We consider the continued fraction expansion of real numbers under the action of a nonuniform lattice in $\text {PSL}(2,{\mathbb R})$ and prove metric relations between the convergents and a natural geometric notion of good approximations.

We say that a group G of local (maybe formal) biholomorphisms satisfies the uniform intersection property if the intersection multiplicity $(\phi (V), W)$ takes only finitely many values as a function of G for any choice of analytic sets V and W of complementary dimension. In dimension $2$ we show that G satisfies the uniform intersection property if and only if it is finitely determined – that is, if there exists a natural number k such that different elements of G have different Taylor expansions of degree k at the origin. We also prove that G is finitely determined if and only if the action of G on the space of germs of analytic curves has discrete orbits.

The pronorm of a group G is the set $P(G)$ of all elements $g\in G$ such that X and $X^g$ are conjugate in ${\langle {X,X^g}\rangle }$ for every subgroup X of G. In general the pronorm is not a subgroup, but we give evidence of some classes of groups in which this property holds. We also investigate the structure of a generalised soluble group G whose pronorm contains a subgroup of finite index.

We investigate qualitative properties of the underlying scheme of Rapoport–Zink formal moduli spaces of p-divisible groups (resp., shtukas). We single out those cases where the dimension of this underlying scheme is zero (resp., those where the dimension is the maximal possible). The model case for the first alternative is the Lubin–Tate moduli space, and the model case for the second alternative is the Drinfeld moduli space. We exhibit a complete list in both cases.

In this note we show that every element of a simple Suzuki group $^2B_2(q)$ is a commutator of elements of coprime orders.

Let G be a finite group and $\chi $ be a character of G. The codegree of $\chi $ is ${{\operatorname{codeg}}} (\chi ) ={|G: \ker \chi |}/{\chi (1)}$. We write $\pi (G)$ for the set of prime divisors of $|G|$, $\pi ({{\operatorname{codeg}}} (\chi ))$ for the set of prime divisors of ${{\operatorname{codeg}}} (\chi )$ and $\sigma ({{\operatorname{codeg}}} (G))= \max \{|\pi ({{\operatorname{codeg}}} (\chi ))| : \chi \in {\textrm {Irr}}(G)\}$. We show that $|\pi (G)| \leq ({23}/{3}) \sigma ({{\operatorname{codeg}}} (G))$. This improves the main result of Yang and Qian [‘The analog of Huppert’s conjecture on character codegrees’, J. Algebra 478 (2017), 215–219].

We link distinct concepts of geometric group theory and homotopy theory through underlying combinatorics. For a flag simplicial complex $K$, we specify a necessary and sufficient combinatorial condition for the commutator subgroup $RC_K'$ of a right-angled Coxeter group, viewed as the fundamental group of the real moment-angle complex $\mathcal {R}_K$, to be a one-relator group; and for the Pontryagin algebra $H_{*}(\Omega \mathcal {Z}_K)$ of the moment-angle complex to be a one-relator algebra. We also give a homological characterization of these properties. For $RC_K'$, it is given by a condition on the homology group $H_2(\mathcal {R}_K)$, whereas for $H_{*}(\Omega \mathcal {Z}_K)$ it is stated in terms of the bigrading of the homology groups of $\mathcal {Z}_K$.

We give a construction that takes a simple linear algebraic group G over a field and produces a commutative, unital, and simple non-associative algebra A over that field. Two attractions of this construction are that (1) when G has type $E_8$, the algebra A is obtained by adjoining a unit to the 3875-dimensional representation; and (2) it is effective, in that the product operation on A can be implemented on a computer. A description of the algebra in the $E_8$ case has been requested for some time, and interest has been increased by the recent proof that $E_8$ is the full automorphism group of that algebra. The algebras obtained by our construction have an unusual Peirce spectrum.

These notes provide a concise introduction to the representation theory of reductive algebraic groups in positive characteristic, with an emphasis on Lusztig's character formula and geometric representation theory. They are based on the first author's notes from a lecture series delivered by the second author at the Simons Centre for Geometry and Physics in August 2019. We intend them to complement more detailed treatments.

For numerical semigroups with a specified list of (not necessarily minimal) generators, we describe the asymptotic distribution of factorization lengths with respect to an arbitrary modulus. In particular, we prove that the factorization lengths are equidistributed across all congruence classes that are not trivially ruled out by modular considerations.

Vertex-primitive self-complementary graphs were proved to be affine or in product action by Guralnick et al. [‘On orbital partitions and exceptionality of primitive permutation groups’, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 356 (2004), 4857–4872]. The product action type is known in some sense. In this paper, we provide a generic construction for the affine case and several families of new self-complementary Cayley graphs are constructed.

