We generalize some results of Paulin and Rips-Sela on endomorphisms of hyperbolic groups to relatively hyperbolic groups, and in particular prove the following.
(1) If G is a finitely generated non-elementary relatively hyperbolic group with slender parabolic subgroups, and either G is not co-Hopfian or Out(G) is infinite, then G splits over a slender group.
(2) If a finitely generated non-parabolic subgroup H of a non-elementary relatively hyperbolic group is not Hopfian, then H acts non-trivially on an R-tree.
(3) Every non-elementary relatively hyperbolic group has a non-elementary relatively hyperbolic quotient that is Hopfian.
(4) Any finitely presented group is isomorphic to a finite index subgroup of Out(H) for some Kazhdan group H. (This sharpens a result of Ollivier-Wise).
It is proved that an endomorphism $φ$ of a hyperbolic group $G$ satisfies a Hölder condition with respect to a visual metric if and only if $φ$ is virtually injective and $Gφ$ is a quasiconvex subgroup of $G$. If $G$ is virtually free or torsion-free co-hopfian, then $φ$ is uniformly continuous if and only if it it satisfies a Hölder condition if and only if it is virtually injective. Lipschitz conditions are discussed for free group automorphisms.
We prove a generalization of the fellow traveller property for a certain type of quasi-geodesics and use it to present three equivalent geometric formulations of the bounded reduction property and prove that it is equivalent to preservation of a coarse median. We then provide an affirmative answer to a question from Araújo and Silva as to whether every nontrivial uniformly continuous endomorphism of a hyperbolic group with respect to a visual metric satisfies a Hölder condition. We remark that these results combined with the work done by Paulin prove that every endomorphism admitting a continu…
We prove that for any finitely generated relatively hyperbolic group G and any symmetric endomorphism f of G with relatively quasiconvex image, Fixf is relatively quasiconvex subgroup of G.
In this article we study automorphisms and endomorphisms of lacunary hyperbolic groups. We prove that every lacunary hyperbolic group is Hopfian, answering a question by Henry Wilton. In addition, we show that if a lacunary hyperbolic group has the fix point property for actions on $\mathbf R$-trees, then it is co-Hopfian and its outer automorphism group is locally finite. We also construct lacunary hyperbolic groups whose automorphism group is infinite, locally finite, and contains any locally finite group given in advance.
We prove that the mapping torus of a graph immersion has a word-hyperbolic fundamental group if and only if the corresponding endomorphism does not produce Baumslag-Solitar subgroups. Due to a result by Reynolds, this theorem applies to all injective endomorphisms of $F_2$ and nonsurjective fully irreducible endomorphisms of $F_n$. We also give a framework for extending the theorem to all injective endomorphisms of $F_n$.
We prove that the outer automorphism group $Out(G)$ is residually finite when the group $G$ is virtually compact special (in the sense of Haglund and Wise) or when $G$ is isomorphic to the fundamental group of some compact $3$-manifold. To prove these results we characterize commensurating endomorphisms of acylindrically hyperbolic groups. An endomorphism $ϕ$ of a group $G$ is said to be commensurating, if for every $g \in G$ some non-zero power of $ϕ(g)$ is conjugate to a non-zero power of $g$. Given an acylindrically hyperbolic group $G$, we show that any commensurating endomorphism of $G$ i…
Previously, Reynolds showed that any irreducible nonsurjective endomorphism can be represented by an irreducible immersion on a finite graph. We give a new proof of this and also show a partial converse holds when the immersion has connected Whitehead graphs with no cut vertices. The next result is a characterization of finitely generated subgroups of the free group that are invariant under an irreducible nonsurjective endomorphism. Consequently, irreducible nonsurjective endomorphisms are fully irreducible. The characterization and Reynolds' theorem imply that the mapping torus of an irreduci…
Let $H$ be a torsion-free $δ$-hyperbolic group with respect to a finite generating set $S$. Let $a_1,..., a_n$ and $a_{1*},..., a_{n*}$ be elements of $H$ such that $a_{i*}$ is conjugate to $a_i$ for each $i=1,..., n$. Then, there is a uniform conjugator if and only if $W(a_{1*},..., a_{n*})$ is conjugate to $W(a_1,..., a_n)$ for every word $W$ in $n$ variables and length up to a computable constant depending only on $δ$, $\sharp{S}$ and $\sum_{i=1}^n |a_i|$. As a corollary, we deduce that there exists a computable constant $\mathcal{C}=\mathcal{C}(δ, \sharp S)$ such that, for any endomorphism…
A fixed point theorem is proved for inverse transducers, leading to an automata-theoretic proof of the fixed point subgroup of an endomorphism of a finitely generated virtually free group being finitely generated. If the endomorphism is uniformly continuous for the hyperbolic metric, it is proved that the set of regular fixed points in the hyperbolic boundary has finitely many orbits under the action of the finite fixed points. In the automorphism case, it is shown that these regular fixed points are either exponentially stable attractors or exponentially stable repellers.
