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67 votes
1 answer
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Why can't a nonabelian group be 75% abelian?

This question asks for intuition, not a proof. An earlier question, Measures of non-abelian-ness was thoroughly answered by Arturo Magidin. A paper by Gustafson1 proves that, for a nonabelian group, ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
263 views

Which results in probabilistic group theory generalize from finite groups to compact Hausdorff groups (and which don't)?

Let $G$ be a finite group. It has been shown that: If the probability that two randomly selected elements of $G$ generate an abelian group is greater than $5/8$, $G$ is abelian. If the probability ...
ckefa's user avatar
  • 495
4 votes
2 answers
359 views

Random walk uniformly hitting a compact set

Suppose $G$ is a locally compact compactly generated group. Let $\mu$ be a probability measure that is: Adapted to $G$, i.e. there is no proper subgroup $H$ such that $\mu(H)=1$. Symmetric, i.e. $\...
Snoop Catt's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
635 views

Mean value theorems for the Haar integral?

Let $G$ be a compact topological group (feel free to add hypotheses if necessary). Is there any mean value theorem for its (normalized to 1) Haar integral? In general, are there mean value theorems ...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,407