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In this article we study the homology of nilpotent groups. In particular a certain vanishing result for the homology and cohomology of nilpotent groups is proved., Comment: 9 pages, Latex

We prove new vanishing results on the growth of higher torsion homologies for suitable arithmetic lattices, Artin groups and mapping class groups. The growth is understood along Farber sequences, in particular, along residual chains. For principal congruence subgroups, we also obtain strong asymptotic bounds for the torsion growth. As a central tool, we introduce a quantitative homotopical method called effective rebuilding. This constructs small classifying spaces of finite index subgroups, at the same time controlling the complexity of the homotopy. The method easily applies to free abelian groups and then extends recursively to a wide class of residually finite groups., Comment: 51 pages, 3 figures. Modifications after referee's recommandations. A section added of "1.3-speculations and questions" relating the homology growth with the sofic entropy Betti numbers. Name change: Right-angled groups become Chain-commuting groups (see Note 1, p. 8). Comments and a new reference added for the proof of Proposition 10.15 that was incomplete. To be published in J. Eur. Math. Soc

New constructions in group homology allow us to manufacture high-dimensional manifolds with controlled simplicial volume. We prove that for every dimension bigger than 3 the set of simplicial volumes of orientable closed connected manifolds is dense in $\mathbb{R}_{\geq 0}$. In dimension 4 we prove that every non-negative rational number is the simplicial volume of some orientable closed connected 4-manifold. Our group theoretic results relate stable commutator length to the $l^1$-semi-norm of certain singular homology classes in degree 2. The output of these results is translated into manifold constructions using cross-products and Thom realisation., Final version. To appear in "Inventiones mathematicae"

In 1976 Thurston associated to a $3$-manifold $N$ a marked polytope in $H_1(N;\mathbb{R}),$ which measures the minimal complexity of surfaces representing homology classes and determines all fibered classes in $H^1(N;\mathbb{R})$. Recently the first and the last author associated to a presentation $\pi$ with two generators and one relator a marked polytope in $H_1(\pi;\mathbb{R})$ and showed that it determines the Bieri-Neumann-Strebel invariant of $\pi$. In this paper, we show that if the fundamental group of a 3-manifold $N$ admits such a presentation $\pi$, then the corresponding marked polytopes in $H_1(N;\mathbb{R})=H_1(\pi;\mathbb{R})$ agree., Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures

We give formulas for the second and third integral homology of an arbitrary finitely generated Coxeter group, solely in terms of the corresponding Coxeter diagram. The first of these calculations refines a theorem of Howlett, while the second is entirely new and is the first explicit formula for the third homology of an arbitrary Coxeter group., Comment: 59 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Final version, to appear in Algebraic and Geometric Topology

For a group $G$ we consider the classifying space $E_{\mathcal{VC}yc}(G)$ for the family of virtually cyclic subgroups. We show that an Artin group admits a finite model for $E_{\mathcal{VC}yc}(G)$ if and only if it is virtually cyclic. This solves a conjecture of Juan-Pineda and Leary and a question of L\"uck-Reich-Rognes-Varisco for Artin groups. We then study the conjugacy growth of CAT(0) groups and show that if a CAT(0) group contains a free abelian group of rank two, its conjugacy growth is strictly faster than linear. This also yields an alternative proof for the fact that a CAT(0) cube group admits a finite model for $E_{\mathcal{VC}yc}(G)$ if and only if it is virtually cyclic. Our last result deals with the homotopy type of the quotient space $B_{\mathcal{VC}yc}(G) = E_{\mathcal{VC}yc}(G)/G$. We show for a poly-$\mathbb Z$-group $G$, that $B_{\mathcal{VC}yc}(G)$ is homotopy equivalent to a finite CW-complex if and only if $G$ is cyclic., Comment: 20 pages