We propose two geometric versions of the bounded reduction property and find conditions for them to coincide. In particular, for the natural automatic structure on a hyperbolic group, the two notions are equivalent. We study endomorphisms with $L$-quasiconvex image and prove that those with finite kernel satisfy a synchronous version of the bounded reduction property. Finally, we use these techniques to prove $L$-quasiconvexity of the equalizer of two endomorphisms under certain (strict) conditions.
We prove that ascending HNN extensions of free groups are word-hyperbolic if and only if they have no Baumslag-Solitar subgroups. This extends the theorem of Brinkmann that free-by-cyclic groups are word-hyperbolic if and only if they have no free abelian subgroups of rank 2. The paper is split into two independent parts: 1) We study the dynamics of injective nonsurjective endomorphisms of free groups. We prove a canonical structure theorem that initializes the development of improved relative train tracks for endomorphisms; this structure theorem is of independent interest since it makes many…
We lay the foundations for the study of relatively quasiconvex subgroups of relatively hyperbolic groups. These foundations require that we first work out a coherent theory of countable relatively hyperbolic groups (not necessarily finitely generated). We prove the equivalence of Gromov, Osin, and Bowditch's definitions of relative hyperbolicity for countable groups. We then give several equivalent definitions of relatively quasiconvex subgroups in terms of various natural geometries on a relatively hyperbolic group. We show that each relatively quasiconvex subgroup is itself relatively hyperb…
We prove that for all $p>1$, every relatively hyperbolic group has $\ell^p$ compression exponent equal to the minimum of the exponents of its maximal parabolic subgroups. Moreover, this embedding can be explicitly described in terms of given embeddings of the maximal parabolic subgroups.
This paper proves that in a non-elementary relatively hyperbolic group, the logarithm growth rate of any non-elementary subgroup has a linear lower bound by the logarithm of the size of the corresponding generating set. As a consequence, any non-elementary subgroup has uniform exponential growth.
We present a careful approximation of the geodesics in trees of hyperbolic or relatively hyperbolic groups. As an application we prove a combination theorem for finite graphs of relatively hyperbolic groups, with both Farb's and Gromov's definitions.
We define relatively quasiconvex subgroups of relatively hyperbolic groups in the sense of Osin and show that such subgroups have expected properties. Also we state several definitions equivalent to the definition of relatively hyperbolic groups in the sense of Osin.
We build quasi--isometry invariants of relatively hyperbolic groups which detect the hyperbolic parts of the group; these are variations of the stable dimension constructions previously introduced by the authors. We prove that, given any finite collection of finitely generated groups $\mathcal{H}$ each of which either has finite stable dimension or is non-relatively hyperbolic, there exist infinitely many quasi--isometry types of one--ended groups which are hyperbolic relative to $\mathcal{H}$. The groups are constructed using small cancellation theory over free products.
We prove that a non-elementary relatively hyperbolic group is statistically hyperbolic with respect to every finite generating set. We also establish statistical hyperbolicity for certain direct products of two groups, one of which is relatively hyperbolic.
Any endomorphism of a finitely generated free group naturally descends to an injective endomorphism of its stable quotient. In this paper, we prove a geometric incarnation of this phenomenon: namely, that every expanding irreducible train track map inducing an endomorphism of the fundamental group gives rise to an expanding irreducible train track representative of the injective endomorphism of the stable quotient. As an application, we prove that the property of having fully irreducible monodromy for a splitting of a hyperbolic free-by-cyclic group depends only on the component of the BNS-inv…
Suppose a group $G$ is relatively hyperbolic with respect to a collection $\PP$ of its subgroups and also acts properly, cocompactly on a $\CAT(0)$ (or $δ$--hyperbolic) space $X$. The relatively hyperbolic structure provides a relative boundary $\partial(G,\PP)$. The $\CAT(0)$ structure provides a different boundary at infinity $\partial X$. In this article, we examine the connection between these two spaces at infinity. In particular, we show that $\partial (G,\PP)$ is $G$--equivariantly homeomorphic to the space obtained from $\partial X$ by identifying the peripheral limit points of the sam…
We discuss the notion of the universal relatively hyperbolic structure on a group which is used in order to characterize relatively hyperbolic structures on the group. We also study relations between relatively hyperbolic structures on a group and relative quasiconvexity for subgroups of the group.
