The Hanna Neumann conjecture (HNC) for a free group G predicts that $\overline{\chi}(U\cap V)\leqslant \overline{\chi} (U)\overline{\chi}(V)$ for all finitely generated subgroups U and V, where $\overline{\chi}(H) = \max\{-\chi(H),0\}$ denotes the reduced Euler characteristic of H. A strengthened version of the HNC was proved independently by Friedman and Mineyev in 2011. Recently, Antolín and Jaikin-Zapirain introduced the $L^2$-Hall property and showed that if G is a hyperbolic limit group that satisfies this property, then G satisfies the HNC. Antolín and Jaikin-Zapirain established the $L^2$-Hall property for free and surface groups, which Brown and Kharlampovich extended to all limit groups. In this paper, we prove the $L^2$-Hall property for graphs of free groups with cyclic edge groups that are hyperbolic relative to virtually abelian subgroups. We also give another proof of the $L^2$-Hall property for limit groups. As a corollary, we show that all these groups satisfy a strengthened version of the HNC.

We study random walks on metric spaces with contracting isometries. In this first article of the series, we establish sharp deviation inequalities by adapting Gouëzel’s pivotal time construction. As an application, we establish the exponential bounds for deviation from below, central limit theorem, law of the iterated logarithms, and the geodesic tracking of random walks on mapping class groups and CAT(0) spaces.

Let g be an element of a group G. For a positive integer n, let $R_n(g)$ be the subgroup generated by all commutators $[\ldots [[g,x],x],\ldots ,x]$ over $x\in G$, where x is repeated n times. Similarly, $L_n(g)$ is defined as the subgroup generated by all commutators $[\ldots [[x,g],g],\ldots ,g]$, where $x\in G$ and g is repeated n times. In the literature, there are several results showing that certain properties of groups with small subgroups $R_n(g)$ or $L_n(g)$ are close to those of Engel groups. The present article deals with orderable groups in which, for some $n\geq 1$, the subgroups $R_n(g)$ are polycyclic. Let $h\geq 0$, $n>0$ be integers and G be an orderable group in which $R_n(g)$ is polycyclic with Hirsch length at most h for every $g\in G$. It is proved that there are $(h,n)$-bounded numbers $h^*$ and $c^*$ such that G has a finitely generated normal nilpotent subgroup N with $h(N)\leq h^*$ and $G/N$ nilpotent of class at most $c^*$. The analogue of this theorem for $L_n(g)$ was established in 2018 by Shumyatsky [‘Orderable groups with Engel-like conditions’, J. Algebra 499 (2018), 313–320].

It is a theorem due to F. Haglund and D. Wise that reflection groups (aka Coxeter groups) virtually embed into right-angled reflection groups (aka right-angled Coxeter groups). In this article, we generalize this observation to rotation groups, which can be thought of as a common generalization of Coxeter groups and graph products of groups. More precisely, we prove that rotation groups (aka periagroups) virtually embed into right-angled rotation groups (aka graph products of groups).

We study a family of Thompson-like groups built as rearrangement groups of fractals introduced by Belk and Forrest in 2019, each acting on a Ważewski dendrite. Each of these is a finitely generated group that is dense in the full group of homeomorphisms of the dendrite (studied by Monod and Duchesne in 2019) and has infinite-index finitely generated simple commutator subgroup, with a single possible exception. More properties are discussed, including finite subgroups, the conjugacy problem, invariable generation and existence of free subgroups. We discuss many possible generalisations, among which we find the Airplane rearrangement group $T_A$. Despite close connections with Thompson’s group F, dendrite rearrangement groups seem to share many features with Thompson’s group V.

In the present work, we investigate the Lie algebra of the Formanek-Procesi group $\textrm {FP}(A_{\Gamma })$ with base group $A_{\Gamma }$ a right-angled Artin group. We show that the Lie algebra $\textrm {gr}(\textrm {FP}(A_{\Gamma }))$ has a presentation that is dictated by the group presentation. Moreover, we show that if the base group $G$ is a finitely generated residually finite $p$-group, then $\textrm { FP}(G)$ is residually nilpotent. We also show that $\textrm {FP}(A_{\Gamma })$ is a residually torsion-free nilpotent group.

