83 pages. v2: An improved version of preferred paths is given, in which preferred triangles no longer need feet. v3: Fixed several small errors pointed out by the referee, and repaired several broken figures. v4: corrected definition 2.38. This is very close to the published version
We introduce a number of new tools for the study of relatively hyperbolic groups. First, given a relatively hyperbolic group G, we construct a nice combinatorial Gromov hyperbolic model space acted on properly by G, which reflects the relative hyperbolicity of G in many natural ways. Second, we construct two useful bicombings on this space. The first of these, "preferred paths", is combinatorial in nature and allows us to define the second, a relatively hyperbolic version of a construction of Mineyev.
As an application, we prove a group-theoretic analog of the Gromov-Thurston 2πTheorem in the context of relatively hyperbolic groups.
We study Dehn fillings of relatively hyperbolic group pairs $(Γ, ¶)$ and the persistence of connectedness of Bowditch boundary in sufficiently long Dehn fillings. We show that the restriction of peripheral subgroups to virtually polycyclic subgroups is not needed.
Dehn fillings for relatively hyperbolic groups generalize the topological Dehn surgery on a non-compact hyperbolic $3$-manifold such as a hyperbolic knot complement. We prove a rigidity result saying that if two non-elementary relatively hyperbolic groups without suitable splittings have sufficiently many isomorphic Dehn fillings, then these groups are in fact isomorphic. Our main application is a solution to the isomorphism problem in the class of non-elementary relatively hyperbolic groups with residually finite parabolic groups and with no suitable splittings.
A generalized torsion element is a non-trivial element such that some non-empty finite product of its conjugates is the identity. We construct a generalized torsion element of the fundamental group of a 3-manifold obtained by Dehn surgery along a knot in the 3-sphere.
Following the approach of Dahmani, Guirardel and Osin, we extend the group theoretical Dehn filling theorem to show that the pre-images of infinite order elements have a certain structure of a free product. We then apply this result to show that groups hyperbolic relative to residually finite groups satisfying the Farrell-Jones conjecture, they satisfy the Farrell-Jones conjecture.
We define a new condition on relatively hyperbolic Dehn filling which allows us to control the behavior of a relatively quasiconvex subgroups which need not be full. As an application, in combination with a recent result of Cooper and Futer, we provide a new proof of the virtual fibering of non-compact finite-volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds, a result first proved by Wise. Additionally, we explain how the results of [2, Appendix A] can be generalized to the relative setting to control the relative height of relatively quasiconvex subgroups under appropriate Dehn fillings.
The homological and homotopical Dehn functions are different ways of measuring the difficulty of filling a closed curve inside a group or a space. The homological Dehn function measures fillings of cycles by chains, while the homotopical Dehn function measures fillings of curves by disks. Since the two definitions involve different sorts of boundaries and fillings, there is no a priori relationship between the two functions, but prior to this work there were no known examples of finitely-presented groups for which the two functions differ. This paper gives the first such examples, constructed …
This is the first paper of two papers in a row aiming to study cohomology of group theoretic Dehn fillings. In the present paper, we prove a particular free product structure, which is termed the Cohen-Lyndon property, of Dehn filling kernels. As an application, we describe the structure of relative relation modules of Dehn fillings.
We study how the cohomology of a type $F_\infty$ relatively hyperbolic group pair $(G,\mathcal{P})$ changes under Dehn fillings (i.e. quotients of group pairs). For sufficiently long Dehn fillings where the quotient pair $(\bar{G},\bar{\mathcal{P}})$ is of type $F_\infty$, we show that there is a spectral sequence relating the cohomology groups $H^i(G,\mathcal{P};\mathbb{Z} G)$ and $H^i\left(\bar{G},\bar{\mathcal{P}};\mathbb{Z}\bar{G}\right)$. As a consequence, we show that essential cohomological dimension does not increase under these Dehn fillings.
We consider conditions on relatively hyperbolic groups about the non-existence of certain kinds of splittings, and show these properties persist in long Dehn fillings. We deduce that certain connectivity properties of the Bowditch boundary persist under long fillings.