The asymptotic bound for a length-based attack on the Conjugacy Search Problem in relatively hyperbolic groups is cubic for hyperbolic elements and a "small" polynomial for parabolic elements, depending on the Conjugacy Search Problem for the peripheral subgroups. The bound for relatively hyperbolic groups in this paper is a significant improvement on previous work.
We consider a coarse version of the marked length spectrum rigidity: given a group with two left invariant metrics, if the marked length spectrum (the translation length function) under the two metrics are the same, then the two metrics are uniformly close. We prove the rigidity theorem for relatively hyperbolic groups. This generalizes a result of Fujiwara.
In this paper we give new requirements that a tree of $δ$-hyperbolic spaces has to satisfy in order to be $δ$-hyperbolic itself. As an application, we give a simple proof that limit groups are relatively hyperbolic.
We demonstrate the quasi-isometry invariance of two important geometric structures for relatively hyperbolic groups: the coned space and the cusped space. As applications, we produce a JSJ-decomposition for relatively hyperbolic groups which is invariant under quasi-isometries and outer automorphisms, as well as a related splitting of the quasi-isometry groups of relatively hyperbolic groups.
We describe the kernel of the canonical map from the Floyd boundary of a relatively hyperbolic group to its Bowditch boundary. Using our methods we then prove that a finitely generated group $H$ admitting a quasi-isometric map $ϕ$ into a relatively hyperbolic group $G$ is relatively hyperbolic with respect to a system of subgroups whose image under $ϕ$ is situated in a uniformly bounded distance from the parabolic subgroups of $G$.
Let $G$ be a relatively hyperbolic group that admits a decomposition into a finite graph of relatively hyperbolic groups structure with quasi-isometrically (qi) embedded condition. We prove that the set of conjugates of all the vertex and edge groups satisfy the limit set intersection property for conical limit points. This result is motivated by the work of Sardar for graph of hyperbolic groups.
We prove that there is an algorithm to determine whether a tuple of elements in a toral relatively hyperbolic group G is in the automorphic orbit of the other tuple.
In this note, we provide a (super-exponential time) algorithm to solve the generalized conjugacy problem in relatively hyperbolic groups, given solvability of the generalized conjugacy problem in each of the parabolic subgroups.
Given a metric (graph) bundle $X$ over $B$ where all the fibres are strongly relatively hyperbolic and nonelementary we show that, under certain conditions, $X$ is strongly hyperbolic relative to a collection of maximal cone-subbundles of horosphere-like spaces. Further, given a coarsely Lipschitz qi embedding $i: A\to B$, we show that the pullback $Y$ is strongly relatively hyperbolic and the map $Y\to X$ admits a Cannon-Thurston (CT) map. As an application, we prove a group-theoretic analogue of this result for a relatively hyperbolic extension of groups.
This arXived paper has two independant parts, that are improved and corrected versions of different parts of a single paper once named "On equations in relatively hyperbolic groups". The first part is entitled "Existential questions in (relatively) hyperbolic groups". We study there the existential theory of torsion free hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic groups, in particular those with virtually abelian parabolic subgroups. We show that the satisfiability of systems of equations and inequations is decidable in these groups. In the second part, called "Finding relative hyperbolic structures…
We prove that the compressed word problem in a group that is hyperbolic relative to a collection of free abelian subgroups is solvable in polynomial time.
We prove that stability -- a strong quasiconvexity property -- pulls back under proper actions on proper metric spaces. This result has several applications, including that convex cocompact subgroups of both mapping class groups and outer automorphism groups of free groups are stable. We also characterize stability in relatively hyperbolic groups whose parabolic subgroups have linear divergence.
We examine the relationship between finitely and infinitely generated relatively hyperbolic groups, in two different contexts. First, we elaborate on a remark from math.GR/0601311, which states that the version of Dehn filling in relatively hyperbolic groups proved in math.GR/0510195, allowing infinitely generated parabolic subgroups, follows from the version with finitely generated parabolics. Second, we observe that direct limits of relatively hyperbolic groups are in fact direct limits of finitely generated relatively hyperbolic groups. We use this (and known results) to derive some consequ…
We suggest a new approach to the study of relatively hyperbolic groups based on relative isoperimetric inequalities. Various geometric, algebraic, and algorithmic properties are discussed.
We study residual properties of relatively hyperbolic groups. In particular, we show that if a group $G$ is non-elementary and hyperbolic relative to a collection of proper subgroups, then $G$ is SQ-universal.
