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We show that the outer automorphism groups of graph products of finitely generated abelian groups satisfy the Tits alternative, are residually finite, their so-called Torelli subgroups are finitely generated, and they satisfy a dichotomy between being virtually nilpotent and containing a non-abelian free subgroup that is determined by a graphical condition on the underlying labelled graph. Graph products of finitely generated abelian groups simultaneously generalize right-angled Artin groups (RAAGs) and right-angled Coxter groups (RACGs), providing a common framework for studying these groups. Our results extend a number of known results for the outer automorphism groups of RAAGs and/or RACGs by a variety of authors, including Caprace, Charney, Day, Ferov, Guirardel, Horbez, Minasyan, Vogtmann, Wade, and the current authors., 39 pages. Added references

We generalize the notion of a separating intersection of links (SIL) to give necessary and sufficient criteria on the defining graph Γ \Gamma of a right-angled Coxeter group W Γ W_\Gamma so that its outer automorphism group is large: that is, it contains a finite index subgroup that admits the free group F 2 F_2 as a quotient. When Out ⁡ ( W Γ ) \operatorname {Out}(W_\Gamma ) is not large, we show it is virtually abelian. We also show that the same dichotomy holds for the outer automorphism groups of graph products of finite abelian groups. As a consequence, these groups have property (T) if and only if they are finite or equivalently Γ \Gamma contains no SIL.

We describe an algorithm to find the virtual cohomological dimension of the automorphism group of a right-angled Artin group. The algorithm works in the relative setting; in particular it also applies to untwisted automorphism groups and basis-conjugating automorphism groups. The main new tool is the construction of free abelian subgroups of certain Fouxe-Rabinovitch groups of rank equal to their virtual cohomological dimension, generalizing a result of Meucci in the setting of free groups., Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. Revised background on RORGs, small changes elsewhere. Accepted to appear in Bulletin of the LMS

Outer automorphism groups of RAAGs, denoted $Out(A_\Gamma)$, interpolate between $Out(F_n)$ and $GL_n(\mathbb{Z})$. We consider several vastness properties for which $Out(F_n)$ behaves very differently from $GL_n(\mathbb{Z})$: virtually mapping onto all finite groups, SQ-universality, virtually having an infinite dimensional space of homogeneous quasimorphisms, and not being boundedly generated. We give a neccessary and sufficient condition in terms of the defining graph $\Gamma$ for each of these properties to hold. Notably, the condition for all four properties is the same, meaning $Out(A_\Gamma)$ will either satisfy all four, or none. In proving this result, we describe conditions on $\Gamma$ that imply $Out(A_\Gamma)$ is large. Techniques used in this work are then applied to the case of McCool groups, defined as subgroups of $Out(F_n)$ that preserve a given family of conjugacy classes. In particular we show that any McCool group that is not virtually abelian virtually maps onto all finite groups, is SQ-universal, is not boundedly generated, and has a finite index subgroup whose space of homogeneous quasimorphisms is infinite dimensional.

Given the large class of groups already known to be sofic, there is seemingly a shortfall in results concerning their permanence properties. We address this problem for wreath products, and in particular investigate the behaviour of more general metric approximations of groups under wreath products. Our main result is the following. Suppose that $H$ is a sofic group and $G$ is a countable, discrete group. If $G$ is sofic, hyperlinear, weakly sofic, or linear sofic, then $G\wr H$ is also sofic, hyperlinear, weakly sofic, or linear sofic respectively. In each case we construct relevant metric approximations, extending a general construction of metric approximations for $G\wr H$ that uses soficity of $H$.

