Entropy, products, and bounded orbit equivalence

We prove that if two topologically free and entropy regular actions of countable sofic groups on compact metrizable spaces are continuously orbit equivalent, and each group either (i) contains a w-normal amenable subgroup which is neither locally finite nor virtually cyclic, or (ii) is a non-locally-finite product of two infinite groups, then the actions have the same sofic topological entropy. This fact is then used to show that if two free uniquely ergodic and entropy regular probability-measure-preserving actions of such groups are boundedly orbit equivalent then the actions have the same sofic measure entropy. Our arguments are based on a relativization of property SC to sofic approximations and yield more general entropy inequalities.

Normal amenable subgroups of the automorphism group of sofic shifts

Let $(X,\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E})$ be a transitive sofic shift and let $\operatorname{Aut}(X)$ denote its automorphism group. We generalize a result of Frisch, Schlank, and Tamuz to show that any normal amenable subgroup of $\operatorname{Aut}(X)$ must be contained in the subgroup generated by the shift. We also show that the result does not extend to higher dimensions by giving an example of a two-dimensional mixing shift of finite type due to Hochman whose automorphism group is amenable and not generated by the shift maps.

The space of relative orders and a generalization of Morris indicability theorem

We introduce the space of relative orders on a group and show that it is compact whenever the group is finitely generated. We use this to show that if [Formula: see text] is a finitely generated group acting on the line by order preserving homeomorphisms and some stabilizer of a point is a proper and co-amenable subgroup, then [Formula: see text] surjects onto [Formula: see text]. This is a generalization of a theorem of Morris.

Normal amenable subgroups of the automorphism group of the full shift

We show that every normal amenable subgroup of the automorphism group of the full shift is contained in its center. This follows from the analysis of this group’s Furstenberg topological boundary, through the construction of a minimal and strongly proximal action. We extend this result to higher dimensional full shifts. This also provides a new proof of Ryan’s theorem and of the fact that these groups contain free groups.

A remark on fullness of some group measure space von Neumann algebras

Recently Houdayer and Isono have proved, among other things, that every biexact group $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ has the property that for any non-singular strongly ergodic essentially free action $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}\curvearrowright (X,\unicode[STIX]{x1D707})$ on a standard measure space, the group measure space von Neumann algebra $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}\ltimes L^{\infty }(X)$ is full. In this paper, we prove the same property for a wider class of groups, notably including $\text{SL}(3,\mathbb{Z})$. We also prove that for any connected simple Lie group $G$ with finite center, any lattice $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}\leqslant G$, and any closed non-amenable subgroup $H\leqslant G$, the non-singular action $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}\curvearrowright G/H$ is strongly ergodic and the von Neumann factor $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}\ltimes L^{\infty }(G/H)$ is full.

The rapid decay property and centroids in groups

This is a survey of methods of proving or disproving the rapid decay property in groups. We present a centroid property of group actions on metric spaces. That property is a generalized (and corrected) version of the "(**)-relative hyperbolicity" from [9] and implies the rapid decay (RD) property. We show that several properties which are known to imply RD also imply the centroid property. Thus uniform lattices in many semi-simple Lie groups, graph products of groups, Artin groups of large type and the mapping class groups have the (relative) centroid property. We also present a simple "non-amenability-like" property that follows from RD, and give an easy example of a group without RD and without any amenable subgroup with superpolynomial growth.

INVOLUTIONS ON THE SECOND DUALS OF GROUP ALGEBRAS AND A MULTIPLIER PROBLEM

We show that if a locally compact group $G$ is non-discrete or has an infinite amenable subgroup, then the second dual algebra $L^1(G)^{**}$ does not admit an involution extending the natural involution of $L^1(G)$. Thus, for the above classes of groups we answer in the negative a question raised by Duncan and Hosseiniun in 1979. We also find necessary and sufficient conditions for the dual of certain left-introverted subspaces of the space $C_b(G)$ (of bounded continuous functions on $G$) to admit involutions. We show that the involution problem is related to a multiplier problem. Finally, we show that certain non-trivial quotients of $L^1(G)^{**}$ admit involutions.

Elementary amenable groups and 4-manifolds with Euler characteristic 0

We extend earlier work relating asphericity and Euler characteristics for finite complexes whose fundamental groups have nontrivial torsion free abelian normal subgroups. In particular a finitely presentable group which has a nontrivial elementary amenable subgroup whose finite subgroups have bounded order and with no nontrivial finite normal subgroup must have deficiency at most 1, and if it has a presentation of deficiency 1 then the corresponding 2-complex is aspherical. Similarly if the fundamental group of a closed 4-manifold with Euler characteristic 0 is virtually torsion free and elementary amenable then it either has 2 ends or is virtually an extension of Z by a subgroup of Q, or the manifold is asphencal and the group is virtually poly- Z of Hirsch length 4.