A graph $\Gamma $ is called $(G, s)$-arc-transitive if $G \le \text{Aut} (\Gamma )$ is transitive on the set of vertices of $\Gamma $ and the set of s-arcs of $\Gamma $, where for an integer $s \ge 1$ an s-arc of $\Gamma $ is a sequence of $s+1$ vertices $(v_0,v_1,\ldots ,v_s)$ of $\Gamma $ such that $v_{i-1}$ and $v_i$ are adjacent for $1 \le i \le s$ and $v_{i-1}\ne v_{i+1}$ for $1 \le i \le s-1$. A graph $\Gamma $ is called 2-transitive if it is $(\text{Aut} (\Gamma ), 2)$-arc-transitive but not $(\text{Aut} (\Gamma ), 3)$-arc-transitive. A Cayley graph $\Gamma $ of a group G is called normal if G is normal in $\text{Aut} (\Gamma )$ and nonnormal otherwise. Fang et al. [‘On edge transitive Cayley graphs of valency four’, European J. Combin. 25 (2004), 1103–1116] proved that if $\Gamma $ is a tetravalent 2-transitive Cayley graph of a finite simple group G, then either $\Gamma $ is normal or G is one of the groups $\text{PSL}_2(11)$, ${\rm M} _{11}$, $\text{M} _{23}$ and $A_{11}$. However, it was unknown whether $\Gamma $ is normal when G is one of these four groups. We answer this question by proving that among these four groups only $\text{M} _{11}$ produces connected tetravalent 2-transitive nonnormal Cayley graphs. We prove further that there are exactly two such graphs which are nonisomorphic and both are determined in the paper. As a consequence, the automorphism group of any connected tetravalent 2-transitive Cayley graph of any finite simple group is determined.

Parapolar spaces are point-line geometries introduced as a geometric approach to (exceptional) algebraic groups. We characterize a wide class of Lie geometries as parapolar spaces satisfying a simple intersection property. In particular, many of the exceptional Lie incidence geometries occur. In an appendix, we extend our result to the locally disconnected case and discuss the locally disconnected case of some other well-known characterizations.

We investigate families of minimal rational curves on Schubert varieties, their Bott–Samelson desingularizations, and their generalizations constructed by Nicolas Perrin in the minuscule case. In particular, we describe the minimal families on small resolutions of minuscule Schubert varieties.

For a group G, we define a graph $\Delta (G)$ by letting $G^{\scriptsize\#}=G\setminus {\{\,1\,\}} $ be the set of vertices and by drawing an edge between distinct elements $x,y\in G^{\scriptsize\#}$ if and only if the subgroup $\langle x,y\rangle $ is cyclic. Recall that a Z-group is a group where every Sylow subgroup is cyclic. In this short note, we investigate $\Delta (G)$ for a Z-group G.

It is conjectured that the central quotient of any irreducible Artin–Tits group is either virtually cyclic or acylindrically hyperbolic. We prove this conjecture for Artin–Tits groups that are known to be CAT(0) groups by a result of Brady and McCammond, that is, Artin–Tits groups associated with graphs having no 3-cycles and Artin–Tits groups of almost large type associated with graphs admitting appropriate directions. In particular, the latter family contains Artin–Tits groups of large type associated with cones over square-free bipartite graphs.

In this article we establish the arithmetic purity of strong approximation for certain semisimple simply connected linear algebraic groups and their homogeneous spaces over a number field $k$. For instance, for any such group $G$ and for any open subset $U$ of $G$ with ${\mathrm {codim}}(G\setminus U, G)\geqslant 2$, we prove that (i) if $G$ is $k$-simple and $k$-isotropic, then $U$ satisfies strong approximation off any finite number of places; and (ii) if $G$ is the spin group of a non-degenerate quadratic form which is not compact over archimedean places, then $U$ satisfies strong approximation off all archimedean places. As a consequence, we prove that the same property holds for affine quadratic hypersurfaces. Our approach combines a fibration method with subgroup actions developed for induction on the codimension of $G\setminus U$, and an affine linear sieve which allows us to produce integral points with almost-prime polynomial values.

A long standing problem, which has its roots in low-dimensional homotopy theory, is to classify all finite groups G for which the integral group ring ℤG has stably free cancellation (SFC). We extend results of R. G. Swan by giving a condition for SFC and use this to show that ℤG has SFC provided at most one copy of the quaternions ℍ occurs in the Wedderburn decomposition of the real group ring ℝG. This generalises the Eichler condition in the case of integral group rings.

For a finite group G, let $\Delta (G)$ denote the character graph built on the set of degrees of the irreducible complex characters of G. A perfect graph is a graph $\Gamma $ in which the chromatic number of every induced subgraph $\Delta $ of $\Gamma $ equals the clique number of $\Delta $. We show that the character graph $\Delta (G)$ of a finite group G is always a perfect graph. We also prove that the chromatic number of the complement of $\Delta (G)$ is at most three.