We prove that the Gromov boundary of every hyperbolic group is homeomorphic to some Markov compactum. Our reasoning is based on constructing a sequence of covers of $\partial G$, which is quasi-$G$-invariant wrt. the ball $N$-type (defined by Cannon) for $N$ sufficiently large. We also ensure certain additional properties for the inverse system representing $\partial G$, leading to a finite description which defines it uniquely.
By defining a natural metric on the inverse limit $\lim K_n$ and proving it to be bi-Lipschitz equivalent to an accordingly chosen visual metric on $\partial G$, we prove that our construction enables providing a simplicial description of the natural quasi-conformal structure on $\partial G$. We also point out that the initial system of covers can be modified so that all the simplexes in the resulting inverse system are of dimension less than or equal to $\dim \partial G$.
We also generalize --- from the torsion-free case to all finitely generated hyperbolic groups --- a theorem guaranteeing the existence of a finite representation of $\partial G$ of another kind, namely a semi-Markovian structure (which can be understood as an analogue of the well-known automatic structure of $G$ itself).
For arbitrary integer n, we describe a large class of right-angled Coxeter systems for which the visual baundary (of the corresponding Coxeter-Davis complex) is homeomorphic to the n-dimensional Sierpiński compactum. We also provide a necessary and sufficient condition for a planar simplicial complex L under which the right-angled Coxeter system whose nerve is L has the visual boundary homeomorphic to the Sierpiński curve.
We develop a formalism that allows us to describe Markov compacta with finite sets of diagrams that are building blocks of the entire sequence. This encodes complex, continuous spaces with discrete collections of combinatorial objects. We show that topological properties of the limit (such as $k$-connectedness, local $k$-connectedness or the disjoint arcs property) may be detected by looking at combinatorial properties of the diagrams. Markov compacta were introduced by M. Gromov and were motivated by some examples in geometric group theory. In particular, boundaries at infinity of hyperbolic …
We rephrase Gromov's definition of Markov compacta, introduce a subclass of Markov compacta defined by one building block and study cohomological dimensions of these compacta. We show that for a Markov compactum $X$, $\dim_{\Z_{(p)}}X=\dim_{\Q}X$ for all but finitely many primes $p$ where $\Z_{(p)}$ is the localization of $\Z$ at $p$. We construct Markov compacta of arbitrarily large dimension having $\dim_{\Q}X=1$ as well as Markov compacta of arbitrary large rational dimension with $\dim_{\Z_p}X=1$ for a given $p$.
We introduce and study the operation, called dense amalgam, which to any tuple X_1,...,X_k of non-empty compact metric spaces associates some disconnected perfect compact metric space, denoted $\widetilde\sqcup(X_1,...,X_k)$, in which there are many appropriately distributed copies of the spaces X_1,...,X_k. We then show that, in various settings, the ideal boundary of the free product of groups is homeomorphic to the dense amalgam of boundaries of the factors. We give also related more general results for graphs of groups with finite edge groups. We justify these results by referring to a con…
We extend the notion of unicorn paths between two arcs introduced by Hensel, Przytycki and Webb to the case where we replace one arc with a geodesic asymptotic to a lamination. Using these paths, we give new proofs of the results of Klarreich and Schleimer identifying the Gromov boundaries of the curve graph and the arc graph, respectively, as spaces of laminations.
We describe, under some additional technical assumptions, the Gromov boundary of the free product of several $G_i$'s amalgamated wrt. $H$, where $G_i$ are hyperbolic groups with boundary homeomorphic to a densely punctured $n$-sphere, and $H$ is their common subgroup corresponding to a peripheral sphere in each of the $\partial G_i$'s.
We show that the Gromov boundary of the free product of two infinite hyperbolic groups is uniquely determined up to homeomorphism by the homeomorphism types of the boundaries of its factors. We generalize this result to graphs of hyperbolic groups over finite subgroups. Finally, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the Gromov boundaries of any two hyperbolic groups to be homeomorphic (in terms of the topology of the boundaries of factors in terminal splittings over finite subgroups).
We give upper bounds, linear in rank, to the topological dimensions of the Gromov boundaries of the intersection graph, the free factor graph and the cyclic splitting graph of a finitely generated free group.