By constructing, in the relative case, objects analoguous to Rips and Sela's canonical representatives, we prove that the set of images by morphisms without accidental parabolic, of a finitely presented group in a relatively hyperbolic group, is finite, up to conjugacy.
In this paper, we prove a combination theorem for a relatively acylindrical graph of relatively hyperbolic groups (Theorem 1.1). Here, we are extending the technique of [Tom21] and constructing Bowditch boundary of the fundamental group of graph of groups. Suppose G(Y) is a graph of relatively hyperbolic groups such that edge groups are relatively quasi-convex in adjacent vertex groups. Also, assume that the fundamental group of G(Y) is relatively hyperbolic. Then we show that the edge groups of G(Y) have finite relative height (Definition 1.5) if and only if they are relatively quasi-convex (…
In this article, we prove that if a finitely presented group has an asymptotic cone which is tree-graded with respect to a precise set of pieces then it is relatively hyperbolic. This answers a question of M. Sapir.
The aim of this short note is to provide a proof of the decidability of the generalized membership problem for relatively quasi-convex subgroups of finitely presented relatively hyperbolic groups, under some reasonably mild conditions on the peripheral structure of these groups. These hypotheses are satisfied, in particular, by toral relatively hyperbolic groups.
We show that any group that is hyperbolic relative to virtually nilpotent subgroups, and does not admit peripheral splittings, contains a quasi-isometrically embedded copy of the hyperbolic plane. In natural situations, the specific embeddings we find remain quasi-isometric embeddings when composed with the inclusion map from the Cayley graph to the coned-off graph, as well as when composed with the quotient map to "almost every" peripheral (Dehn) filling. We apply our theorem to study the same question for fundamental groups of 3-manifolds. The key idea is to study quantitative geometric prop…
In arXiv:1204.2810 Agol proved the Virtual Haken and Virtual Fibering Conjectures by confirming a conjecture of Wise: Every cubulated hyperbolic group is virtually special. We extend this result to cocompactly cubulated relatively hyperbolic groups with minimal assumptions on the parabolic subgroups. Our proof proceeds by first recubulating to obtain an improper action with controlled stabilizers (a weakly relatively geometric action), and then Dehn filling to obtain many cubulated hyperbolic quotients. We apply our results to prove the Relative Cannon Conjecture for certain cubulated or parti…
Sela introduced limit groups in his work on the Tarski problem, and showed that each limit group has a cyclic hierarchy. In this paper, a class of relatively hyperbolic groups, equipped with a hierarchy similar to the one for limit groups, is shown to be closed under quasi-isometry. Additionally, these groups share some of the properties of limit groups. In particular, groups quasi-isometric to limit groups are shown to be LERF and virtually toral relatively hyperbolic.
If $u$ and $v$ are two conjugate elements of a hyperbolic group then the length of a shortest conjugating element for $u$ and $v$ can be bounded by a linear function of the sum of their lengths, as was proved by Lysenok. Bridson and Haefliger showed that in a hyperbolic group the conjugacy problem can be solved in polynomial time. We extend these results to relatively hyperbolic groups. In particular, we show that both the conjugacy problem and the conjugacy search problem can be solved in polynomial time in a relatively hyperbolic group, whenever the corresponding problem can be solved in pol…
For relatively hyperbolic groups, we investigate conditions guaranteeing that the subgroup generated by two quasiconvex subgroups $Q$ and $R$ is quasiconvex and isomorphic to $Q \ast_{Q\cap R} R$. Our results generalized known combination theorems for quasiconvex subgroups of word-hyperbolic groups. Some applications are presented.
We study the action of a relatively hyperbolic group on its boundary, by methods of symbolic dynamics. Under a condition on the parabolic subgroups, we show that this dynamical system is finitely presented. We give examples where this condition is satisfied, including geometrically finite kleinian groups.
We provide a new and elegant approach to relative quasiconvexity for relatively hyperbolic groups in the context of Bowditch's approach to relative hyperbolicity using cocompact actions on fine hyperbolic graphs. Our approach to quasiconvexity generalizes the other definitions in the literature that apply only for countable relatively hyperbolic groups. We also provide an elementary and self-contained proof that relatively quasiconvex subgroups are relatively hyperbolic.
Suppose that a finitely generated group $G$ is hyperbolic relative to a collection of subgroups $\{H_1, ..., H_m\} $. We prove that if each of the subgroups $H_1, ..., H_m$ has finite asymptotic dimension, then asymptotic dimension of $G$ is also finite.
For a group G relatively hyperbolic to a family of residually finite groups satisfying the Farrell-Jones conjecture, we reduce the solution of the Farrell-Jones conjecture for G to the case of certain nice cyclic extensions in G.