We consider generalisations of Thompson's group $V$, denoted by $V_r(\Sigma)$, which also include the groups of Higman, Stein and Brin. It was shown by the authors in [20] that under some mild conditions these groups and centralisers of their finite subgroups are of type $\mathrm{F}_\infty$. Under more general conditions we show that the groups $V_r(\Sigma)$ are finitely generated and, under the mild conditions mentioned above, we see that they are finitely presented and give a recipe to find explicit presentations. For the centralisers of finite subgroups we find a suitable infinite presentation and then apply a general procedure to shorten this presentation. In the appendix, we give a proof of this general shortening procedure., Comment: 24 pages, no figures

In the literature of the study of knot group epimorphisms, the existence of an epimorphism between two given knot groups is mostly (if not always) shown by giving an epimorphism which preserves meridians. A natural question arises: is there an epimorphism preserving meridians whenever a knot group is a homomorphic image of another? We answer in the negative by presenting infinitely many pairs of prime knot groups (G,G') such that G' is a homomorphic image of G but no epimorphism of G onto G' preserves meridians., 20 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables

For an arrangement with complement X and fundamental group G, we relate the truncated cohomology ring, H^{, LaTeX2e, 22 pages, to appear in Singularities and Arrangements, Sapporo-Tokyo 1998, Advanced Studies in Pure Mathematics

Let $G$ be a group. For any $\mathbb{Z} G$--module $M$ and any integer $d>0$, we define a function $FV_{M}^{d+1}\colon \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N} \cup \{\infty\}$ generalizing the notion of $(d+1)$--dimensional filling function of a group. We prove that this function takes only finite values if $M$ is of type $FP_{d+1}$ and $d>0$, and remark that the asymptotic growth class of this function is an invariant of $M$. In the particular case that $G$ is a group of type $FP_{d+1}$, our main result implies that its $(d+1)$-dimensional homological filling function takes only finite values, addressing a question from [12]., Minor typo in the statement of Theorem 1.3 was corrected

In this paper we prove that the homological dimension of an elementary amenable group over an arbitrary commutative coefficient ring is either infinite or equal to the Hirsch length of the group. Established theory gives simple group theoretical criteria for finiteness of homological dimension and so we can infer complete information about this invariant for elementary amenable groups. Stammbach proved the special case of solvable groups over coefficient fields of characteristic zero in an important paper dating from 1970.

We study the homological finiteness property FPm of permutational wreath products.

We develop new invariants similar to the Bieri-Strebel-Neumann-Renz invariants but in the category of Bredon modules (with respect to the class of the finite subgroups of G). We prove that for virtually soluble groups of type FP_{\infty} and finite extension of the Thompson group F the new invariants coincide with the classical ones.

We prove a rigidity theorem for the geometry of the unit ball in random subspaces of the scl norm in B_1^H of a free group. In a free group F of rank k, a random word w of length n (conditioned to lie in [F,F]) has scl(w)=log(2k-1)n/6log(n) + o(n/log(n)) with high probability, and the unit ball in a subspace spanned by d random words of length O(n) is C^0 close to a (suitably affinely scaled) octahedron. A conjectural generalization to hyperbolic groups and manifolds (discussed in the appendix) would show that the length of a random geodesic in a hyperbolic manifold can be recovered from the bounded cohomology of the fundamental group., Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures; version 2 incorporates referee's comments

Let $R$ be a (not necessarily commutative) ring whose additive group is finitely generated and let $U_n(R) \subset GL_n(R)$ be the group of upper-triangular unipotent matrices over $R$. We study how the homology groups of $U_n(R)$ vary with $n$ from the point of view of representation stability. Our main theorem asserts that if for each $n$ we have representations $M_n$ of $U_n(R)$ over a ring $\mathbf{k}$ that are appropriately compatible and satisfy suitable finiteness hypotheses, then the rule $[n] \mapsto \widetilde{H}_i(U_n(R),M_n)$ defines a finitely generated OI-module. As a consequence, if $\mathbf{k}$ is a field then $dim \widetilde{H}_i(U_n(R),\mathbf{k})$ is eventually equal to a polynomial in $n$. We also prove similar results for the Iwahori subgroups of $GL_n(\mathcal{O})$ for number rings $\mathcal{O}$., Comment: 33 pages; minor update; to appear in Algebra & Number Theory