It is shown that if $\{H_n\}_{n \in \omega}$ is a sequence of groups without involutions, with $1 \lt |H_n| \leq 2^{\aleph_0}$, then the topologist’s product modulo the finite words is (up to isomorphism) independent of the choice of sequence. This contrasts with the abelian setting: if $\{A_n\}_{n \in \omega}$ is a sequence of countably infinite torsion-free abelian groups, then the isomorphism class of the product modulo sum $\prod_{n \in \omega} A_n/\bigoplus_{n \in \omega} A_n$ is dependent on the sequence.

Let (W, S) be a Coxeter system of rank n, and let $p_{(W, S)}(t)$ be its growth function. It is known that $p_{(W, S)}(q^{-1}) \lt \infty$ holds for all $n \leq q \in \mathbb{N}$. In this paper, we will show that this still holds for $q = n-1$, if (W, S) is 2-spherical. Moreover, we will prove that $p_{(W, S)}(q^{-1}) = \infty$ holds for $q = n-2$, if the Coxeter diagram of (W, S) is the complete graph. These two results provide a complete characterization of the finiteness of the growth function in the case of 2-spherical Coxeter systems with a complete Coxeter diagram.

We study quotients of mapping class groups of punctured spheres by suitable large powers of Dehn twists, showing an analogue of Ivanov’s theorem for the automorphisms of the corresponding quotients of curve graphs. Then we use this result to prove quasi-isometric rigidity of these quotients, answering a question of Behrstock, Hagen, Martin, and Sisto in the case of punctured spheres. Finally, we show that the automorphism groups of our quotients of mapping class groups are “small”, as are their abstract commensurators. This is again an analogue of a theorem of Ivanov about the automorphism group of the mapping class group.

In the process, we develop techniques to extract combinatorial data from a quasi-isometry of a hierarchically hyperbolic space, and use them to give a different proof of a result of Bowditch about quasi-isometric rigidity of pants graphs of punctured spheres.

We consider a family of cyclic presentations and show that, subject to certain conditions on the defining parameters, they are spines of closed 3-manifolds. These are new examples where the reduced Whitehead graphs are of the same type as those of the Fractional Fibonacci presentations; here the corresponding manifolds are often (but not always) hyperbolic. We also express a lens space construction in terms of a class of positive cyclic presentations that are spines of closed 3-manifolds. These presentations then furnish examples where the Whitehead graphs are of the same type as those of the positive cyclic presentations of type $\mathfrak {Z}$, as considered by McDermott.

We show that the group $ \langle a,b,c,t \,:\, a^t=b,b^t=c,c^t=ca^{-1} \rangle$ is profinitely rigid amongst free-by-cyclic groups, providing the first example of a hyperbolic free-by-cyclic group with this property.

Using a recent result of Bowden, Hensel and Webb, we prove the existence of a homeomorphism with positive stable commutator length in the group of homeomorphisms of the Klein bottle which are isotopic to the identity.

We prove several results showing that every locally finite Borel graph whose large-scale geometry is ‘tree-like’ induces a treeable equivalence relation. In particular, our hypotheses hold if each component of the original graph either has bounded tree-width or is quasi-isometric to a tree, answering a question of Tucker-Drob. In the latter case, we moreover show that there exists a Borel quasi-isometry to a Borel forest, under the additional assumption of (componentwise) bounded degree. We also extend these results on quasi-treeings to Borel proper metric spaces. In fact, our most general result shows treeability of countable Borel equivalence relations equipped with an abstract wallspace structure on each class obeying some local finiteness conditions, which we call a proper walling. The proof is based on the Stone duality between proper wallings and median graphs (i.e., CAT(0) cube complexes). Finally, we strengthen the conclusion of treeability in these results to hyperfiniteness in the case where the original graph has one (selected) end per component, generalizing the same result for trees due to Dougherty–Jackson–Kechris.

Let W be a group endowed with a finite set S of generators. A representation $(V,\rho )$ of W is called a reflection representation of $(W,S)$ if $\rho (s)$ is a (generalized) reflection on V for each generator $s \in S$. In this article, we prove that for any irreducible reflection representation V, all the exterior powers $\bigwedge ^d V$, $d = 0, 1, \dots , \dim V$, are irreducible W-modules, and they are non-isomorphic to each other. This extends a theorem of R. Steinberg which is stated for Euclidean reflection groups. Moreover, we prove that the exterior powers (except for the 0th and the highest power) of two non-isomorphic reflection representations always give non-isomorphic W-modules. This allows us to construct numerous pairwise non-isomorphic irreducible representations for such groups, especially for Coxeter groups.

