We describe various classes of infinitely presented groups that are condensation points in the space of marked groups. A well-known class of such groups consists of finitely generated groups admitting an infinite minimal presentation. We introduce here a larger class of condensation groups, called infinitely independently presentable groups, and establish criteria which allow one to infer that a group is infinitely independently presentable. In addition, we construct examples of finitely generated groups with no minimal presentation, among them infinitely presented groups with Cantor–Bendixson rank 1, and we prove that every infinitely presented metabelian group is a condensation group.

Let $\mathfrak{F}$ be a locally compact nonarchimedean field with residue characteristic $p$, and let $\mathrm{G} $ be the group of $\mathfrak{F}$-rational points of a connected split reductive group over $\mathfrak{F}$. For $k$ an arbitrary field of any characteristic, we study the homological properties of the Iwahori–Hecke $k$-algebra ${\mathrm{H} }^{\prime } $ and of the pro-$p$ Iwahori–Hecke $k$-algebra $\mathrm{H} $ of $\mathrm{G} $. We prove that both of these algebras are Gorenstein rings with self-injective dimension bounded above by the rank of $\mathrm{G} $. If $\mathrm{G} $ is semisimple, we also show that this upper bound is sharp, that both $\mathrm{H} $ and ${\mathrm{H} }^{\prime } $ are Auslander–Gorenstein, and that there is a duality functor on the finite length modules of $\mathrm{H} $ (respectively ${\mathrm{H} }^{\prime } $). We obtain the analogous Gorenstein and Auslander–Gorenstein properties for the graded rings associated to $\mathrm{H} $ and ${\mathrm{H} }^{\prime } $.

When $k$ has characteristic $p$, we prove that in ‘most’ cases $\mathrm{H} $ and ${\mathrm{H} }^{\prime } $ have infinite global dimension. In particular, we deduce that the category of smooth $k$-representations of $\mathrm{G} = {\mathrm{PGL} }_{2} ({ \mathbb{Q} }_{p} )$ generated by their invariant vectors under the pro-$p$ Iwahori subgroup has infinite global dimension (at least if $k$ is algebraically closed).

We deal with aspects of direct and inverse problems in parameterized Picard–Vessiot (PPV) theory. It is known that, for certain fields, a linear differential algebraic group (LDAG) $G$ is a PPV Galois group over these fields if and only if $G$ contains a Kolchin-dense finitely generated group. We show that, for a class of LDAGs $G$, including unipotent groups, $G$ is such a group if and only if it has differential type $0$. We give a procedure to determine if a parameterized linear differential equation has a PPV Galois group in this class and show how one can calculate the PPV Galois group of a parameterized linear differential equation if its Galois group has differential type $0$.

We prove that groups definable in o-minimal structures have Cartan subgroups, and only finitely many conjugacy classes of such subgroups. We also delineate with precision how these subgroups cover the ambient group.

In this paper, we introduce variants of formal nearby cycles for a locally noetherian formal scheme over a complete discrete valuation ring. If the formal scheme is locally algebraizable, then our nearby cycle gives a generalization of Berkovich’s formal nearby cycle. Our construction is entirely scheme theoretic, and does not require rigid geometry. Our theory is intended for applications to the local study of the cohomology of Rapoport–Zink spaces.