For certain contractible G-CW-complexes and F a family of subgroups of G, we construct a spectral sequence converging to the F-Bredon cohomology of G with E1-terms given by the F-Bredon cohomology of the stabilizer subgroups. As applications, we obtain several corollaries concerning the cohomological and geometric dimensions of the classifying space for the family F. We also introduce a hierarchically defined class of groups which contains all countable elementary amenable groups and countable linear groups of characteristic zero, and show that if a group G is in this class, then G has finite F-Bredon (co)homological dimension if and only if G has jump F-Bredon (co)homology., Comment: 18 pages

If $G$ is a group, then we say that the functor $H^n(G,-)$ is finitary if it commutes with all filtered colimit systems of coefficient modules. We investigate groups with cohomology almost everywhere finitary; that is, groups with $n$th cohomology functors finitary for all sufficiently large $n$. We establish sufficient conditions for a group $G$ possessing a finite dimensional model for $e.g.$ to have cohomology almost everywhere finitary. We also prove a stronger result for the subclass of groups of finite virtual cohomological dimension, and use this to answer a question of Leary and Nucinkis. Finally, we show that if $G$ is a locally (polycyclic-by-finite) group, then $G$ has cohomology almost everywhere finitary if and only if $G$ has finite virtual cohomological dimension and the normalizer of every non-trivial finite subgroup of $G$ is finitely generated., 26 pages

In this paper we study virtual rational Betti numbers of a nilpotent-by-abelian group $G$, where the abelianization $N/N'$ of its nilpotent part $N$ satisfies certain tameness property. More precisely, we prove that if $N/N'$ is $2(c(n-1)-1)$-tame as a $G/N$-module, $c$ the nilpotency class of $N$, then $\mathrm{vb}_j(G):=\sup_{M\in\mathcal{A}_G}\dim_\mathbb{Q} H_j(M,\mathbb{Q})$ is finite for all $0\leq j\leq n$, where $\mathcal{A}_G$ is the set of all finite index subgroups of $G$., 19 pages

The problem of homological stability helps us to catch the structure of group homology. We calculate homological stability of special orthogonal groups, and we also calculate the stability of orthogonal groups with determinant-twisted coefficients under a certain good situation. We also get some results about the structure of these homology., Comment: 12 pages

Associated to any finite flag complex L there is a right-angled Coxeter group W_L and a contractible cubical complex Sigma_L (the Davis complex) on which W_L acts properly and cocompactly, and such that the link of each vertex is L. It follows that if L is a generalized homology sphere, then Sigma_L is a contractible homology manifold. We prove a generalized version of the Singer Conjecture (on the vanishing of the reduced weighted L^2_q-cohomology above the middle dimension) for the right-angled Coxeter groups based on barycentric subdivisions in even dimensions. We also prove this conjecture for the groups based on the barycentric subdivision of the boundary complex of a simplex., Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol8/paper28.abs.html

We show a homological result for the class of planar or symmetric operad groups: We show that under certain conditions, group (co)homology of such groups with certain coefficients vanishes in all dimensions, provided it vanishes in dimension $0$. This can be applied for example to $l^2$-homology or cohomology with coefficients in the group ring. As a corollary, we obtain explicit vanishing results for Thompson-like groups such as the Brin-Thompson groups $nV$., 20 pages, final version, to appear in Algebraic & Geometric Topology

