In this paper we classify all infinite metacyclic groups up to isomorphism and determine their non-abelian tensor squares. As an application we compute various other functors, among them are the exterior square, the symmetric product, and the second homology group for these groups. We show that an infinite non-abelian metacyclic group is capable if and only if it is isomorphic to the infinite dihedral group

We show that if a group G has a finite complete rewriting system, and if H is a subgroup of G with |G : H| = n, then H * Fn–1 also has a finite complete rewriting system (where Fn–1 is the free group of rank n – 1).

We show that the zeta function of a regular graph admits a representation as a quotient of a determinant over a L2-determinant of the combinatorial Laplacian.

We characterize those commuting pairs of operators on Hubert space that have the symmetrized bidisc as a spectral set in terms of the positivity of a hermitian operator pencil (without any assumption about the joint spectrum of the pair). Further equivalent conditions are that the pair has a normal dilation to the distinguished boundary of the symmetrized bidisc, and that the pair has the symmetrized bidisc as a complete spectral set. A consequence is that every contractive representation of the operator algebra A(Γ) of continuous functions on the symmetrized bidisc analytic in the interior is completely contractive. The proofs depend on a polynomial identity that is derived with the aid of a realization formula for doubly symmetric hereditary polynomials, which are positive on commuting pairs of contractions.

An old question of Brauer that asks how fast numbers of conjugacy classes grow is investigated by considering the least number cn of conjugacy classes in a group of order 2n. The numbers cn are computed for n ≤ 14 and a lower bound is given for c15. It is observed that cn grows very slowly except for occasional large jumps corresponding to an increase in coclass of the minimal groups Gn. Restricting to groups that are 2-generated or have coclass at most 3 allows us to extend these computations.