Hyperlinear and sofic groups: a brief guide

Vladimir G. Pestov

Published 2008-04-24, updated 2008-08-04Version 8

Relatively recently, two new classes of (discrete, countable) groups have been isolated: hyperlinear groups and sofic groups. They come from different corners of mathematics (operator algebras and symbolic dynamics, respectively), and were introduced independently from each other, but are closely related nevertheless. Hyperlinear groups have their origin in Connes' Embedding Conjecture about von Neumann factors of type $II_1$, while sofic groups, introduced by Gromov, are motivated by Gottschalk Surjunctivity Conjecture (can a shift $A^G$ contain a proper isomorphic copy of itself, where $A$ is a finite discrete space and $G$ is a group?). Groups from both classes can be characterized as subgroups of metric ultraproducts of families of certain metric groups (formed in the same way as ultraproducts of Banach spaces): unitary groups of finite rank lead to hyperlinear groups, symmetric groups of finite rank - to sofic groups. We offer an introductory guide to some of the main concepts, results, and sources of the theory, following Connes, Gromov, Benjamin Weiss, Kirchberg, Ozawa, Radulescu, Elek and Szab\'o, and others, and discuss open questions which are for the time being perhaps more numerous than the results.