Modelled on efficient algorithms for solving the conjugacy problem in hyperbolic groups, we define and study the permutation conjugacy length function. This function estimates the length of a short conjugator between words $u$ and $v$, up to taking cyclic permutations. This function might be bounded by a constant, even in the case when the standard conjugacy length function is unbounded. We give applications to the complexity of the conjugacy problem, estimating conjugacy growth rates, and languages. Our main result states that for a relatively hyperbolic group, the permutation conjugacy length function is bounded by the permutation conjugacy length function of the parabolic subgroups., 18 pages, 8 figures

Determining the length of short conjugators in a group can be considered as an effective version of the conjugacy problem. The conjugacy length function provides a measure for these lengths. We study the behaviour of conjugacy length functions under group extensions, introducing the twisted and restricted conjugacy length functions. We apply these results to show that certain abelian-by-cyclic groups have linear conjugacy length function and certain semidirect products $\Z^d \rtimes \Z^k$ have at most exponential (if $k >1$) or linear (if $k=1$) conjugacy length functions., 22 pages; 3 figures. For v2: added a section discussing the distortion functions, fixed minor errors and typos. For v1: some results of this paper also appear in "Short Conjugators in Solvable Groups" arXiv:1112.2721, however the main theme of this paper is new

We describe an effective version of the conjugacy problem and study it for wreath products and free solvable groups. The problem involves estimating the length of short conjugators between two elements of the group, a notion which leads to the definition of the conjugacy length function. We show that for free solvable groups the conjugacy length function is at most cubic. For wreath products the behaviour depends on the conjugacy length function of the two groups involved, as well as subgroup distortion within the quotient group., 24 pages, 4 figures. This was formed from the splitting of arXiv:1202.5343, titled "On the Magnus Embedding and the Conjugacy Length Function of Wreath Products and Free Solvable Groups," into two papers. The contents of this paper remain largely unchanged

A group has finite palindromic width if there exists $n$ such that every element can be expressed as a product of $n$ or fewer palindromic words. We show that if $G$ has finite palindromic width with respect to some generating set, then so does $G \wr \mathbb{Z}^{r}$. We also give a new, self-contained, proof that finitely generated metabelian groups have finite palindromic width. Finally, we show that solvable groups satisfying the maximal condition on normal subgroups (max-n) have finite palindromic width.

The classic Magnus embedding is a very effective tool in the study of abelian extensions of a finitely generated group $G$, allowing us to see the extension as a subgroup of a wreath product of a free abelian group with $G$. In particular, the embedding has proved to be useful when studying free solvable groups. An equivalent geometric definition of the Magnus embedding is constructed and it is used to show that it is 2-bi-Lipschitz, with respect to an obvious choice of generating sets. This is then applied to obtain a non-zero lower bound on $L_p$ compression exponents in free solvable groups., 9 pages. To appear in Geom. Dedicata. The final publication will be available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10711-014-9969-z

The conjugacy length function of a group Γ determines, for a given a pair of conjugate elements u,v ∈ Γ, an upper bound for the shortest γ in Γ such that uγ = γv, relative to the lengths of u and v. This thesis focuses on estimating the conjugacy length function in certain finitely generated groups. We first look at a collection of solvable groups. We see how the lamplighter groups have a linear conjugacy length function; we find a cubic upper bound for free solvable groups; for solvable Baumslag--Solitar groups it is linear, while for a larger family of abelian-by-cyclic groups we get either a linear or exponential upper bound; also we show that for certain polycyclic metabelian groups it is at most exponential. We also investigate how taking a wreath product effects conjugacy length, as well as other group extensions. The Magnus embedding is an important tool in the study of free solvable groups. It embeds a free solvable group into a wreath product of a free abelian group and a free solvable group of shorter derived length. Within this thesis we show that the Magnus embedding is a quasi-isometric embedding. This result is not only used for obtaining an upper bound on the conjugacy length function of free solvable groups, but also for giving a lower bound for their Lp compression exponents. Conjugacy length is also studied between certain types of elements in lattices of higher-rank semisimple real Lie groups. In particular we obtain linear upper bounds for the length of a conjugator from the ambient Lie group within certain families of real hyperbolic elements and unipotent elements. For the former we use the geometry of the associated symmetric space, while for the latter algebraic techniques are employed.