We study actions of higher rank lattices $\Gamma <G$ on hyperbolic spaces and we show that all such actions satisfying mild properties come from the rank-one factors of G. In particular, all non-elementary isometric actions on an unbounded hyperbolic space are of this type.

We study the vectorial length compactification of the space of conjugacy classes of maximal representations of the fundamental group $\Gamma$ of a closed hyperbolic surface $\Sigma$ in $\textrm{PSL}(2,{\mathbb{R}})^n$. We identify the boundary with the sphere ${\mathbb{P}}(({\mathcal{ML}})^n)$, where $\mathcal{ML}$ is the space of measured geodesic laminations on $\Sigma$. In the case $n=2$, we give a geometric interpretation of the boundary as the space of homothety classes of ${\mathbb{R}}^2$-mixed structures on $\Sigma$. We associate to such a structure a dual tree-graded space endowed with an ${\mathbb{R}}_+^2$-valued metric, which we show to be universal with respect to actions on products of two $\mathbb{R}$-trees with the given length spectrum.

Let G be a torsion-free, finitely generated, nilpotent and metabelian group. In this work, we show that G embeds into the group of orientation-preserving $C^{1+\alpha }$-diffeomorphisms of the compact interval for all $\alpha < 1/k$, where k is the torsion-free rank of $G/A$ and A is a maximal abelian subgroup. We show that, in many situations, the corresponding $1/k$ is critical in the sense that there is no embedding of G with higher regularity. A particularly nice family where this happens is the family of $(2n+1)$-dimensional Heisenberg groups, for which we can show that the critical regularity is equal to $1+1/n$.

Let V be a finite dimensional vector space over the field with p elements, where p is a prime number. Given arbitrary $\alpha ,\beta \in \mathrm {GL}(V)$, we consider the semidirect products $V\rtimes \langle \alpha \rangle $ and $V\rtimes \langle \beta \rangle $, and show that if $V\rtimes \langle \alpha \rangle $ and $V\rtimes \langle \beta \rangle $ are isomorphic, then $\alpha $ must be similar to a power of $\beta $ that generates the same subgroup as $\beta $; that is, if H and K are cyclic subgroups of $\mathrm {GL}(V)$ such that $V\rtimes H\cong V\rtimes K$, then H and K must be conjugate subgroups of $\mathrm {GL}(V)$. If we remove the cyclic condition, there exist examples of nonisomorphic, let alone nonconjugate, subgroups H and K of $\mathrm {GL}(V)$ such that $V\rtimes H\cong V\rtimes K$. Even if we require that noncyclic subgroups H and K of $\mathrm {GL}(V)$ be abelian, we may still have $V\rtimes H\cong V\rtimes K$ with H and K nonconjugate in $\mathrm {GL}(V)$, but in this case, H and K must at least be isomorphic. If we replace V by a free module U over ${\mathbb {Z}}/p^m{\mathbb {Z}}$ of finite rank, with $m>1$, it may happen that $U\rtimes H\cong U\rtimes K$ for nonconjugate cyclic subgroups of $\mathrm {GL}(U)$. If we completely abandon our requirements on V, a sufficient criterion is given for a finite group G to admit nonconjugate cyclic subgroups H and K of $\mathrm {Aut}(G)$ such that $G\rtimes H\cong G\rtimes K$. This criterion is satisfied by many groups.

We introduce and study two conditions on groups of homeomorphisms of Cantor space, namely the conditions of being vigorous and of being flawless. These concepts are dynamical in nature, and allow us to study a certain interplay between the dynamics of an action and the algebraic properties of the acting group. A group $G\leq \operatorname {Homeo}(\mathfrak {C})$ is vigorous if for any clopen set A and proper clopen subsets B and C of A, there is $\gamma \in G$ in the pointwise stabiliser of $\mathfrak {C}\backslash A$ with $B\gamma \subseteq C$. A nontrivial group $G\leq \operatorname {Homeo}(\mathfrak {C})$ is flawless if for all k and w a nontrivial freely reduced product expression on k variables (including inverse symbols), a particular subgroup $w(G)_\circ $ of the verbal subgroup $w(G)$ is the whole group. We show: 1) simple vigorous groups are either two-generated by torsion elements, or not finitely generated, 2) flawless groups are both perfect and lawless, 3) vigorous groups are simple if and only if they are flawless, and, 4) the class of vigorous simple subgroups of $\operatorname {Homeo}(\mathfrak {C})$ is fairly broad (the class is closed under various natural constructions and contains many well known groups, such as the commutator subgroups of the Higman–Thompson groups $G_{n,r}$, the Brin-Thompson groups $nV$, Röver’s group $V(\Gamma )$, and others of Nekrashevych’s ‘simple groups of dynamical origin’).

