Contracting orbits in Outer space

Strongly Contracting Geodesics in Outer Space

We study the Lipschitz metric on Outer Space and prove that fully irreducible elements of Out(F_n) act by hyperbolic isometries with axes which are strongly contracting. As a corollary, we prove that the axes of fully irreducible automorphisms in the Cayley graph of Out(F_n) are stable, meaning that a quasi-geodesic with endpoints on the axis stays within a bounded distance from the axis.

随机游走与收缩元 III：外空间与外自同构群

Random walks and contracting elements III: Outer space and outer automorphism group

该研究延续此前工作，利用等距映射的BGIP研究非对称度量空间上的随机游走，证明秩≥3的自由群的典型外自同构前向、后向扩张因子不同，解答了Handel与Mosher的问题。

Lines of minima in Outer space

We define lines of minima in the thick part of Outer space for the free group Fn with n>2 generators. We show that these lines of minima are contracting for the Lipschitz metric. Every fully irreducible outer automorphism of Fn defines such a line a minima. Now let G be a subgroup of the outer automorphism group of Fn which is not virtually abelian. We obtain as an immediate application that if G contains at least one fully irreducible element then for every p<1 the second bounded cohomology group with coefficients in lp(G) is infinite dimensional.

Stability in Outer Space

We characterize strongly Morse quasi-geodesics in Outer space as quasi-geodesics which project to quasi-geodesics in the free factor graph. We define convex cocompact subgroups of $Out(F_n)$ as subgroups such that an orbit map in the free factor graph is a quasi-isometric embedding, and we characterize such groups via their action on Outer space in a way which resembles the characterization of convex cocompact subgroups of mapping class groups.

Tangent ray foliations and their associated outer billiards

Let $v$ be a unit vector field on a complete, umbilic (but not totally geodesic) hypersurface $N$ in a space form; for example on the unit sphere $S^{2k-1} \subset \mathbb{R}^{2k}$, or on a horosphere in hyperbolic space. We give necessary and sufficient conditions on $v$ for the rays with initial velocities $v$ (and $-v$) to foliate the exterior $U$ of $N$. We find and explore relationships among these vector fields, geodesic vector fields, and contact structures on $N$. When the rays corresponding to each of $\pm v$ foliate $U$, $v$ induces an outer billiard map whose billiard table is $U$. …