Let A be an F-central simple algebra of degree $m^2=\prod _{i=1}^k p_i^{2\alpha _i}$ and G be a subgroup of the unit group of A such that $F[G]=A$. We prove that if G is a central product of two of its subgroups M and N, then $F[M]\otimes _F F[N]\cong F[G]$. Also, if G is locally nilpotent, then G is a central product of subgroups $H_i$, where $[F[H_i]:F]=p_i^{2\alpha _i}$, $A=F[G]\cong F[H_1]\otimes _F \cdots \otimes _F F[H_k]$ and $H_i/Z(G)$ is the Sylow $p_i$-subgroup of $G/Z(G)$ for each i with $1\leq i\leq k$. Additionally, there is an element of order $p_i$ in F for each i with $1\leq i\leq k$.

Given a commutative unital ring R, we show that the finiteness length of a group G is bounded above by the finiteness length of the Borel subgroup of rank one $\textbf {B}_2^{\circ }(R)=\left ( \begin {smallmatrix} * & * \\ 0 & * \end {smallmatrix}\right )\leq \operatorname {\textrm {SL}}_2(R)$ whenever G admits certain R-representations with metabelian image. Combined with results due to Bestvina–Eskin–Wortman and Gandini, this gives a new proof of (a generalization of) Bux’s equality on the finiteness length of S-arithmetic Borel groups. We also give an alternative proof of an unpublished theorem due to Strebel, characterizing finite presentability of Abels’ groups $\textbf {A}_n(R) \leq \operatorname {\textrm {GL}}_n(R)$ in terms of n and $\textbf {B}_2^{\circ }(R)$ . This generalizes earlier results due to Remeslennikov, Holz, Lyul’ko, Cornulier–Tessera, and points out to a conjecture about the finiteness length of such groups.

Let ℍ be the division ring of real quaternions. Let SL(2, ℍ) be the group of 2 × 2 quaternionic matrices $A={\scriptsize{(\begin{array}{l@{\quad}l} a & b \\ c & d \end{array})}}$ with quaternionic determinant det A = |ad − aca−1b| = 1. This group acts by the orientation-preserving isometries of the five-dimensional real hyperbolic space. We obtain discreteness criteria for Zariski-dense subgroups of SL(2, ℍ).

In this paper we prove that there is only one conjugacy class of dihedral group of order $2p$ in the $2\left( p\,-\,1 \right)\,\times \,2\left( p\,-\,1 \right)$ integral symplectic group that can be realized by an analytic automorphism group of compact connected Riemann surfaces of genus $p\,-\,1$. A pair of representative generators of the realizable class is also given.

We give a way of constructing non-tame automorphisms of a free group of rank 3 in the variety , with p prime.

We explicitly describe the decomposition into irreducibles of the restriction of the principal series representations of $SL\left( 2,\,k \right)$, for $k$ a $p$-adic field, to each of its two maximal compact subgroups (up to conjugacy). We identify these irreducible subrepresentations in the Kirillov-type classification of Shalika. We go on to explicitly describe the decomposition of the reducible principal series of $SL\left( 2,\,k \right)$ in terms of the restrictions of its irreducible constituents to a maximal compact subgroup.

Let R be a ring with 1 and En (R) be the subgroup of GLn(R) generated by the matrices I + reij, r ∈ R, i ≠ j. We prove that the subgroup of consisting of the matrices of shape , where and , is (2, 3, 7)-generated whenever R is finitely generated and n, are large enough.

We study commutators in pseudo-orthogonal groups O2nR (including unitary, symplectic, and ordinary orthogonal groups) and in the conformal pseudo-orthogonal groups GO2nR. We estimate the number of commutators, c(O2nR) and c(GO2nR), needed to represent every element in the commutator subgroup. We show that c(O2nR) ≤ 4 if R satisfies the ∧-stable condition and either n ≥ 3 or n = 2 and 1 is the sum of two units in R, and that c(GO2nR) ≤ 3 when the involution is trivial and ∧ = R∈. We also show that c(O2nR) ≤ 3 and c(GO2nR) ≤ 2 for the ordinary orthogonal group O2nR over a commutative ring R of absolute stable rank 1 where either n ≥ 3 or n = 2 and 1 is the sum of two units in R.

For any variety of groups, the relative inner rank of a given groupG is defined to be the maximal rank of the -free homomorphic images of G. In this paper we explore metabelian inner ranks of certain one-relator groups. Using the well-known Quillen-Suslin Theorem, in conjunction with an elegant result of Artamonov, we prove that if r is any "Δ-modular" element of the free metabelian group Mn of rank n > 2 then the metabelian inner rank of the quotient group Mn/(r) is at most [n/2]. As a corollary we deduce that the metabelian inner rank of the (orientable) surface group of genus k is precisely k. This extends the corresponding result of Zieschang about the absolute inner ranks of these surface groups. In continuation of some further applications of the Quillen-Suslin Theorem we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a system g = (g1,..., gk) of k elements of a free metabelian group Mn, k ≤ n, to be a part of a basis of Mn. This extends results of Bachmuth and Timoshenko who considered the cases k = n and k < n — 3 respectively.

Let O1 denote the class of groups G such that every group ring of G (over a field) is an Ore domain. Several approaches to the correction of the proof of a result concerning subrings generated by certain O1-groups are given.

Let Λn be the kernel of the map from GL(n, ℤ) to GL(n, ℤ2) induced by the quotient map ℤ → ℤ2. We give a presentation for Λn.