We study group actions on manifolds that admit hierarchies, which generalizes the idea of Haken n-manifolds introduced by Foozwell and Rubinstein. We show that these manifolds satisfy the Singer conjecture in dimensions $n \le 4$. Our main application is to Coxeter groups whose Davis complexes are manifolds; we show that the natural action of these groups on the Davis complex has a hierarchy. Our second result is that the Singer conjecture is equivalent to the cocompact action dimension conjecture, which is a statement about all groups, not just fundamental groups of closed aspherical manifolds., 11 pages

By considering the Bredon analogue of complete cohomology of a group, we show that every group in the class $\LHFF$ of type Bredon-$\FP_\infty$ admits a finite dimensional model for $\EFG$. We also show that abelian-by-infinite cyclic groups admit a $3$-dimensional model for the classifying space for the family of virtually nilpotent subgroups. This allows us to prove that for $\mF,$ the class of virtually cyclic groups, the class of $\LHFF$-groups contains all locally virtually soluble groups and all linear groups over $\mathbb C$ of integral characteristic., 14 pages

We study the group $QV$, the self-maps of the infinite $2$-edge coloured binary tree which preserve the edge and colour relations at cofinitely many locations. We introduce related groups $QF$, $QT$, $\tilde{Q}T$, and $\tilde{Q}V$, prove that $QF$, $\tilde{Q}T$, and $\tilde{Q}V$ are of type $\mathrm{F}_\infty$, and calculate finite presentations for them. We calculate the normal subgroup structure and rational homology of all $5$ groups, the Bieri--Neumann--Strebel--Renz invariants of $QF$, and discuss the relationship of all $5$ groups with other generalisations of Thompson's groups., Comment: 31 pages; 14 figures; accepted version

After constructing a splitting tower for separable commutative ring objects in tensor-triangulated categories, we define and study their degree., 11 pages. Slight modifications in v2, to appear in Algebra and Number Theory

We show that the mapping class group of a closed surface admits a cocompact classifying space for proper actions of dimension equal to its virtual cohomological dimension., 8 pages, no figures

We use the properties of the refined Bloch group of a field to prove that H_3 of SL_2 of a global field is never finitely generated, and to calculate - up to some 2-torsion - H_3 of SL_2 of local fields with finite residue field of odd characteristic. We also give lower bounds for the 3-torsion in the H_3 of SL_2 of rings of S-integers., 42 pages. Details added and exposition improved thanks to referee. To appear, J. Pure Applied Algebra

Uniformly finite homology is a coarse invariant for metric spaces; in particular, it is a quasi-isometry invariant for finitely generated groups. In this article, we study uniformly finite homology of finitely generated amenable groups and prove that it is infinite dimensional in many cases. The main idea is to use different transfer maps to distinguish between classes in uniformly finite homology. Furthermore we show that there are infinitely many classes in degree zero that cannot be detected by means., 18 pages, 2 figures

We consider generalisations of Thompson's group $V$, denoted $V_r(\Sigma)$, which also include the groups of Higman, Stein and Brin. We show that, under some mild hypotheses, $V_r(\Sigma)$ is the full automorphism group of a Cantor-algebra. Under some further minor restrictions, we prove that these groups are of type $\mathrm{F}_\infty$ and that this implies that also centralisers of finite subgroups are of type $\mathrm{F}_\infty$., Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures. Revised version. The original submission has now been split into two papers. The current submission contains the first one. The second part is being reworked and will be reposted soon independently. Lemma 4.8 was incorrect as stated and has since been rectified. The results of the paper are unchanged

We generalize a class of groups introduced by Herbert Abels to produce examples of virtually torsion free groups that have Bredon-finiteness length m-1 and classical finiteness length n-1 for all 0 < m, 17 pages, 2 figures, v2 more detailed

We show that Brin's generalisations $2V$ and $3V$ of the Thompson-Higman group $V$ are of type $FP_\infty$. Our methods also give a new proof that both groups are finitely presented., 26 pages, 18 figures, revised version

We use Bieri-Strebel invariants to determine when a normal fibre product in the product of two finitely presented groups is finitely presented. We give conditions that imply and in some cases characterize the existence of such finitely presented fibre products., Comment: This version includes many changes and new results suggested by a referee