Let G be a connected semisimple real algebraic group. For a Zariski dense Anosov subgroup $\Gamma <G$ with respect to a parabolic subgroup $P_\theta $, we prove that any $\Gamma $-Patterson–Sullivan measure charges no mass on any proper subvariety of $G/P_\theta $. More generally, we prove that for a Zariski dense $\theta $-transverse subgroup $\Gamma <G$, any $(\Gamma , \psi )$-Patterson–Sullivan measure charges no mass on any proper subvariety of $G/P_\theta $, provided the $\psi $-Poincaré series of $\Gamma $ diverges at its abscissa of convergence. In particular, our result also applies to relatively Anosov subgroups.

The structure of groups in which every element has prime power order (CP-groups) is extensively studied. We first investigate the properties of group $G$ such that each element of $G\setminus N$ has prime power order. It is proved that $N$ is solvable or every non-solvable chief factor $H/K$ of $G$ satisfying $H\leq N$ is isomorphic to $PSL_2(3^f)$ with $f$ a 2-power. This partially answers the question proposed by Lewis in 2023, asking whether $G\cong M_{10}$? Furthermore, we prove that if each element $x\in G\backslash N$ has prime power order and ${\bf C}_G(x)$ is maximal in $G$, then $N$ is solvable. Relying on this, we give the structure of group $G$ with normal subgroup $N$ such that ${\bf C}_G(x)$ is maximal in $G$ for any element $x\in G\setminus N$. Finally, we investigate the structure of a normal subgroup $N$ when the centralizer ${\bf C}_G(x)$ is maximal in $G$ for any element $x\in N\setminus {\bf Z}(N)$, which is a generalization of results of Zhao, Chen, and Guo in 2020, investigating a special case that $N=G$ for our main result. We also provide a new proof for Zhao, Chen, and Guo's results above.

We study analogues of Kronecker coefficients for symmetric inverse semigroups, for dual symmetric inverse semigroups and for the inverse semigroups of bijections between subquotients of finite sets. In all cases, we reduce the problem of determination of such coefficients to some group-theoretic and combinatorial problems. For symmetric inverse semigroups, we provide an explicit formula in terms of the classical Kronecker and Littlewood–Richardson coefficients for symmetric groups.

This paper is the first of a two part series devoted to describing relations between congruence and crystallographic braid groups. We recall and introduce some elements belonging to congruence braid groups and we establish some (iso)-morphisms between crystallographic braid groups and corresponding quotients of congruence braid groups.

Let $p \geq 5$ be a prime number, and let $G = {\mathrm {SL}}_2(\mathbb {Q}_p)$. Let $\Xi = {\mathrm {Spec}}(Z)$ denote the spectrum of the centre Z of the pro-p Iwahori–Hecke algebra of G with coefficients in a field k of characteristic p. Let $\mathcal {R} \subset \Xi \times \Xi $ denote the support of the pro-p Iwahori ${\mathrm {Ext}}$-algebra of G, viewed as a $(Z,Z)$-bimodule. We show that the locally ringed space $\Xi /\mathcal {R}$ is a projective algebraic curve over ${\mathrm {Spec}}(k)$ with two connected components and that each connected component is a chain of projective lines. For each Zariski open subset U of $\Xi /\mathcal {R}$, we construct a stable localising subcategory $\mathcal {L}_U$ of the category of smooth k-linear representations of G.

Let $\Gamma $ be a finite group, let $\theta $ be an involution of $\Gamma $ and let $\rho $ be an irreducible complex representation of $\Gamma $. We bound ${\operatorname {dim}} \rho ^{\Gamma ^{\theta }}$ in terms of the smallest dimension of a faithful $\mathbb {F}_p$-representation of $\Gamma /\operatorname {\mathrm {Rad}}_p(\Gamma )$, where p is any odd prime and $\operatorname {\mathrm {Rad}}_p(\Gamma )$ is the maximal normal p-subgroup of $\Gamma $.

This implies, in particular, that if $\mathbf {G}$ is a group scheme over $\mathbb {Z}$ and $\theta $ is an involution of $\mathbf {G}$, then the multiplicity of any irreducible representation in $C^\infty \left( \mathbf {G}(\mathbb {Z}_p)/ \mathbf {G} ^{\theta }(\mathbb {Z}_p) \right)$ is bounded, uniformly in p.