Let $Σ_{g,p}$ be the genus--$g$ oriented surface with $p$ punctures, with either $g>0$ or $p>3$. We show that $MCG(Σ_{g,p})/DT$ is acylindrically hyperbolic where $DT$ is the normal subgroup of the mapping class group $MCG(Σ_{g,p})$ generated by $K^{th}$ powers of Dehn twists about curves in $Σ_{g,p}$ for suitable $K$. Moreover, we show that in low complexity $MCG(Σ_{g,p})/DT$ is in fact hyperbolic. In particular, for $3g-3+p\leq 2$, we show that the mapping class group $MCG(Σ_{g,p})$ is fully residually non-elementary hyperbolic and admits an affine isometric action with unbounded orbits on s…
This is the second paper in a series of three papers aiming to study cohomology of group theoretic Dehn fillings. In the present paper, we derive a spectral sequence for Cohen-Lyndon triples which can be thought of as a refined version of the classical Lyndon-Hochschild-Serre spectral sequence in the settings of group theoretic Dehn fillings. In the next paper arXiv:1908.01290, we will apply this spectral sequence to study cohomological finiteness properties of Dehn fillings of acylindrically hyperbolic groups.
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that very many Dehn fillings on a cusped hyperbolic 3-manifold yield a 3-manifold which is irreducible, atoroidal and not Seifert fibred, and which has infinite, word hyperbolic fundamental group. We establish an extension of the Thurston-Gromov $2π$ theorem by showing that if each filling slope has length more than six, then the resulting 3-manifold has all the above properties. We also give a combinatorial version of the $2π$ theorem which relates to angled ideal triangulations. We apply these techniques by studying surgery along alternating links.
We begin an investigation into the behavior of Bowditch and Gromov boundaries under the operation of Dehn filling. In particular we show many Dehn fillings of a toral relatively hyperbolic group with 2-sphere boundary are hyperbolic with 2-sphere boundary. As an application, we show that the Cannon conjecture implies a relatively hyperbolic version of the Cannon conjecture.
We solve Dehn's isomorphism problem for virtually torsion-free relatively hyperbolic groups with nilpotent parabolic subgroups. We do so by reducing the isomorphism problem to three algorithmic problems in the parabolic subgroups, namely the isomorphism problem, separation of torsion (in their outer automorphism groups) by congruences, and the mixed Whitehead problem, an automorphism group orbit problem. The first step of the reduction is to compute canonical JSJ decompositions. Dehn fillings and the given solutions of the algorithmic problems in the parabolic groups are then used to decide if…
For $d=4, 5, 6$, we exhibit the first examples of complete finite volume hyperbolic $d$-manifolds $M$ with cusps such that infinitely many $d$-orbifolds $M_{m}$ obtained from $M$ by generalized Dehn filling admit properly convex real projective structures. The orbifold fundamental groups of $M_m$ are Gromov-hyperbolic relative to a collection of subgroups virtually isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}^{d-2}$, hence the images of the developing maps of the projective structures on $M_m$ are new examples of divisible properly convex domains of the projective $d$-space which are not strictly convex, in cont…
Let K be a nontrivial knot in the 3-sphere with the exterior E(K), and u in G(K), the fundamental group of E(K), a slope element represented by an essential simple closed curve on the boundary of E(K). Since the normal closure of u in G(K) coincides with that of the inverse of u, and u and its inverse u correspond to a slope r, a rational number or 1/0, we write << r >> = << u >>. The normal closure << u >> describes elements which are trivialized by r-Dehn filling of E(K). In this article, we prove that << r_1 >> =<< r_2 >> if and only if r_1 = r_2, and for a given finite family of slopes S =…
A group theoretic version of Dehn surgery is studied. Starting with an arbitrary relatively hyperbolic group $G$ we define a peripheral filling procedure, which produces quotients of $G$ by imitating the effect of the Dehn filling of a complete finite volume hyperbolic 3--manifold $M$ on the fundamental group $π_1(M)$. The main result of the paper is an algebraic counterpart of Thurston's hyperbolic Dehn surgery theorem. We also show that peripheral subgroups of $G$ 'almost' have the Congruence Extension Property and the group $G$ is approximated (in an algebraic sense) by its quotients obtain…
We demonstrate under appropriate finiteness conditions that a coarse embedding induces an inequality of homological Dehn functions. Applications of the main results include a characterization of what finitely presentable groups may admit a coarse embedding into a hyperbolic group of geometric dimension $2$, characterizations of finitely presentable subgroups of groups with quadratic Dehn function with geometric dimension $2$, and to coarse embeddings of nilpotent groups into other nilpotent groups of the same growth and into hyperbolic groups.
We show that any exceptional non-trivial Dehn surgery on a hyperbolic two-bridge knot yields a 3-manifold whose fundamental group is left-orderable. This gives a new supporting evidence for a conjecture of Boyer, Gordon and Watson.
