Motivated by Bonahon's result for hyperbolic surfaces, we construct an analogue of the Patterson-Sullivan-Bowen-Margulis map from the Culler-Vogtmann outer space $CV(F_k)$ into the space of projectivized geodesic currents on a free group. We prove that this map is a topological embedding. We also prove that for every $k\ge 2$ the minimum of the volume entropy of the universal covers of finite connected volume-one metric graphs with fundamental group of rank $k$ and without degree-one vertices is equal to $(3k-3)\log 2$ and that this minimum is realized by trivalent graphs with all edges of equal lengths, and only by such graphs.
We quantitatively relate the Patterson-Sullivant currents and generic stretching factors for free group automorphisms to the asymmetric Lipschitz metric on Outer space and to Guirardel's intersection number.
For any rank-one convex projective manifold with a compact convex core, we prove that there exists a unique probability measure of maximal entropy on the set of unit tangent vectors whose geodesic is contained in the convex core, and that it is mixing. We use this to establish asymptotics for the number of closed geodesics. In order to construct the measure of maximal entropy, we develop a theory of Patterson--Sullivan densities for general rank-one convex projective manifolds. In particular, we establish a Hopf--Tsuji--Sullivan--Roblin dichotomy, and prove that, when it is finite, the measure…
We generalize parts of a special non-Euclidean calculus of pseudodifferential operators, which was invented by S. Zelditch for hyperbolic surfaces, to symmetric spaces $X=G/K$ of the noncompact type and their compact quotients $Y=Γ\backslash G/K$. We sometimes restrict our results to the case of rank one symmetric spcaes. The non-Euclidean setting extends the defintion of so-called Patterson-Sullivan distributions, which were first defined by N. Anantharaman and S. Zelditch for hyperbolic systems, in a natural way to arbitrary symmetric spaces of the noncompact type. We find an explicit intert…
We consider several (related) notions of geometric regularity in the context of limit sets of geometrically finite Kleinian groups and associated Patterson-Sullivan measures. We begin by computing the upper and lower regularity dimensions of the Patterson-Sullivan measure, which involves controlling the relative measure of concentric balls. We then compute the Assouad and lower dimensions of the limit set, which involves controlling local doubling properties. Unlike the Hausdorff, packing, and box-counting dimensions, we show that the Assouad and lower dimensions are not necessarily given by t…
We prove that for a relatively hyperbolic group G there is a sequence of relatively hyperbolic proper quotients such that their growth rates converge to the growth rate of G. Under natural assumptions, the same conclusion holds for the critical exponent of a cusp-uniform action of G on a hyperbolic metric space. As a corollary, we obtain that the critical exponent of a torsion-free geometrically finite Kleinian group can be arbitrarily approximated by those of quotient groups. This resolves a question of Dal'bo-Peigné-Picaud-Sambusetti. Our approach is based on the study of Patterson-Sullivan …
We extend several notions and results from the classical Patterson-Sullivan theory to the setting of Anosov subgroups of higher rank semisimple Lie groups, working primarily with invariant Finsler metrics on associated symmetric spaces. In particular, we prove the equality between the Hausdorff dimensions of flag limit sets, computed with respect to a suitable Gromov (pre-)metric on the flag manifold, and the Finsler critical exponents of Anosov subgroups.
Let $Γ'<Γ$ be two discrete groups acting properly by isometries on a Gromov-hyperbolic space $X$. We prove that their critical exponents coincide if and only if $Γ'$ is co-amenable in $Γ$, under the assumption that the action of $Γ$ on $X$ is strongly positively recurrent, i.e. has a growth gap at infinity. This generalizes all previously known results on this question, which required either $X$ to be the real hyperbolic space and $Γ$ geometrically finite, or $X$ Gromov hyperbolic and $Γ$ cocompact. This result is optimal: we provide several counterexamples when the action is not strongly posi…
We establish (some directions) of a Ledrappier correspondence between Hölder cocycles, Patterson-Sullivan measures, etc for word-hyperbolic groups with metric-Anosov Mineyev flow. We then study Patterson-Sullivan measures for $θ$-Anosov representations over a local field and show that these are parametrized by the $θ$-critical hypersurface of the representation. We use these Patterson-Sullivan measures to establish a dichotomy concerning directions in the interior of the $θ$-limit cone of the representation in question: if $u$ is such a half-line, then the subset of $u$-conical limit points ha…
Let $Γ$ be a discrete group acting by isometries on a product $X=X_1\times X_2$ of Hadamard spaces. We further require that $X_1$, $X_2$ are locally compact and $Γ$ contains two elements projecting to a pair of independent rank one isometries in each factor. Apart from discrete groups acting by isometries on a product of CAT(-1)-spaces, the probably most interesting examples of such groups are Kac-Moody groups over finite fields acting on the Davis complex of their associated twin building. In a previous article we showed that the regular geometric limit set $\Lim$ splits as a product $F_Γ\tim…
We prove a generalization of Schur orthogonality relations for certain classes of representations of Gromov hyperbolic groups. We apply the obtained results to show that representations of non-abelian free groups associated to the Patterson-Sullivan measures corresponding to a wide class of invariant metrics on the group are monotonous in the sense introduced by Kuhn and Steger. This in particular includes representations associated to harmonic measures of a wide class of random walks.
