We provide characterizations of Anosov representations of word hyperbolic groups into real semisimple Lie groups in terms of the existence of equivariant limit maps on the Gromov boundary, the Cartan property and the uniform gap summation property introduced by Guichard-Guéritaud-Kassel-Wienhard. We also study representations of finitely generated groups satisfying weak uniform gaps in eigenvalues and establish conditions to be Anosov. As an application, we also obtain a characterization of strongly convex cocompact subgroups of the projective linear group $\mathsf{PGL}_d(\mathbb{R})$.
Anosov representations of word hyperbolic groups into higher-rank semisimple Lie groups are representations with finite kernel and discrete image that have strong analogies with convex cocompact representations into rank-one Lie groups. However, the most naive analogy fails: generically, Anosov representations do not act properly and cocompactly on a convex set in the associated Riemannian symmetric space. We study representations into projective indefinite orthogonal groups PO(p,q) by considering their action on the associated pseudo-Riemannian hyperbolic space H^{p,q-1} in place of the Riema…
In this paper we show that many projective Anosov representations act convex cocompactly on some properly convex domain in real projective space. In particular, if a non-elementary word hyperbolic group is not commensurable to a non-trivial free product or the fundamental group of a closed hyperbolic surface, then any projective Anosov representation of that group acts convex cocompactly on some properly convex domain in real projective space. We also show that if a projective Anosov representation preserves a properly convex domain, then it acts convex cocompactly on some (possibly different)…
Let $S$ be a compact orientable surface, and $\Mod(S)$ its mapping class group. Then there exists a constant $M(S)$, which depends on $S$, with the following property. Suppose $a,b \in \Mod(S)$ are independent (i.e., $[a^n,b^m]\not=1$ for any $n,m \not=0$) pseudo-Anosov elements. Then for any $n,m \ge M$, the subgroup $<a^n,b^m>$ is free of rank two, and convex-cocompact in the sense of Farb-Mosher. In particular all non-trivial elements in $<a^n,b^m>$ are pseudo-Anosov. We also show that there exists a constant $N$, which depends on $a,b$, such that $<a^n,b^m>$ is free of rank two and convex-…
The convex-cocompact subgroups are central in hyperbolic geometry and more generally in negative curvature. Labourie introduced in 2005 the notion of 'Anosov' subgroup which proves progressively to be the right generalizations of convex-cocompact groups, especially after the works of Kapovich, Leeb and Porti. This exposé will review different caracteriations of those groups, emphasizing the parallel (or difference) with the negative curvature, and will give their basic properties.
We consider the action of Anosov subgroups of a semi-simple Lie group on the associated flag manifolds. A systematic approach to construct cocompact domains of discontinuity for this action was given by Kapovich, Leeb and Porti in arXiv:1306.3837. For $Δ$-Anosov representations, we prove that every cocompact domain of discontinuity arises from this construction, up to a few exceptions in low rank. Then we compute which flag manifolds admit these domains and, in some cases, the number of domains. We also find a new compactification for locally symmetric spaces arising from maximal representatio…
Using the thermodynamics formalism, we introduce a notion of intersection for projective Anosov representations, show analyticity results for the intersection and the entropy, and rigidity results for the intersection. We use the renormalized intersection to produce a $Out(Γ)$-invariant Riemannian metric on the smooth points of the deformation space of irreducible, projective Anosov representations of a word hyperbolic group $Γ$ into $SL(m,R)$ whose Zariski closure contains a generic element. In particular, we produce mapping class group invariant Riemannian metrics on Hitchin components which…
We characterize convex cocompact subgroups of mapping class groups that arise as subgroups of specially embedded right-angled Artin groups. That is, if the right-angled Artin group G in Mod(S) satisfies certain conditions that imply G is quasi-isometrically embedded in Mod(S), then a purely pseudo-Anosov subgroup H of G is convex cocompact in Mod(S) if and only if it is combinatorially quasiconvex in G. We use this criterion to construct convex cocompact subgroups of Mod(S) whose orbit maps into the curve complex have small Lipschitz constants.