It is well known that quasi-isometric embeddings of Gromov hyperbolic spaces induce topological embeddings of their Gromov boundaries. A more general question is to detect classes of functions between Gromov hyperbolic spaces that induce continuous maps between their Gromov boundaries. In this paper we introduce the class of visual functions $f$ that do induce continuous maps $\tilde f$ between Gromov boundaries. Its subclass, the class of radial functions, induces Hoelder maps between Gromov boundaries. Conversely, every Hoelder map between Gromov boundaries of visual hyperbolic spaces induce…
We prove that the boundary of a right-angled hyperbolic building is a universal Menger space. Corollary: the 3-dimensional universal Menger space is the boundary of some Gromov-hyperbolic group.
We prove that random groups in the Gromov density model, at any density, satisfy property (FA), i.e. they do not act non-trivially on trees. This implies that their Gromov boundaries, defined at density less than 1/2, are Menger curves.
We show that trees of manifolds, the topological spaces introduced by Jakobsche, appear as boundaries at infinity of various spaces and groups. In particular, they appear as Gromov boundaries of some hyperbolic groups, of arbitrary dimension, obtained by the procedure of strict hyperbolization. We also recognize these spaces as boundaries of arbitrary Coxeter groups with manifold nerves, and as Gromov boundaries of the fundamental groups of singular spaces obtained from some finite volume hyperbolic manifolds by cutting off their cusps and collapsing the resulting boundary tori to points.
For every proper geodesic space $X$ we introduce its quasi-geometric boundary $\partial_{QG}X$ with the following properties: 1. Every geodesic ray $g$ in $X$ converges to a point of the boundary $\partial_{QG}X$ and for every point $p$ in $\partial_{QG}X$ there is a geodesic ray in $X$ converging to $p$, 2. The boundary $\partial_{QG}X$ is compact metric, 3. The boundary $\partial_{QG}X$ is an invariant under quasi-isometric equivalences, 4. A quasi-isometric embedding induces a continuous map of quasi-geodesic boundaries, 5. If $X$ is Gromov hyperbolic, then $\partial_{QG}X$ is the Gromov bo…
We investigate the geometry of the graphs of nonseparating curves for surfaces of finite positive genus with potentially infinitely many punctures. This graph has infinite diameter and is known to be Gromov hyperbolic by work of the author. We study finite covers between such surfaces and show that lifts of nonseparating curves to the nonseparating curve graph of the cover span quasiconvex subgraphs which are infinite diameter and not coarsely equal to the nonseparating curve graph of the cover. In the finite type case, we also reprove a theorem of Hamenstädt identifying the Gromov boundary wi…
In this note we discuss the behavior of the Gromov boundaries and limit sets for the surface subgroups of the mapping class group with accidental parabolics constructed by the author and A. Reid in earlier work. Specifically, we show that generically there are no Cannon--Thurston maps from the Gromov boundary to Thurston's boundary of Teichmuller space.
Given a complex of groups over a finite simplicial complex in the sense of Haefliger, we give conditions under which it is possible to build an EZ-structure in the sense of Farrell-Lafont for its fundamental group out of such structures for its local groups. As an application, we prove a combination theorem that yields a procedure for getting hyperbolic groups as fundamental groups of simple complexes of hyperbolic groups. The construction provides a description of the Gromov boundary of such groups.
In the paper, we prove that a Moran set is homeomorphic to the hyperbolic boundary of the representing symbolic space in the sense of Gromov, which generalizes the results of Lau and Wang [Indiana U. Math. J. {\bf 58} (2009), 1777-1795]. Moreover, by making use of this, we establish the Lipschitz equivalence of a class of Moran sets.
We generalize a result of Paulin on the Gromov boundary of hyperbolic groups to the Morse boundary of proper, maximal hierarchically hyperbolic spaces admitting cocompact group actions by isometries. Namely we show that if the Morse boundaries of two such spaces each contain at least three points, then the spaces are quasi-isometric if and only if there exists a 2-stable, quasi-möbius homeomorphism between their Morse boundaries. Our result extends a recent result of Charney-Murray, who prove such a classification for CAT(0) groups, and is new for mapping class groups and the fundamental group…
To every Gromov hyperbolic space X one can associate a space at infinity called the Gromov boundary of X. Gromov showed that quasi-isometries of hyperbolic metric spaces induce homeomorphisms on their boundaries, thus giving rise to a well-defined notion of the boundary of a hyperbolic group. Croke and Kleiner showed that the visual boundary of non-positively curved (CAT(0)) groups is not well-defined, since quasi-isometric CAT(0) spaces can have non-homeomorphic boundaries. For any sublinear function $κ$, we consider a subset of the visual boundary called the $κ$-Morse boundary and show that …
We prove that a PQ-symmetric homeomorphism between two complete metric spaces can be extended to a quasi-isometry between their hyperbolic approximations. This result is used to prove that two visual Gromov hyperbolic spaces are quasi-isometric if and only if there is a PQ-symmetric homeomorphism between their boundaries.
