We prove that a lacunary hyperbolic group $G = \varinjlim G_i$ with sufficient generics is selfless in the sense of Amrutam--Gao--Kunnawalkam Elayavalli--Patchell, provided the hyperbolicity constants $δ_i$ and injectivity radii $r_i$ satisfy $δ_i(\log r_i)^{7} = o(r_i)$. The proof replaces the acylindricity-based machinery of that work with a direct geodesic $n$-gon criterion due to Arzhantseva, which applies in any $δ$-hyperbolic space. As a consequence, combined with rapid decay, $G$ is $C^*$-selfless. The condition is mild: torsion-free Tarski monsters, Jacobson's mixed-identity-free elementary amenable groups and Gromov monster groups satisfy it for appropriate parameter choices. The amenable examples are selfless but cannot be $C^*$-selfless, providing examples that separate these properties. Finally we remark that the Gromov monster group examples provide a potential avenue to a non-exact $C^*$-algebra with strict comparison.

Let $G$ be a finite group and $N$ a normal subgroup of $G$. We report on recent results concerning minimal $G$-invariant characters of $N$ (which are the sums of the characters on each orbit of the action of $G$ by conjugation on $\text{Irr}(N)$) and their influence on the structure of $N$, as well as their relationship to the $G$-conjugacy classes of $N$.

We establish $L^p$ bounds for operators associated with the quasi-regular representation of the free group on its Gromov boundary. The $p=2$ case recovers Haagerup's inequality, yielding a new interpolation-theoretic proof of the the Rapid Decay property for the free group.

Let $G$ be the fundamental group of a compact surface, a finitely generated free group, or more generally a finitely generated right-angled Artin group. We prove that the von Neumann dimension function of $\mathrm{Out}(G)$ is valued in a discrete subgroup of $\mathbb Q$. This is accomplished by establishing the Strong Atiyah Conjecture for a torsion-free subgroup of $\mathrm{Out}(G)$ of finite index. We also prove that for every field $\mathbb K$, there exists a torsion-free subgroup $H \leqslant \mathrm{Out}(G)$ of finite index such that $\mathbb K[H]$ embeds into a division ring, and hence satisfies the Zero Divisor Conjecture. These results are obtained by establishing analogous ones for a suitable open subgroup of $\mathrm{Out}(\mathbf G)$ and its completed group algebra, where $\mathbf G$ denotes the pro-$p$ completion of $G$. In an appendix, the first author shows that an automorphism of a free nilpotent group is inner if and only if it induces an inner automorphism of its pro-$p$ completion.

We prove that many virtual properties are closed under taking graph products, including: virtually RFRS, virtually (compact) special, virtually CAT(0) cube, and virtually normally poly-free. Our proof uses Januszkiewicz and Świątkowski's strong commensurability theorem for graph products, for which we provide an elementary proof.

A finite group is said to be quartic-free if its order is not divisible by $p^4$ of any prime $p$. A finite group is called an $A$-group if all of its Sylow subgroups are abelian. Objective of this paper is to provide explicit structure of a quartic-free $A$-group. Further in the process of providing the explicit structure we also determine the derived length of a solvable quartic-free $A$-group.

Patterson-Sullivan measures encode the distribution of orbits of discrete group actions near the boundary. In this paper, we prove a global shadow lemma for Patterson-Sullivan measures associated to relatively Morse subgroups of higher-rank semisimple Lie groups. The estimate is uniform for shadows centered at arbitrary points in a Gromov model, including points deep in the cuspidal part. This extends the global shadow lemma of Stratmann-Velani for geometrically finite real hyperbolic groups. As applications, we obtain uniform local estimates for Patterson-Sullivan measures, and we give sufficient conditions under which these measures agree, up to scale, with the Hausdorff measure defined by the associated visual quasi-metric.

We extend the theory of root clusters from perfect fields to general fields which are not necessarily perfect. We introduce the following notions for field extensions over any given base field and study their interesting properties: root cluster size, multicluster size and their generalizations root capacity, multiroot capacity; ascending index, ascending normal index and their generalizations intersection indicium, intersection normal indicium; compositum indicium and compositum normal indicium. We establish our results on the Inverse problems for these generalized notions over Hilbertian fields which generalizes our earlier results which were over number fields. In particular, we show over a given Hilbertian field, the existence of a polynomial for given degree, cluster size and multicluster size and existence of an extension for given root capacity and multiroot capacity with respect to that polynomial.