In a paper from 1980, Shelah constructed an uncountable group all of whose proper subgroups are countable. Assuming the continuum hypothesis, he constructed an uncountable group G that moreover admits an integer n satisfying that for every uncountable $X\subseteq G$, every element of G may be written as a group word of length n in the elements of X. The former is called a Jónsson group, and the latter is called a Shelah group.

In this paper, we construct a Shelah group on the grounds of $\textsf {{ZFC}}$ alone – that is, without assuming the continuum hypothesis. More generally, we identify a combinatorial condition (coming from the theories of negative square-bracket partition relations and strongly unbounded subadditive maps) sufficient for the construction of a Shelah group of size $\kappa $, and we prove that the condition holds true for all successors of regular cardinals (such as $\kappa =\aleph _1,\aleph _2,\aleph _3,\ldots $). This also yields the first consistent example of a Shelah group of size a limit cardinal.

Given a presentation of a monoid $M$, combined work of Pride and of Guba and Sapir provides an exact sequence connecting the relation bimodule of the presentation (in the sense of Ivanov) with the first homology of the Squier complex of the presentation, which is naturally a $\mathbb ZM$-bimodule. This exact sequence was used by Kobayashi and Otto to prove the equivalence of Pride’s finite homological type property with the homological finiteness condition bi-$\mathrm {FP}_3$. Guba and Sapir used this exact sequence to describe the abelianization of a diagram group. We prove here a generalization of this exact sequence of bimodules for presentations of associative algebras. Our proof is more elementary than the original proof for the special case of monoids.

The space of monic squarefree complex polynomials has a stratification according to the multiplicities of the critical points. We introduce a method to study these strata by way of the infinite-area translation surface associated to the logarithmic derivative $df/f$ of the polynomial. We determine the monodromy of these strata in the braid group, thus describing which braidings of the roots are possible if the orders of the critical points are required to stay fixed. Mirroring the story for holomorphic differentials on higher-genus surfaces, we find the answer is governed by the framing of the punctured disk induced by the horizontal foliation on the translation surface.

We prove that a homomorphism between free groups of finite rank equipped with the bi-invariant word metrics associated with finite generating sets is a quasi-isometry if and only if it is an isomorphism.

We present a solution to the conjugacy problem in the group of outer automorphisms of $F_3$, a free group of rank 3. We distinguish according to several computable invariants, such as irreducibility, subgroups of polynomial growth and subgroups carrying the attracting lamination. We establish, by considerations on train tracks, that the conjugacy problem is decidable for the outer automorphisms of $F_3$ that preserve a given rank 2 free factor. Then we establish, by consideration on mapping tori, that it is decidable for outer automorphisms of $F_3$ whose maximal polynomial growth subgroups are cyclic. This covers all the cases left by the state of the art.

Stochastic embeddings of finite metric spaces into graph-theoretic trees have proven to be a vital tool for constructing approximation algorithms in theoretical computer science. In the present work, we build out some of the basic theory of stochastic embeddings in the infinite setting with an aim toward applications to Lipschitz free space theory. We prove that proper metric spaces stochastically embedding into $\mathbb {R}$-trees have Lipschitz free spaces isomorphic to $L^1$-spaces. We then undergo a systematic study of stochastic embeddability of Gromov hyperbolic metric spaces into $\mathbb {R}$-trees by way of stochastic embeddability of their boundaries into ultrametric spaces. The following are obtained as our main results: (1) every snowflake of a compact, finite Nagata-dimensional metric space stochastically embeds into an ultrametric space and has Lipschitz free space isomorphic to $\ell ^1$, (2) the Lipschitz free space over hyperbolic n-space is isomorphic to the Lipschitz free space over Euclidean n-space and (3) every infinite, finitely generated hyperbolic group stochastically embeds into an $\mathbb {R}$-tree, has Lipschitz free space isomorphic to $\ell ^1$, and admits a proper, uniformly Lipschitz affine action on $\ell ^1$.