An orientation is defined on a family of curve graphs on which the Torelli group acts. It is shown that the resulting signed stable length of an element of the Torelli group is a cohomology class. This cohomology class is half the dual of the contraction of the Johnson homomorphism, the socalled "Chillingworth class"., Comment: Changed definition of pre-image function to make it uppersemicontinuous. Diagrams and more background were added

We give homotopy invariant definitions corresponding to three well known properties of complete intersections, for the ring, the module theory and the endomorphisms of the residue field, and we investigate them for the mod p cochains on a space, showing that suitable versions of the second and third are equivalent and that the first is stronger. We are particularly interested in classifying spaces of groups, and we give a number of examples. This paper follows on from arXiv:0906.4025 which considered the classical case of a commutative ring and arXiv:0906.3247 which considered the case of rational homotopy theory., To appear in AGT

We define a family of groups that generalises Thompson's groups $T$ and $G$ and also those of Higman, Stein and Brin. For groups in this family we descrine centralisers of finite subgroups and show, that for a given finite subgroup $Q$, there are finitely many conjugacy classes of finite subgroups isomorphic to $Q$. We use this to show that whenever defined, the T versions of these groups have a slightly weaker property, quasi-$\underline{\operatorname F}_\infty$, to that of a group possessing a finite type model for the classifying space for proper actions ${\underline{E}}G$ if and only if they posses finite type models for the ordinary classifying space. We also generalise some well-known properties of ordinary cohomology to Bredon cohomology., Comment: 22 pages, to appear Groups, Geometry, and Dynamics

We study actions of discrete groups on contractible topological spaces in which either (1) all stabilizers lie in the family of subgroups of prime power order or (2) all stabilizers lie in the family of finite subgroups. We compare the classifying spaces for actions with stabilizers in these two families, the Kropholler hierarchies build on these two families, and group cohomology relative to these two families., Version 2 contains a reference to related work of Yoav Segev, some other minor changes

We consider the general question of how the homological finiteness property left-FPn holding in a monoid influences, and conversely depends on, the property holding in the substructures of that monoid. In particular we show that left-FPn is inherited by the maximal subgroups in a completely simple minimal ideal, in the case that the minimal ideal has finitely many left ideals. For completely simple semigroups we prove the converse, and as a corollary show that a completely simple semigroup is of type left- and right-FPn if and only if it has finitely many left and right ideals and all of its maximal subgroups are of type FPn. Also, given an ideal of a monoid, we show that if the ideal has a two-sided identity element then the containing monoid is of type left-FPn if and only if the ideal is of type left-FPn., Comment: 25 pages

We study centralisers of finite order automorphisms of generalisations of Thompson's group F and conjugacy classes of finite subgroups in finite extensions of these groups. In particular, we show that centralisers of finite automorphisms in these generalised Thompson groups either admit a finite type classifying space or are not finitely generated. As an application we deduce results about the Bredon type of such finite extensions., Comment: 20 pages

Stable commutator length vanishes in any group that obeys a law., 3 pages; version 2 addresses referee's comments

We discuss properties of the complete Euler characteristic of a group G of type FP over the complex numbers and we relate it to the L2-Euler characteristic of the centralizers of the elements of G., Comment: To appear in: London Math. Society Lecture Note Series, Vol 358, 2009

We show that for soluble groups of type FPn, centralisers of finite subgroups need not be of type FPn., Comment: 14 pages

For any group, there is a natural (pseudo-)norm on the vector space B1 of real (group) 1-boundaries, called the stable commutator length norm. This norm is closely related to, and can be thought of as a relative version of, the Gromov (pseudo)-norm on (ordinary) homology. We show that for a free group, the unit ball of this pseudo-norm is a rational polyhedron. It follows that stable commutator length in free groups takes on only rational values. Moreover every element of the commutator subgroup of a free group rationally bounds an injective map of a surface group. The proof of these facts yields an algorithm to compute stable commutator length in free groups. Using this algorithm, we answer a well-known question of Bavard in the negative, constructing explicit examples of elements in free groups whose stable commutator length is not a half-integer., Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures; version 2 incorporates referees' suggestions

