In this note we observe that the notion of an induced representation has an analog for quasi-actions. We then use induced quasi-actions to refine some earlier rigidity results for product spaces.
The aim of this note is to give a geometric proof for classical local rigidity of lattices in semisimple Lie groups. We are reproving well known results in a more geometric (and hopefully clearer) way.
For an abelian group $A$, we give a precise homological description of the kernel of the natural map $Gamma(A) to Aotimes_mathbb{Z} A$, $gamma(a)mapsto aotimes a$, where $Gamma$ is whiteheads quadratic functor from the category of abelian groups to itself.
A generalized Baumslag-Solitar group is the fundamental group of a graph of groups all of whose vertex and edge groups are infinite cyclic. Levitt proves that any generalized Baumslag-Solitar group has property R-infinity, that is, any automorphism h
as an infinite number of twisted conjugacy classes. We show that any group quasi-isometric to a generalized Baumslag-Solitar group also has property R-infinity. This extends work of the authors proving that any group quasi-isometric to a solvable Baumslag-Solitar BS(1,n) group has property R-infinity, and relies on the classification of generalized Baumslag-Solitar groups given by Whyte.
A subgroup $H$ of a group $G$ is confined if the $G$-orbit of $H$ under conjugation is bounded away from the trivial subgroup in the space $operatorname{Sub}(G)$ of subgroups of $G$. We prove a commutator lemma for confined subgroups. For groups of h
omeomorphisms, this provides the exact analogue for confined subgroups (hence in particular for URSs) of the classical commutator lemma for normal subgroups: if $G$ is a group of homeomorphisms of a Hausdorff space $X$ and $H$ is a confined subgroup of $G$, then $H$ contains the derived subgroup of the rigid stabilizer of some open subset of $X$. We apply this commutator lemma to the study of URSs and actions on compact spaces of groups acting on rooted trees. We prove a theorem describing the structure of URSs of weakly branch groups and of their non-topologically free minimal actions. Among the applications of these results, we show: 1) if $G$ is a finitely generated branch group, the $G$-action on $partial T$ has the smallest possible orbital growth among all faithful $G$-actions; 2) if $G$ is a finitely generated branch group, then every embedding from $G$ into a group of homeomorphisms of strongly bounded type (e.g. a bounded automaton group) must be spatially realized; 3) if $G$ is a finitely generated weakly branch group, then $G$ does not embed into the group IET of interval exchange transformations.