Given a general pseudo-Anosov flow in a three manifold, the orbit space of the lifted flow to the universal cover is homeomorphic to an open disk. We compactify this orbit space with an ideal circle boundary. If there are no perfect fits between stable and unstable leaves and the flow is not topologically conjugate to a suspension Anosov flow, we then show: The ideal circle of the orbit space has a natural quotient space which is a sphere and is a dynamical systems ideal boundary for a compactification of the universal cover of the manifold. The main result is that the fundamental group acts o…
In [9] Kaimanovich introduced the concept of augmented tree on the symbolic space of a self-similar set. It is hyperbolic in the sense of Gromov, and it was shown in [13] that under the open set condition, a self-similar set can be identified with the hyperbolic boundary of the tree. In the paper, we investigate in detail a class of simple augmented trees and the Lipschitz equivalence of such trees. The main purpose is to use this to study the Lipschitz equivalence problem of the totally disconnected self-similar sets which has been undergoing some extensive development recently.
Bestvina's notion of a Z-structure provides a general framework for group boundaries that includes Gromov boundaries of hyperbolic groups and visual boundaries of CAT(0) groups as special cases. A refinement, known as an EZ-structure has proven useful in attacks on the Novikov Conjecture and related problems. Characterizations of groups admitting a Z- or EZ-structure are longstanding open problems. In this paper, we examine semidirect products of a group G with the integers. For example, we show that, if G is torsion-free and admits a Z-structure, then so does every semidirect product of this …
Given an iterated function system (IFS) of contractive similitudes, the theory of Gromov hyperbolic graph on the IFS has been established recently. In the paper, we introduce a notion of simple augmented tree which is a Gromov hyperbolic graph. By generalizing a combinatorial device of rearrangeable matrix, we show that there exists a near-isometry between the simple augmented tree and the symbolic space of the IFS, so that their hyperbolic boundaries are Lipschitz equivalent. We then apply this to consider the Lipschitz equivalence of self-similar sets with or without assuming the open set co…
Hierarchically hyperbolic spaces provide a common framework for studying mapping class groups of finite type surfaces, Teichmüller space, right-angled Artin groups, and many other cubical groups. Given such a space $\mathcal X$, we build a bordificationcompatible with the hierarchically hyperbolic structure. If $\mathcal X$ is proper, we get a compactification of $\mathcal X$; we also prove that our construction generalizes the Gromov boundary of a hyperbolic space. In our first main set of applications, we introduce a notion of geometrical finiteness for hierarchically hyperbolic subgroups of…
When 1 -> H -> G -> Q -> 1 is a short exact sequence of three infinite, word-hyperbolic groups, Mahan Mitra (Mj) has shown that the inclusion map from H to G extends continuously to a map between the Gromov boundaries of H and G. This boundary map is known as the Cannon-Thurston map. In this context, Mitra associates to every point z in the Gromov boundary of Q an "ending lamination" on H which consists of pairs of distinct points in the boundary of H. We prove that for each such z, the quotient of the Gromov boundary of H by the equivalence relation generated by this ending lamination is a de…
Tukia and Vaisala showed that every quasi-conformal map of $\R^n$ extends to a quasi-conformal self-map of $\R^{n+1}$. The restriction of the extended map to the upper half-space $\R^n \times \R^+$ is, in fact, bi-Lipschitz with respect to the hyperbolic metric. More generally, every homogeneous negatively curved manifold decomposes as $M = N \rtimes \R^+$ where $N$ is a nilpotent group with a metric on which $\R^+$ acts by dilations. We show that under some assumptions on $N$, every quasi-symmetry of $N$ extends to a bi-Lipschitz map of $M$. The result applies to a wide class of manifolds $M$…
Stable subgroups and the Morse boundary are two systematic approaches to collect and study the hyperbolic aspects of finitely generated groups. In this paper we unify and generalize these strategies by viewing any geodesic metric space as a countable union of stable subspaces: we show that every stable subgroup is a quasi--convex subset of a set in this collection and that the Morse boundary is recovered as the direct limit of the usual Gromov boundaries of these hyperbolic subspaces. We use this approach, together with results of Leininger--Schleimer, to deduce that there is no purely geometr…
