a quotient of H_0(G, Z/2Z).

math.GR↗
arXiv2016

Palindromic subshifts and simple periodic groups of intermediate growth

We describe a new class of groups of Burnside type, giving a procedure transforming an arbitrary non-free minimal action of the dihedral group on a Cantor set into an orbit-equivalent action of an infinite finitely generated periodic group. We show that if the associated Schreier graphs are linearly repetitive, then the group is of intermediate growth. In particular, this gives first examples of simple groups of intermediate growth.

math.GR↗
arXiv2016

Mating, paper folding, and an endomorphism of PC^2

We are studying topological properties of the Julia set of the map $F(z, p)=((2z/(p+1)-1)^2, ((p-1)/(p+1))^2)$ of the complex projective plane $PC^2$ to itself. We show a relation of this rational function with an uncountable family of "paper folding" plane filling curves.

math.DS↗
arXiv2015

Growth of etale groupoids and simple algebras

We study growth and complexity of étale groupoids in relation to growth of their convolution algebras. As an application, we construct simple finitely generated algebras of arbitrary Gelfand-Kirillov dimension $\ge 2$ and simple finitely generated algebras of quadratic growth over arbitrary fields.

math.RA↗
arXiv2013

Hyperbolic groupoids and duality

We define hyperbolic groupoids, generalizing the notion of a Gromov hyperbolic group. Examples of hyperbolic groupoids include actions of Gromov hyperbolic groups on their boundaries, pseudogroups generated by expanding self-coverings, natural pseudogroups acting on leaves of stable (or unstable) foliation of an Anosov diffeomorphism, e.t.c.. We show that for every hyperbolic groupoid G there is a naturally defined dual groupoid G' acting on the Gromov boundary of a Cayley graph of G, which is also hyperbolic and such that (G')' is equivalent to G.

math.DS↗
arXiv2013

Finitely presented groups associated with expanding maps

We associate with every locally expanding self-covering $f:M\to M$ of a compact path connected metric space a finitely presented group $V_f$. We prove that this group is a complete invariant of the dynamical system: two groups $V_{f_1}$ and $V_{f_2}$ are isomorphic as abstract groups if and only if the corresponding dynamical systems are topologically conjugate. We also show that the commutator subgroup of $V_f$ is simple, and give a topological interpretation of $V_f/V_f'$.

math.GR↗
arXiv2013

Extensions of amenable groups by recurrent groupoids

We show that amenability of a group acting by homeomorphisms can be deduced from a certain local property of the action and recurrency of the orbital Schreier graphs. This covers amenability of a wide class groups, the amenability of which was an open problem, as well as unifies many known examples to one general proof. In particular, this includes Grigorchuk's group, Basilica group, the full topological group of Cantor minimal system, groups acting on rooted trees by bounded automorphisms, groups generated by finite automata of linear activity growth, groups that naturally appear in holomorphic dynamics.

math.GR↗
arXiv2012

Hyperbolic groupoids: metric and measure

We construct Patterson-Sullivan measure and a natural metric on the unit space of a hyperbolic groupoid. In particular, this gives a new approach to defining SRB measures on Smale spaces using Gromov hyperbolic graphs.

math.DS↗