In this note we investigate the centraliser of a linearly growing element of $\mathrm{Out}(F_n)$ (that is, a root of a Dehn twist automorphism), and show that it has a finite index subgroup mapping onto a direct product of certain “equivariant McCool groups” with kernel a finitely generated free abelian group. In particular, this allows us to show it is VF and hence finitely presented.

We show that a virtually residually finite rationally solvable (RFRS) group $G$ of type $\mathtt {FP}_n(\mathbb {Q})$ virtually algebraically fibres with kernel of type $\mathtt {FP}_n(\mathbb {Q})$ if and only if the first $n$ $\ell ^2$-Betti numbers of $G$ vanish, that is, $b_p^{(2)}(G) = 0$ for $0 \leqslant p \leqslant n$. This confirms a conjecture of Kielak. We also offer a variant of this result over other fields, in particular in positive characteristic. As an application of the main result, we show that amenable virtually RFRS groups of type $\mathtt {FP}(\mathbb {Q})$ are virtually Abelian. It then follows that if $G$ is a virtually RFRS group of type $\mathtt {FP}(\mathbb {Q})$ such that $\mathbb {Z} G$ is Noetherian, then $G$ is virtually Abelian. This confirms a conjecture of Baer for the class of virtually RFRS groups of type $\mathtt {FP}(\mathbb {Q})$, which includes (for instance) the class of virtually compact special groups.

We describe the $J$-invariant of a semisimple algebraic group $G$ over a generic splitting field of a Tits algebra of $G$ in terms of the $J$-invariant over the base field. As a consequence we prove a 10-year-old conjecture of Quéguiner-Mathieu, Semenov, and Zainoulline on the $J$-invariant of groups of type $\mathrm {D}_n$. In the case of type $\mathrm {D}_n$ we also provide explicit formulas for the first component and in some cases for the second component of the $J$-invariant.

We find an upper bound for the number of groups of order n up to isomorphism in the variety ${\mathfrak {S}}={\mathfrak {A}_p}{\mathfrak {A}_q}{\mathfrak {A}_r}$, where p, q and r are distinct primes. We also find a bound on the orders and on the number of conjugacy classes of subgroups that are maximal amongst the subgroups of the general linear group that are also in the variety $\mathfrak {A}_q\mathfrak {A}_r$.

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 centralisers of elements in [finitely generated free]-by-cyclic groups are computable. As a corollary, given two conjugate elements in a [finitely generated free]-by-cyclic group, the set of conjugators can be computed and the conjugacy problem with context-free constraints is decidable. We pose several problems arising naturally from this work.

For closed subgroups L and R of a compact Lie group G, a left L-space X, and an L-equivariant continuous map $A:X\to G/R$, we introduce the twisted action of the equivariant cohomology $H_R^{\bullet }(\mathrm {pt},\Bbbk )$ on the equivariant cohomology $H_L^{\bullet }(X,\Bbbk )$. Considering this action as a right action, $H_L^{\bullet }(X,\Bbbk )$ becomes a bimodule together with the canonical left action of $H_L^{\bullet }(\mathrm {pt},\Bbbk )$. Using this bimodule structure, we prove an equivariant version of the Künneth isomorphism. We apply this result to the computation of the equivariant cohomologies of Bott–Samelson varieties and to a geometric construction of the bimodule morphisms between them.

A digraph group is a group defined by non-empty presentation with the property that each relator is of the form $R(x, y)$, where x and y are distinct generators and $R(\cdot , \cdot )$ is determined by some fixed cyclically reduced word $R(a, b)$ that involves both a and b. Associated with each such presentation is a digraph whose vertices correspond to the generators and whose arcs correspond to the relators. In this article, we consider digraph groups for strong digraphs that are digon-free and triangle-free. We classify when the digraph group is finite and show that in these cases it is cyclic, giving its order. We apply this result to the Cayley digraph of the generalized quaternion group, to circulant digraphs, and to Cartesian and direct products of strong digraphs.

In this paper, we prove some orthogonality relations for representations arising from deep level Deligne–Lusztig schemes of Coxeter type. This generalizes previous results of Lusztig [Lus04], and of Chan and the second author [CI21b]. Applications include the study of smooth representations of p-adic groups in the cohomology of p-adic Deligne–Lusztig spaces and their relation to the local Langlands correspondences. Also, the geometry of deep level Deligne–Lusztig schemes gets accessible, in the spirit of Lusztig’s work [Lus76].