Geometric invariants of locally compact groups: the homotopical perspective

Kai-Uwe Bux, Elisa Hartmann, José Pedro Quintanilha

Published 2024-10-25Version 1

We extend the classical theory of homotopical $\Sigma$-sets $\Sigma^n$ given by Bieri, Neumann, Renz and Strebel for abstract groups, to $\Sigma$-sets $\Sigma_{\mathrm{top}}^n$ for locally compact Hausdorff groups. Given such a group $G$, our $\Sigma_{\mathrm{top}}^n(G)$ are sets of continuous homomorphisms $G \to \mathbb{R}$ ("characters"). They match the classical $\Sigma$-sets $\Sigma^n(G)$ if $G$ is discrete, and refine the homotopical compactness properties $\mathrm C_n$ of Abels and Tiemeyer. Moreover, our theory recovers the definition of $\Sigma_{\mathrm{top}}^1$ and $\Sigma_{\mathrm{top}}^2$ proposed by Kochloukova.