It is shown that the reduced C*-algebra of a nontrivial linear group $Γ<GL_{d}(k)$ with trivial amenable radical is selfless. Thus selflessness and simplicity coincide for reduced C*-algebras of linear groups. Similar results are obtained for twisted reduced group C*-algebra.

We prove that, if $G$ is a finite almost simple group and $H$ is a maximal subgroup of $G$, then the $10$th term of the derived series of $H$ is perfect. The same is true if $G$ is perfect and $H$ is core-free. The constant $10$ is best possible.

In the 1980's K.S. Brown proved that the Houghton group $H_n$ is of type $\operatorname{F}_{n-1}$ but not $\operatorname{FP}_n$. We show that, provided $n\ge3$, the same conclusion holds for all subgroups $G$ of $H_n$ that are 'large' in the sense that there is an epimorphism $G\twoheadrightarrow\mathbb{Z}^{n-1}$. Our research leads naturally to the study of generalised permutational wreath products in which the base of the wreath product is a direct product of finite groups which are allowed to vary in isomorphism type from one orbit to another. Such generalised wreath products arise naturally amongst the large subgroups of Houghton groups and are accommodated by a generalised Jordan--Wielandt theorem.

We show that the canonical actions of the Thompson group V and its generalizations on the Cantor set are not strongly ergodic. This implies that the associated crossed product von Neumann algebras are not full. This also yields a non-embedding result for the Thompson groups.

In this survey, we describe recent progress on asymptotic properties of various automorphic orbits in free groups. In particular, we address the problem of counting potentially positive elements of a given length. We also discuss complexity (worst-case, average-case, and generic-case) of Whitehead's automorphism problem and relevant properties of automorphic orbits, including orbit-blocking words.

A complex hyperplane arrangement $\mathcal{A}$ is said to be decomposable if there are no elements in the degree 3 part of its holonomy Lie algebra besides those coming from the rank 2 flats. When this purely combinatorial condition is satisfied, it is known that the associated graded Lie algebra of the arrangement group $G$ decomposes (in degrees greater than 1) as a direct product of free Lie algebras. It follows that the $I$-adic completion of the Alexander invariant $B(G)$ also decomposes as a direct sum of "local" invariants and the Chen ranks of $G$ are the sums of the local contributions. Moreover, if $B(G)$ is separated, then the degree 1 cohomology jump loci of the complement of $\mathcal{A}$ have only local components, and the algebraic monodromy of the Milnor fibration is trivial in degree 1.

We investigate the problem of finding the minimum number of pieces necessary for dividing a three-dimensional sphere or a ball and reassembling it to form $n$ congruent copies of the original object, generalising a known result by Raphael Robinson.

The paper establishes results following two interconnected directions. 1. Let $G$ be a Roelcke precompact closed subgroup of the group $\mathrm{Sym}(ω)$ of permutations of the natural numbers. Let $\mathrm{Aut}(G)$ denote the group of continuous automorphisms of $G$. Then $\mathrm{Inn}(G)$ is closed in $\mathrm{Aut}(G)$, where $\mathrm{Aut}(G)$ carries the topology of pointwise convergence for its (faithful) action on the cosets of open subgroups. Under the stronger hypothesis that~$G$ is oligomorphic, $\+ N_G/G$ is profinite, where $\+ N_G$ denotes the normaliser of~$G$ in $\mathrm{Sym}(ω)$, and the topological group $\mathrm{Out}(G)= \mathrm{Aut}(G)/\mathrm{Inn}(G)$ is totally disconnected, locally compact. 2a. We provide a general method to show smoothness of the isomorphism relation for appropriate Borel classes of oligomorphic groups. We apply it to two such classes: the oligomorphic groups with no algebraicity, and the oligomorphic groups with finitely many {essential} subgroups up to conjugacy. 2b. Using this method we also show that if $G$ is in such a Borel class, then $\mathrm{Aut}(G)$ is topologically isomorphic to an oligomorphic group, and $\mathrm{Out}(G)$ is profinite.