Topological And Asymptotic Aspects Of Group Theory

The articles in this volume are based on the talks given at two special sessions at the AMS Sectional meetings held in 2004. The articles cover various topological and asymptotic aspects of group theory, such as hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic groups, asymptotic cones, Thompson's group, Nielsen fixed point theory, homology, groups acting on trees, groups generated by finite automata, iterated monodromy groups, random walks on finitely generated groups, heat kernels, and currents on free groups.

This book is about the interplay between algebraic topology and the theory of infinite discrete groups. It is a hugely important contribution to the field of topological and geometric group theory, and is bound to become a standard reference in the field. To keep the length reasonable and the focus clear, the author assumes the reader knows or can easily learn the necessary algebra, but wants to see the topology done in detail. The central subject of the book is the theory of ends. Here the author adopts a new algebraic approach which is geometric in spirit.

This book is devoted to group-theoretic aspects of topological dynamics such as studying groups using their actions on topological spaces, using group theory to study symbolic dynamics, and other connections between group theory and dynamical systems. One of the main applications of this approach to group theory is the study of asymptotic properties of groups such as growth and amenability. The book presents recently developed techniques of studying groups of.

The key idea in geometric group theory is to study infinite groups by endowing them with a metric and treating them as geometric spaces. This applies to many groups naturally appearing in topology, geometry, and algebra, such as fundamental groups of manifolds, groups of matrices with integer coefficients, etc. The primary focus of this book is to cover the foundations of geometric group theory, including coarse topology, ultralimits and asymptotic cones, hyperbolic groups, isoperimetric inequalities, growth of groups, amenability, Kazhdan's Property (T) and the Haagerup property, as well as their characterizations in terms of group actions on median spaces and spaces with walls. The book contains proofs of several fundamental results of geometric group theory, such as Gromov's theorem on groups of polynomial growth, Tits's alternative, Stallings's theorem on ends of groups, Dunwoody's accessibility theorem, the Mostow Rigidity Theorem, and quasiisometric rigidity theorems of Tukia and Schwartz. This is the first book in which geometric group theory is presented in a form accessible to advanced graduate students and young research mathematicians. It fills a big gap in the literature and will be used by researchers in geometric group theory and its applications.

The work of Max Dehn (1878-1952) has been quietly influential in mathematics since the beginning of the 20th century. In 1900 he became the first to solve one of the famous Hilbert problems (the third, on the decomposition of polyhedra), in 1907 he collaborated with Heegaard to produce the first survey of topology, and in 1910 he began publishing his own investigations in topology and combinatorial group theory. His influence is apparent in the terms Dehn's algorithm, Dehn's lemma and Dehn surgery (and Dehnsche Gruppenbilder, generally known in English as Cayley diagrams), but direct access to his work has been difficult. No edition of his works has been produced, and some of his most important results were never published, at least not by him. The present volume is a modest attempt to bring Dehn's work to a wider audience, particularly topologists and group theorists curious about the origins of their subject and interested in mining the sources for new ideas. It consists of English translations of eight works : five of Dehn's major papers in topology and combinatorial group theory, and three unpublished works which illuminate the published papers and contain some results not available elsewhere. In addition, I have written a short introduction to each work, summarising its contents and trying to establish its place among related works of Dehn and others, and I have added an appendix on the Dehn-Nielsen theorem (often known simply as Nielsen's theorem) .

This book presents articles at the interface of two active areas of research: classical topology and the relatively new field of geometric group theory. It includes two long survey articles, one on proofs of the Farrell–Jones conjectures, and the other on ends of spaces and groups. In 2010–2011, Ohio State University (OSU) hosted a special year in topology and geometric group theory. Over the course of the year, there were seminars, workshops, short weekend conferences, and a major conference out of which this book resulted. Four other research articles complement these surveys, making this book ideal for graduate students and established mathematicians interested in entering this area of research.

This volume assembles several research papers in all areas of geometric and combinatorial group theory originated in the recent conferences in Dortmund and Ottawa in 2007. It contains high quality refereed articles developing new aspects of these modern and active fields in mathematics. It is also appropriate to advanced students interested in recent results at a research level.

This volume contains the proceedings of the International Conference on Group Theory, Combinatorics and Computing held from October 3-8, 2012, in Boca Raton, Florida. The papers cover a number of areas in group theory and combinatorics. Topics include finite simple groups, groups acting on structured sets, varieties of algebras, classification of groups generated by 3-state automata over a 2-letter alphabet, new methods for construction of codes and designs, groups with constraints on the derived subgroups of its subgroups, graphs related to conjugacy classes in groups, and lexicographical configurations. Application of computer algebra programs is incorporated in several of the papers. This volume includes expository articles on finite coverings of loops, semigroups and groups, and on the application of algebraic structures in the theory of communications. This volume is a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students working in group theory and combinatorics. The articles provide excellent examples of the interplay between the two areas.