If $\mathfrak{X}$ is a class of groups, we define a sequence $\mathfrak{X}_{1},\mathfrak{X}_{2},\ldots ,\mathfrak{X}_{k},\ldots$ of group classes by putting $\mathfrak{X}_{1}=\mathfrak{X}$ and choosing $\mathfrak{X}_{k+1}$ as the class of all groups whose nonnormal subgroups belong to $\mathfrak{X}_{k}$. In particular, if $\mathfrak{A}$ is the class of abelian groups, $\mathfrak{A}_{2}$ is the class of metahamiltonian groups, that is, groups whose nonnormal subgroups are abelian. The aim of this paper is to study the structure of $\mathfrak{X}_{k}$-groups, with special emphasis on the case $\mathfrak{X}=\mathfrak{A}$. Among other results, it will be proved that a group has a finite commutator subgroup if and only if it is locally graded and belongs to $\mathfrak{A}_{k}$ for some positive integer $k$.

We show that the finitely generated simple left orderable groups $G_{\!\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$ constructed by the first two authors in Hyde and Lodha [Finitely generated infinite simple groups of homeomorphisms of the real line. Invent. Math. (2019), doi:10.1007/s00222-019-00880-7] are uniformly perfect—each element in the group can be expressed as a product of three commutators of elements in the group. This implies that the group does not admit any homogeneous quasimorphism. Moreover, any non-trivial action of the group on the circle, which lifts to an action on the real line, admits a global fixed point. It follows that any faithful action on the real line without a global fixed point is globally contracting. This answers Question 4 of the third author [A. Navas. Group actions on 1-manifolds: a list of very concrete open questions. Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians, Vol. 2. Eds. B. Sirakov, P. Ney de Souza and M. Viana. World Scientific, Singapore, 2018, pp, 2029–2056], which asks whether such a group exists. This question has also been answered simultaneously and independently, using completely different methods, by Matte Bon and Triestino [Groups of piecewise linear homeomorphisms of flows. Preprint, 2018, arXiv:1811.12256]. To prove our results, we provide a characterization of elements of the group $G_{\!\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}}$ which is a useful new tool in the study of these examples.

Let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}\leqslant \text{Aut}(T_{d_{1}})\times \text{Aut}(T_{d_{2}})$ be a group acting freely and transitively on the product of two regular trees of degree $d_{1}$ and $d_{2}$. We develop an algorithm that computes the closure of the projection of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ on $\text{Aut}(T_{d_{t}})$ under the hypothesis that $d_{t}\geqslant 6$ is even and that the local action of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ on $T_{d_{t}}$ contains $\text{Alt}(d_{t})$. We show that if $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ is torsion-free and $d_{1}=d_{2}=6$, exactly seven closed subgroups of $\text{Aut}(T_{6})$ arise in this way. We also construct two new infinite families of virtually simple lattices in $\text{Aut}(T_{6})\times \text{Aut}(T_{4n})$ and in $\text{Aut}(T_{2n})\times \text{Aut}(T_{2n+1})$, respectively, for all $n\geqslant 2$. In particular, we provide an explicit presentation of a torsion-free infinite simple group on 5 generators and 10 relations, that splits as an amalgamated free product of two copies of $F_{3}$ over $F_{11}$. We include information arising from computer-assisted exhaustive searches of lattices in products of trees of small degrees. In an appendix by Pierre-Emmanuel Caprace, some of our results are used to show that abstract and relative commensurator groups of free groups are almost simple, providing partial answers to questions of Lubotzky and Lubotzky–Mozes–Zimmer.

Let $T_{n}(\mathbb{F})$ be the semigroup of all upper triangular $n\times n$ matrices over a field $\mathbb{F}$. Let $UT_{n}(\mathbb{F})$ and $UT_{n}^{\pm 1}(\mathbb{F})$ be subsemigroups of $T_{n}(\mathbb{F})$, respectively, having $0$s and/or $1$s on the main diagonal and $0$s and/or $\pm 1$s on the main diagonal. We give some sufficient conditions under which an involution semigroup is nonfinitely based. As an application, we show that $UT_{2}(\mathbb{F}),UT_{2}^{\pm 1}(\mathbb{F})$ and $T_{2}(\mathbb{F})$ as involution semigroups under the skew transposition are nonfinitely based for any field $\mathbb{F}$.

We answer a question of Skalski and Sołan (2016) about inner faithfulness of the Curran’s map of extending a quantum increasing sequence to a quantum permutation. Roughly speaking, we find a inductive setting in which the inner faithfulness of Curran’s map can be boiled down to inner faithfulness of similar map for smaller algebras and then rely on inductive generation result for quantum permutation groups of Brannan, Chirvasitu and Freslon (2018).

Let $G$ be a $p$-group and let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}$ be an irreducible character of $G$. The codegree of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}$ is given by $|G:\,\text{ker}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D712})|/\unicode[STIX]{x1D712}(1)$. If $G$ is a maximal class $p$-group that is normally monomial or has at most three character degrees, then the codegrees of $G$ are consecutive powers of $p$. If $|G|=p^{n}$ and $G$ has consecutive $p$-power codegrees up to $p^{n-1}$, then the nilpotence class of $G$ is at most 2 or $G$ has maximal class.

We classify tame block algebras of Hecke algebras of classical type over an algebraically closed field of characteristic not equal to two.

Given a finite group $G$, define the minimal degree $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}(G)$ of $G$ to be the least $n$ such that $G$ embeds into $S_{n}$. We call $G$ exceptional if there is some $N\unlhd G$ with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}(G/N)>\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}(G)$, in which case we call $N$ distinguished. We prove here that a subgroup with no abelian composition factors is not distinguished.

We use methods from the cohomology of groups to describe the finite groups which can act freely and homologically trivially on closed 3-manifolds which are rational homology spheres.

