Abstract for the talk at 27.05.2010 (16:45 h)

Andreas Thom (Universität Leipzig)

Convergent sequences in discrete groups

We prove that a finitely generated group contains a sequence of non-trivial elements which converge to the identity in every compact homomorphic image if and only if the group is not virtually abelian. As a consequence, we show that a finitely generated group satisfies Chu duality if and only if it is virtually abelian.