In this paper, we prove that certain spaces are not quasi-isometric to Cayley graphs of finitely generated groups. In particular, we answer a question of Woess and prove a conjecture of Diestel and Leader by showing that certain homogeneous graphs are not quasi-isometric to a Cayley graph of a finitely generated group.
This paper is the first in a sequence of papers proving results announced in [EFW0]. In particular, this paper contains many steps in the proofs of quasi-isometric rigidity of lattices in Sol and of the quasi-isometry classification of lamplighter groups. The proofs of those results are completed in [EFW1].
The method used here is based on the idea of "coarse differentiation" introduced in [EFW0].
In this note, we announce the first results on quasi-isometric rigidity of non-nilpotent polycyclic groups. In particular, we prove that any group quasi-isometric to the three dimenionsional solvable Lie group Sol is virtually a lattice in Sol. We prove analogous results for groups quasi-isometric to $R \ltimes R^n$ where the semidirect product is defined by a diagonalizable matrix of determinant one with no eigenvalues on the unit circle. Our approach to these problems is to first classify all self quasi-isometries of the solvable Lie group. Our classification of self quasi-isometries for $R …
In this paper, which is the continuation of [EFW2], we complete the proof of the quasi-isometric rigidity of Sol and the lamplighter groups. The results were announced in [EFW1].
Almost-isometries are quasi-isometries with multiplicative constant one. Lifting a pair of metrics on a compact space gives quasi-isometric metrics on the universal cover. Under some additional hypotheses on the metrics, we show that there is no almost-isometry between the universal covers. We show that Riemannian manifolds which are almost-isometric have the same volume growth entropy. We establish various rigidity results as applications.
It is well-known that a complete Riemannian manifold M which is locally isometric to a symmetric space is covered by a symmetric space. Here we prove that a discrete version of this property (called local to global rigidity) holds for a large class of vertex-transitive graphs, including Cayley graphs of torsion-free lattices in simple Lie groups, and Cayley graph of torsion-free virtually nilpotent groups. By contrast, we exhibit various examples of Cayley graphs of finitely presented groups (e.g. SL(4,Z)) which fail to have this property, answering a question of Benjamini, Ellis, and Georgako…
We complete the quasi-isometric classification of irreducible lattices in semisimple Lie groups over nondiscrete locally compact fields of characteristic zero by showing that any quasi-isometry of a rank one S-arithmetic lattice in a semisimple Lie group over nondiscrete locally compact fields of characteristic zero is a finite distance in the sup-norm from a commensurator.
Let $M_i$ and $N_i$ be path-connected locally uniquely geodesic metric spaces that are not points and $f:\prod_{i=1}^m M_i\to \prod_{i=1}^n N_i$ be an isometry where $\prod_{i=1}^n N_i$ and $\prod_{i=1}^m M_i$ are given the sup metric. Then $m=n$ and after reindexing $M_i$ is isometric to $N_i$ for all $i$. Moreover $f$ is a composition of an isometry that reindexes the factor spaces and an isometry that is a product of isometries $f_i:M_i\to N_i$.
We construct examples of groups showing that virtual solvability and the property of being virtually torsion-free are not preserved by bi-Lipschitz maps and hence by quasi-isometries.