We prove that for $k\ge 5$ there does not exist a continuous map $\partial CV(F_k)\to\mathbb PCurr(F_k)$ that is either $Out(F_k)$-equivariant or $Out(F_k)$-anti-equivariant. Here $\partial CV(F_k)$ is the "length-function" boundary of Culler-Vogtmann's Outer space $CV(F_k)$, and $\mathbb PCurr(F_k)$ is the space of projectivized geodesic currents for $F_{k}$. We also prove that, if $k\ge 3$, for the action of $Out(F_k)$ on $\mathbb PCurr(F_{k})$ and for the diagonal action of $Out(F_k)$ on the product space $\partial CV(F_k)\times \mathbb PCurr(F_k)$ there exist unique non-empty minimal close…
Our monograph presents the foundations of the theory of groups and semigroups acting isometrically on Gromov hyperbolic metric spaces. Our work unifies and extends a long list of results by many authors. We make it a point to avoid any assumption of properness/compactness, keeping in mind the motivating example of $\mathbb H^\infty$, the infinite-dimensional rank-one symmetric space of noncompact type over the reals. The monograph provides a number of examples of groups acting on $\mathbb H^\infty$ which exhibit a wide range of phenomena not to be found in the finite-dimensional theory. Such e…
Let $G \curvearrowright X$ be a nonelementary action by isometries of a hyperbolic group $G$ on a hyperbolic metric space $X$. We show that the set of elements of $G$ which act as loxodromic isometries of $X$ is generic. That is, for any finite generating set of $G$, the proportion of $X$--loxodromics in the ball of radius $n$ about the identity in $G$ approaches $1$ as $n \to \infty$. We also establish several results about the behavior in $X$ of the images of typical geodesic rays in $G$; for example, we prove that they make linear progress in $X$ and converge to the Gromov boundary $\partia…
Given a tree $T$ and a group $\Ga$ of automorphisms of $T$, we study the markovian properties of the geodesic flow on the quotient by $\Ga$ of the space of geodesics of $T$. For instance, when $T$ is the Bruhat-Tits tree of a semi-simple connected algebraic group $\underline{G}$ of rank one over a non archimedian local field $\wh K$, and $\Ga$ is a (possibly non uniform) lattice in $\underline{G}(\wh K)$, we prove that the type preserving geodesic flow is Bernoulli with finite entropy. Under some mild assumptions, we prove that if the quotient geodesic flow is mixing for a probability Patterso…
We show that the sublinearly Morse directions in the visual boundary of a rank-1 CAT(0) space with a geometric group action are generic in several commonly studied senses of the word, namely with respect to Patterson-Sullivan measures and stationary measures for random walks. We deduce that the sublinearly Morse boundary is a model of the Poisson boundary for finitely supported random walks on groups acting geometrically on rank-1 CAT (0) spaces. We prove an analogous result for mapping class group actions on Teichmüller space. Our main technical tool is a criterion, valid in any unique geodes…
For a group hyperbolic relative to virtually nilpotent subgroups, on a cusped graph associated to the group, we construct a random walk whose Martin boundary is the Bowditch boundary of the group. Moreover, the harmonic measure is a conformal density corresponding to a hyperbolic Green metric and is exact dimensional on the Bowditch boundary. The latter equipped with a visual distance induced by the Green metric is an Ahlfors-regular metric measure space. The dimension is given in terms of the drift, a Green drift and the asymptotic entropy. The Patterson-Sullivan density for the action on the…
We investigate properties of some spherical fonctions defined on hyperbolic groups using boundary representations on the Gromov boundary endowed with the Patterson-Sullivan measure class. We prove sharp decay estimates for spherical functions as well as spectral inequalities associated with boundary representations. This point of view on the boundary allows us to view the so-called \emph{property RD} (also called \emph{Haagerup's inequality}) as a particular case of a more general behavior of spherical functions on hyperbolic groups. In particular, we give a constructive proof using a boundary…
We give a generalization to convex co-compact semigroups of a beautiful theorem of Patterson-Sullivan, telling that the critical exponent (that is the exponential growth rate) equals the Hausdorff dimension of the limit set (that is the smallest closed non-empty invariant subset), for a isometries discrete group of a proper hyperbolic space with compact boundary. To do that, we introduce a notion of entropy, which generalize the notion of critical exponent of discrete groups, and we show that it is equal to the upper bound of critical exponents of Schottky sub-semigroups (which are semigroups …
The classical Gaussian functor associates to every orthogonal representation of a locally compact group $G$ a probability measure preserving action of $G$ called a Gaussian action. In this paper, we generalize this construction by associating to every affine isometric action of $G$ on a Hilbert space, a one-parameter family of nonsingular Gaussian actions whose ergodic properties are related in a very subtle way to the geometry of the original action. We show that these nonsingular Gaussian actions exhibit a phase transition phenomenon and we relate it to new quantitative invariants for affine…
A \emph{geodesic current} on a free group $F$ is an $F$-invariant measure on the set $\partial^2 F$ of pairs of distinct points of $\partial F$. The space of geodesic currents on $F$ is a natural companion of Culler-Vogtmann's Outer space $cv(F)$ and studying them together yields new information about both spaces as well as about the group $Out(F)$. The main aim of this paper is to introduce and study the notion of {\it geometric entropy} $h_T(μ)$ of a geodesic current $μ$ with respect to a point $T$ of $cv(F)$, which can be viewed as a length function on $F$. The geometric entropy is defined …