Anosov representations give a higher-rank analogue of convex cocompactness in a rank-one Lie group which shares many of its good geometric and dynamical properties; geometric finiteness in rank one may be seen as a controlled weakening of convex cocompactness to allow for isolated failures of hyperbolicity. We introduce relatively dominated representations as a relativization of Anosov representations, or in other words a higher-rank analogue of geometric finiteness. We prove that groups admitting relatively dominated representations must be relatively hyperbolic, that these representations in…
Given any generating set of any pseudo-Anosov-containing subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface, we construct a pseudo-Anosov with word length bounded by a constant depending only on the surface. More generally, in any subgroup G we find an element f with the property that the minimal subsurface supporting a power of f is as large as possible for elements of G; the same constant bounds the word length of f. Along the way we find new examples of convex cocompact free subgroups of the mapping class group.
Let X be a hyperbolic surface and H the fundamental group of a hyperbolic 3-manifold that fibers over the circle with fiber X. Using the Birman exact sequence, H embeds in the mapping class group Mod(Y) of the surface Y obtained by removing a point from X. We prove that a subgroup G in H is convex cocompact in Mod(Y) if and only if G is finitely generated and purely pseudo-Anosov. We also prove a generalization of this theorem with H replaced by an arbitrary Gromov hyperbolic extension of the fundamental group of X, and an additional hypothesis of quasi-convexity of G in H. Along the way, we o…
Relatively dominated representations give a common generalization of geometrically finiteness in rank one on the one hand, and the Anosov condition which serves as a higher-rank analogue of convex cocompactness on the other. This note proves three results about these representations. Firstly, we remove the technical assumption of quadratic gaps involved in the original definition. Secondly, we give a characterization using eigenvalue gaps, providing a relative analogue of a result of Kassel-Potrie for Anosov representations. Thirdly, we formulate characterizations in terms of singular value or…
In the late seventies, Sullivan showed that for a convex cocompact subgroup $Γ$ of $\operatorname{SO}^\circ(n,1)$ with critical exponent $δ>0$, any $Γ$-conformal measure on $\partial \mathbb{H}^n$ of dimension $δ$ is necessarily supported on the limit set $Λ$ and that the conformal measure of dimension $δ$ exists uniquely. We prove an analogue of this theorem for any Zariski dense Anosov subgroup of a connected semisimple real algebraic group $G$ of rank at most $3$. We also obtain the local mixing for generalized BMS measures on $Γ\backslash G$ including Haar measures.
Anosov representations $ρ$ of a hyperbolic group $Γ$ into a semisimple Lie group $G$ are known to admit cocompact domains of discontinuity in flag varieties $G/Q$, endowing the compact quotient manifolds $M_ρ$ with a $(G,G/Q)$-structure. In general the topology of $M_ρ$ can be quite complicated. In this article, we consider the case when $Γ$ is the fundamental group of a closed (real or complex) hyperbolic manifold $N$ and $ρ$ is a deformation of a (twisted) lattice embedding $Γ\to \mathrm{Isom}(\mathbb H_\mathbb K) \to G$ through Anosov representations. We prove that, in this situation, $M_ρ$…
In this paper, we establish that, for statistically convex-cocompact actions, contracting elements are exponentially generic in counting measure. Among others, the following exponential genericity results are obtained as corollaries for the set of hyperbolic elements in relatively hyperbolic groups, the set of rank-1 elements in CAT(0) groups, and the set of pseudo-Anosov elements in mapping class groups. Regarding a proper action, the set of non-contracting elements is proven to be growth-negligible. In particular, for mapping class groups, the set of pseudo-Anosov elements is generic in a su…
We show that if an eventually positive, non-arithmetic, locally Hölder continuous potential for a topologically mixing countable Markov shift with (BIP) has an entropy gap at infinity, then one may apply the renewal theorem of Kesseböhmer and Kombrink to obtain counting and equidistribution results. We apply these general results to obtain counting and equidistribution results for cusped Hitchin representations, and more generally for cusped Anosov representations of geometrically finite Fuchsian groups.
