No Arabic abstract
Given a length function L on the R-modules of a unital ring R, for each sofic group $Gamma$ we define a mean length for every locally L-finite $RGamma$-module relative to a bigger $RGamma$-module. We establish an addition formula for the mean length. We give two applications. The first one shows that for any unital left Noetherian ring R, $RGamma$ is stably direct finite. The second one shows that for any $ZGamma$-module M, the mean topological dimension of the induced $Gamma$-action on the Pontryagin dual of M coincides with the von Neumann-L{u}ck rank of M.
We introduce mean dimensions for continuous actions of countable sofic groups on compact metrizable spaces. These generalize the Gromov-Lindenstrauss-Weiss mean dimensions for actions of countable amenable groups, and are useful for distinguishing continuous actions of countable sofic groups with infinite entropy.
We prove that the alternating group of a topologically free action of a countably infinite group $Gamma$ on the Cantor set has the property that all of its $ell^2$-Betti numbers vanish and, in the case that $Gamma$ is amenable, is stable in the sense of Jones and Schmidt and has property Gamma (and in particular is inner amenable). We show moreover in the realm of amenable $Gamma$ that there are many such alternating groups which are simple, finitely generated, and C$^*$-simple. The device for establishing nonisomorphism among these examples is a topological version of Austins result on the invariance of measure entropy under bounded orbit equivalence.
We describe elementary examples of finitely presented sofic groups which are not residually amenable (and thus not initially subamenable or LEA, for short). We ask if an amalgam of two amenable groups over a finite subgroup is residually amenable and answer this positively for some special cases, including countable locally finite groups, residually nilpotent groups and others.
We refine two results in the paper entitled ``Sofic mean dimension by Hanfeng Li, improving two inequalities with two equalities, respectively, for sofic mean dimension of typical actions. On the one hand, we study sofic mean dimension of full shifts, for which, Li provided an upper bound which however is not optimal. We prove a more delicate estimate from above, which is optimal for sofic mean dimension of full shifts over arbitrary alphabets (i.e. compact metrizable spaces). Our refinement, together with the techniques (in relation to an estimate from below) in the paper entitled ``Mean dimension of full shifts by Masaki Tsukamoto, eventually allows us to get the exact value of sofic mean dimension of full shifts over any finite dimensional compact metrizable spaces. On the other hand, we investigate finite group actions. In contrast to the case that the acting group is infinite (and amenable), Li showed that if a finite group acts continuously on a finite dimensional compact metrizable space, then sofic mean dimension may be different from (strictly less than) the classical (i.e. amenable) mean dimension (an explicitly known value in this case). We strengthen this result by proving a sharp lower bound, which, combining with the upper bound, gives the exact value of sofic mean dimension for all the actions of finite groups on finite dimensional compact metrizable spaces. Furthermore, this equality leads to a satisfactory comparison theorem for those actions, deciding when sofic mean dimension would coincide with classical mean dimension. Moreover, our two results, in particular, verify for a typical class of sofic group actions that sofic mean dimension does not depend on sofic approximation sequences.
We prove that $Out(F_N)$ is boundary amenable. This also holds more generally for $Out(G)$, where $G$ is either a toral relatively hyperbolic group or a finitely generated right-angled Artin group. As a consequence, all these groups satisfy the Novikov conjecture on higher signatures.