An algebraic criterion for the vanishing of bounded cohomology

Abstract: We prove the vanishing of bounded cohomology with separable dual coefficients for many groups of interest in geometry, dynamics, and algebra. These include compactly supported structure-preserving diffeomorphism groups of certain manifolds; the group of interval exchange transformations of the half line; piecewise linear and piecewise projective groups of the line, giving strong answers to questions of Calegari and Navas; direct limit linear groups of relevance in algebraic K-theory, thereby answering a question by Kastenholz and Sroka and a question of two of the authors and L\"oh; and certain subgroups of big mapping class groups, such as the stable braid group and the stable mapping class group, proving a conjecture of Bowden. Moreover, we prove that in the recently introduced framework of enumerated groups, the generic group has vanishing bounded cohomology with separable dual coefficients. At the heart of our approach is an elementary algebraic criterion called the commuting cyclic conjugates condition that is readily verifiable for the aforementioned large classes of groups.