Dehn functions of finitely presented metabelian groups

In this paper, we compute an upper bound for the Dehn function of a finitely presented metabelian group. In addition, we prove that the same upper bound works for the relative Dehn function of a finitely generated metabelian group. We also show that every wreath product of a free abelian group of finite rank with a finitely generated abelian group can be embedded into a metabelian group with exponential Dehn function.

Generalized small cancellation conditions, non-positive curvature and diagrammatic reducibility

We present a metric condition $\TTMetric$ which describes the geometry of classical small cancellation groups and applies also to other known classes of groups such as two-dimensional Artin groups. We prove that presentations satisfying condition $\TTMetric$ are diagrammatically reducible in the sense of Sieradski and Gersten. In particular, we deduce that the standard presentation of an Artin group is aspherical if and only if it is diagrammatically reducible. We show that, under some extra hypotheses, $\TTMetric$ -groups have quadratic Dehn functions and solvable conjugacy problem. In the spirit of Greendlinger's lemma, we prove that if a presentation P = 〈X| R〉 of group G satisfies conditions $\TTMetric -C'(\frac {1}{2})$ , the length of any nontrivial word in the free group generated by X representing the trivial element in G is at least that of the shortest relator. We also introduce a strict metric condition $\TTMetricStrict$ , which implies hyperbolicity.

Helly meets Garside and Artin

A graph is Helly if every family of pairwise intersecting combinatorial balls has a nonempty intersection. We show that weak Garside groups of finite type and FC-type Artin groups are Helly, that is, they act geometrically on Helly graphs. In particular, such groups act geometrically on spaces with a convex geodesic bicombing, equipping them with a nonpositive-curvature-like structure. That structure has many properties of a CAT(0) structure and, additionally, it has a combinatorial flavor implying biautomaticity. As immediate consequences we obtain new results for FC-type Artin groups (in particular braid groups and spherical Artin groups) and weak Garside groups, including e.g. fundamental groups of the complements of complexified finite simplicial arrangements of hyperplanes, braid groups of well-generated complex reflection groups, and one-relator groups with non-trivial center. Among the results are: biautomaticity, existence of EZ and Tits boundaries, the Farrell–Jones conjecture, the coarse Baum–Connes conjecture, and a description of higher order homological and homotopical Dehn functions. As a means of proving the Helly property we introduce and use the notion of a (generalized) cell Helly complex.

Higher order Dehn functions for horospheres in products of Hadamard spaces

Let X be a product of r locally compact and geodesically complete Hadamard spaces. We prove that the horospheres in X centered at regular boundary points of X are Lipschitz-(r − 2)-connected. If X has finite Assouad–Nagata dimension, then using the filling construction by R. Young in [10] this gives sharp bounds on higher order Dehn functions for such horospheres. Moreover, if Γ ⊂ Is(X) is a lattice acting cocompactly on X minus a union of disjoint horoballs, then we get a sharp bound on higher order Dehn functions for Γ. We deduce that apart from the Hilbert modular groups already considered by R. Young, every irreducible ℚ-rank one lattice acting on a product of r Riemannian symmetric spaces of the noncompact type is undistorted up to dimension r−1 and has k-th order Dehn function asymptotic to V(k+1)/k for all k ≤ r − 2.

Taming the hydra: The word problem and extreme integer compression

For a finitely presented group, the word problem asks for an algorithm which declares whether or not words on the generators represent the identity. The Dehn function is a complexity measure of a direct attack on the word problem by applying the defining relations. Dison and Riley showed that a “hydra phenomenon” gives rise to novel groups with extremely fast growing (Ackermannian) Dehn functions. Here, we show that nevertheless, there are efficient (polynomial time) solutions to the word problems of these groups. Our main innovation is a means of computing efficiently with enormous integers which are represented in compressed forms by strings of Ackermann functions.