For any hyperbolic twist knot in the 3-sphere, we show that the resulting manifold by $r$-surgery on the knot has left-orderable fundamental group if the slope $r$ satisfies the inequality $0\le r \le 4$.
In the space of marked group, we suppose that a sequence $(G_i, X_i)$ converges to $(G,X)$, where $G$ is finitely presented. We obtain an inequality which connects Dehn functions of $G_i$s and $G$. As a result, we show that if a sequence $(K, X_i)$ converges to a hyperbolic marked group, then $K$ is already hyperbolic.
For any hyperbolic genus one 2-bridge knot in the 3-sphere, we show that the resulting manifold by $r$-surgery on the knot has left-orderable fundamental group if the slope $r$ lies in some range which depends on the knot.
We prove that if every hyperbolic group is residually finite, then every quasi-convex subgroup of every hyperbolic group is separable. The main tool is relatively hyperbolic Dehn filling.
The property that the polynomial cohomology with coefficients of a finitely generated discrete group is canonically isomorphic to the group cohomology is called the (weak) isocohomological property for the group. In the case when a group is of type $HF^\infty$, i.e. that has a classifying space with the homotopy type of a cellular complex with finitely many cells in each dimension, we show that the isocohomological property is equivalent to the universal cover of the classifying space satisfying polynomially bounded higher Dehn functions. If a group is hyperbolic relative to a collection of su…
We prove that if a finitely presented group acts properly discontinuously, cocompactly and by isometries on a simply connected Riemannian manifold, then the Dehn function of the group and the corresponding filling function of the manifold are equivalent, in a sense described below.
Viewing Dehn's algorithm as a rewriting system, we generalise to allow an alphabet containing letters which do not necessarily represent group elements. This extends the class of groups for which the algorithm solves the word problem to include nilpotent groups, many relatively hyperbolic groups including geometrically finite groups and fundamental groups of certain geometrically decomposable manifolds. The class has several nice closure properties. We also show that if a group has an infinite subgroup and one of exponential growth, and they commute, then it does not admit such an algorithm. W…
We bound the higher-order Dehn functions and other filling invariants of certain Carnot groups using approximation techniques. These groups include the higher-dimensional Heisenberg groups, jet groups, and central products of two-step nilpotent groups. Some consequences of this work are a construction of groups with arbitrarily large nilpotency class that have euclidean n-dimensional filling volume functions, and a proof of part of a conjecture of Gromov on the higher-order filling functions of the higher-dimensional Heisenberg groups.
We prove super-quadratic lower bounds for the growth of the filling area function of a certain class of Carnot groups. This class contains groups for which it is known that their Dehn function grows no faster than $n^2\log n$. We therefore obtain the existence of (finitely generated) nilpotent groups whose Dehn functions do not have exactly polynomial growth and we thus answer a well-known question about the possible growth rate of Dehn functions of nilpotent groups.
We use intersections with horizontal manifolds to show that high-dimensional cycles in the Heisenberg group can be approximated efficiently by simplicial cycles. This lets us calculate all of the higher-order Dehn functions of the Heisenberg groups, thus proving a conjecture of Gromov.
Let $X$ be a product of $r$ locally compact Hadamard spaces. In this note we prove that the horospheres in $X$ centered at regular boundary points of $X$ are Lipschitz-$(r-2)$-connected. Using the filling construction by R.~Young in \cite{MR3268779} this gives sharp bounds on higher order Dehn functions for such horospheres. Moreover, if $Γ\subset\Is(X)$ is a lattice acting cocompactly on $X$ minus a union of disjoint horoballs, we get a sharp bound on higher order Dehn functions for $Γ$. We therefore deduce that apart from the Hilbert modular groups already considered by R.~Young every irredu…
Let $X=S\times E \times B$ be the metric product of a symmetric space $S$ of noncompact type, a Euclidean space $E$ and a product $B$ of Euclidean buildings. Let $Γ$ be a discrete group acting isometrically and cocompactly on $X$. We determine a family of quasi-isometry invariants for such $Γ$, namely the $k$-dimensional Dehn functions, which measure the difficulty to fill $k$-spheres by $(k+1)$-balls (for $1\leq k\leq \dim\ X-1$). Since the group $Γ$ is quasi-isometric to the associated CAT(0) space $X$, assertions about Dehn functions for $Γ$ are equivalent tothe corresponding results on fil…