The notion of quantized characters was introduced in our previous paper as a natural quantization of characters in the context of asymptotic representation theory for quantum groups. As in the case of ordinary groups, the representation associated with any extreme quantized character generates a von Neumann factor. From the viewpoint of operator algebras (and measurable dynamical systems), it is natural to ask what is the Murray–von Neumann–Connes type of the resulting factor. In this paper, we give a complete solution to this question when the inductive system is of quantum unitary groups $U_{q}(N)$.

In this paper we classify the finite solvable groups in which distinct nonlinear monomial characters have distinct degrees.

A tubular group G is a finite graph of groups with ℤ2 vertex groups and ℤ edge groups. We characterize residually finite tubular groups: G is residually finite if and only if its edge groups are separable. Methods are provided to determine if G is residually finite. When G has a single vertex group an algorithm is given to determine residual finiteness.

We prove a Tits alternative for topological full groups of minimal actions of finitely generated groups. On the one hand, we show that topological full groups of minimal actions of virtually cyclic groups are amenable. By doing so, we generalize the result of Juschenko and Monod for $\mathbf{Z}$-actions. On the other hand, when a finitely generated group $G$ is not virtually cyclic, then we construct a minimal free action of $G$ on a Cantor space such that the topological full group contains a non-abelian free group.

In this manuscript, we generalize Lewis’s result about a central series associated with the vanishing off subgroup. We write $V_{1}=V(G)$ for the vanishing off subgroup of $G$, and $V_{i}=[V_{i-1},G]$ for the terms in this central series. Lewis proved that there exists a positive integer $n$ such that if $V_{3}<G_{3}$, then $|G\,:\,V_{1}|=|G^{\prime }\,:\,V_{2}|^{2}=p^{2n}$. Let $D_{3}/V_{3}=C_{G/V_{3}}(G^{\prime }/V_{3})$. He also showed that if $V_{3}<G_{3}$, then either $|G\,:\,D_{3}|=p^{n}$ or $D_{3}=V_{1}$. We show that if $V_{i}<G_{i}$ for $i\geqslant 4$, where $G_{i}$ is the $i$-th term in the lower central series of $G$, then $|G_{i-1}\,:\,V_{i-1}|=|G\,:\,D_{3}|$.

We show that certain right-angled Coxeter groups have finite index subgroups that quotient to $\mathbb{Z}$ with finitely generated kernels. The proof uses Bestvina–Brady Morse theory facilitated by combinatorial arguments. We describe a variety of examples where the plan succeeds or fails. Among the successful examples are the right-angled reflection groups in $\mathbb{H}^{4}$ with fundamental domain the 120-cell or the 24-cell.

Let $\mathbf{H}_{\mathbb{H}}^{n}$ denote the $n$-dimensional quaternionic hyperbolic space. The linear group $\text{Sp}(n,1)$ acts on $\mathbf{H}_{\mathbb{H}}^{n}$ by isometries. A subgroup $G$ of $\text{Sp}(n,1)$ is called Zariski dense if it neither fixes a point on $\mathbf{H}_{\mathbb{H}}^{n}\cup \unicode[STIX]{x2202}\mathbf{H}_{\mathbb{H}}^{n}$ nor preserves a totally geodesic subspace of $\mathbf{H}_{\mathbb{H}}^{n}$. We prove that a Zariski dense subgroup $G$ of $\text{Sp}(n,1)$ is discrete if for every loxodromic element $g\in G$ the two-generator subgroup $\langle f,gfg^{-1}\rangle$ is discrete, where the generator $f\in \text{Sp}(n,1)$ is a certain fixed element not necessarily from $G$.

Quasi-Sturmian words, which are infinite words with factor complexity eventually $n+c$ share many properties with Sturmian words. In this article, we study the quasi-Sturmian colorings on regular trees. There are two different types, bounded and unbounded, of quasi-Sturmian colorings. We obtain an induction algorithm similar to Sturmian colorings. We distinguish them by the recurrence function.

An automorphism of a graph product of groups is conjugating if it sends each factor to a conjugate of a factor (possibly different). In this article, we determine precisely when the group of conjugating automorphisms of a graph product satisfies Kazhdan’s property (T) and when it satisfies some vastness properties including SQ-universality.

On établit une décomposition de l’homologie stable des groupes d’automorphismes des groupes libres à coefficients polynomiaux contravariants en termes d’homologie des foncteurs. Elle permet plusieurs calculs explicites, qui recoupent des résultats établis de manière indépendante par O. Randal-Williams et généralisent certains d’entre eux. Nos méthodes reposent sur l’examen d’extensions de Kan dérivées associées à plusieurs catégories de groupes libres, la généralisation d’un critère d’annulation homologique à coefficients polynomiaux dû à Scorichenko, le théorème de Galatius identifiant l’homologie stable des groupes d’automorphismes des groupes libres à celle des groupes symétriques, la machinerie des $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$-espaces et le scindement de Snaith.

We consider the notion of the graph product of actions of discrete groups $\{G_{v}\}$ on a $C^{\ast }$-algebra ${\mathcal{A}}$ and show that under suitable commutativity conditions the graph product action $\star _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}_{v}:\star _{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}G_{v}\curvearrowright {\mathcal{A}}$ has the Haagerup property if each action $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}_{v}:G_{v}\curvearrowright {\mathcal{A}}$ possesses the Haagerup property. This generalizes the known results on graph products of groups with the Haagerup property. To accomplish this, we introduce the graph product of multipliers associated to the actions and show that the graph product of positive-definite multipliers is positive definite. These results have impacts on left-transformation groupoids and give an alternative proof of a known result for coarse embeddability. We also record a cohomological characterization of the Haagerup property for group actions.