The purpose of this paper is to report on the unpublished manuscript [O] by T. Okuyama where are proved some conjectures generalizing to homotopy categories the theorems of [CaRi] and [LS] holding in derived categories. We refer to the latter references and [CaEn]~\S 4 for a broader introduction to the subject. The main theme is the one of complexes related with the Coxeter complex and the action of parabolic subgroups on them, either for finite groups with BN-pairs or for finite dimensional Hecke algebras. Okuyama's contractions prove a quite efficient tool in a number of situations (see the proof of Solomon-Tits theorem in \S~6). We often stray away from Okuyama's proofs when it allows simplifications.

Let F be the fundamental group of S, where S is a compact, connected, oriented surface with negative Euler characteristic and nonempty boundary. (1) The projective class of the chain \partial S in B_1(F) intersects the interior of a codimension one face of the unit ball in the stable commutator length pseudo-norm. (2) The unique homogeneous quasimorphism on F dual to this face (up to scale and elements of H^1) is the rotation quasimorphism associated to the action of F on the ideal boundary of the hyperbolic plane, coming from a hyperbolic structure on S. These facts follow from the fact that every homologically trivial 1-chain in S rationally cobounds an immersed surface with a sufficiently large multiple of the boundary. This is true even if S has no boundary., Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures; v.3 incorporates referees suggestions

Computations in the cohomology of finite groups., Comment: PhD thesis (Cambridge, 1990) with one extra chapter added 1992

Given a Coxeter system (W,S), there is an associated CW-complex, Sigma, on which W acts properly and cocompactly. We prove that when the nerve L of (W,S) is a flag triangulation of the 3-sphere, then the reduced $\ell^2$-homology of Sigma vanishes in all but the middle dimension., 15 pages, 1 figure

We give a definition of the Yagita invariant at a prime p of an arbitrary group G, and compute the invariant for each prime for the general linear groups over any integrally closed subring of the complex numbers. We also compute the invariants for special linear groups over the same rings, except in some cases when both the degree of the linear group and the ring are `small' compared to p.

We show that the weighted fusion category algebra of the principal 2-block $b_0$ of $\mathrm{GL}_2(q)$ is the quotient of the $q$-Schur algebra $\mathcal{S}_2(q)$ by its socle, for $q$ an odd prime power. As a consequence, we get a canonical bijection between the set of isomorphism classes of simple $k\mathrm{GL}_2(q)b_0$-modules and the set of conjugacy classes of $b_0$-weights in this case., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Journal of Algebra

For each subcomplex of the standard CW-structure on any torus, we compute the homology of a certain infinite cyclic regular covering space. In all cases when the homology is finitely generated, we also compute the cohomology ring. For aspherical subcomplexes of the torus our computation gives the homology and cohomology of Bestvina-Brady groups. We compute the cohomological dimension of each of these groups over any field and over any subring of the rationals., Comment: Submitted July 2006

For M and N closed oriented connected smooth manifolds of the same dimension, we consider the mapping space Map(M,N;f) of continuous maps homotopic to f:M--> N.We show that the evaluation map from the space of maps to the manifold N induces a nontrivial homomorphism on the fundamental group only if the self coincidence number of f equals zero. Since the self intersection number is equal to the product of the degree of f and the Euler--Poincare number of N, we obtain results related to earlier results about the evaluation map and the Euler--Poincare number., 10 pages. his paper adds a hypothesis to Proposition 4.2 which renders it true. Thomas Schick found that the conjectures in section 4 were false. I added a revised conjecture, which Thomas Schick and Andreas Thom seem to have shown is true