A measure-scaling quasi-isometry between two connected graphs is a quasi-isometry that is quasi-$κ$-to-one in a natural sense for some $κ>0$. For non-amenable graphs, all quasi-isometries are quasi-$κ$-to-one for any $κ>0$, while for amenable ones there exists at most one possible such $κ$. For an amenable graph $X$, we show that the set of possible $κ$ forms a subgroup of $\mathbb{R}_{>0}$ that we call the (measure-)scaling group of $X$. This group is invariant under measure-scaling quasi-isometries. In the context of Cayley graphs, this implies for instance that two uniform lattices in a giv…
We prove that if $H$ is a subgroup of index $n$ of any cyclic group $G$, then $G$ can be isometrically embedded in $(H^n, d_{_{Ham}}^n)$, thus generalizing previous results of Carlet (1998) for $G=\mathbb{Z}_{2^k}$ and Yildiz-Özger (2012) for $G=\mathbb{Z}_{p^k}$ with $p$ prime. Next, for any positive integer $q$ we define the $q$-adic metric $d_q$ in $\mathbb{Z}_{q^n}$ and prove that $(\mathbb{Z}_{q^n}, d_q)$ is isometric to $(\mathbb{Z}_q^n, d_{RT})$ for every $n$, where $d_{RT}$ is the Rosenbloom-Tsfasman metric. More generally, we then demonstrate that any pair of finite groups of the same…
We show that isometries between open sets of Carnot groups are affine. This result generalizes a result of Hamenstadt. Our proof does not rely on her proof. In addition, we study global isometries of general homogeneous manifolds equipped with left-invariant subFinsler distances. We show that each isometry is determined by the blow up at one point. For proving the results, we consider the action of isometries on the space of Killing vector fields. We make use of results by Capogna-Cowling and by Gleason-Montgomery-Zippin for obtaining smoothness of the isometric action.
A group $Γ$ with a family of subgroups $\mathbb{P}$ is relatively hyperbolic if $Γ$ admits a cusp-uniform action on a proper $δ$--hyperbolic space. We show that any two such spaces for a given group pair are quasi-isometric, provided the spaces have "constant horospherical distortion," a condition satisfied by Groves--Manning's cusped Cayley graph and by all negatively curved symmetric spaces. Consequently the Bowditch boundary admits a canonical quasisymmetric structure, which coincides with the "naturally occurring" quasisymmetric structure of the symmetric space when considering lattices in…
In this paper we introduce and study some geometric objects associated to Artin monoids. The Deligne complex for an Artin group is a cube complex that was introduced by the second author and Davis (1995) to study the K(π,1) conjecture for these groups. Using a notion of Artin monoid cosets, we construct a version of the Deligne complex for Artin monoids. We show that for any Artin monoid this cube complex is contractible. Furthermore, we study the embedding of the monoid Deligne complex into the Deligne complex for the corresponding Artin group. We show that for any Artin group this is a local…
A simple surface amalgam is the union of a finite collection of surfaces with precisely one boundary component each and which have their boundary curves identified. We prove if two fundamental groups of simple surface amalgams act properly and cocompactly by isometries on the same proper geodesic metric space, then the groups are commensurable. Consequently, there are infinitely many fundamental groups of simple surface amalgams that are quasi-isometric, but which do not act properly and cocompactly on the same proper geodesic metric space.
We study groups acting by length-preserving transformations on spaces equipped with asymmetric, partially-defined distance functions. We introduce a natural notion of quasi-isometry for such spaces and exhibit an extension of the Svarc-Milnor Lemma to this setting. Among the most natural examples of these spaces are finitely generated monoids and semigroups and their Cayley and Schutzenberger graphs; we apply our results to show a number of important properties of monoids are quasi-isometry invariants.
In 1985, Dunwoody showed that finitely presentable groups are accessible. Dunwoody's result was used to show that context-free groups, groups quasi-isometric to trees or finitely presentable groups of asymptotic dimension 1 are virtually free. Using another theorem of Dunwoody of 1979, we study when a group is virtually free in terms of its Cayley graph and we obtain new proofs of the mentioned results and other previously depending on them.
We give a method of constructing maps between tubular groups inductively according to a set of strategies. This map will be a quasi-isometry exactly when the set of strategies is consistent. Conversely, if there exists a quasi-isometry between tubular groups, then there is a consistent set of strategies for them. There is an algorithm that will in finite time either produce a consistent set of strategies or decide that such a set does not exist. Consequently, this algorithm decides whether or not the groups are quasi-isometric.
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.
Given isometric actions by a group G on finitely many δ-hyperbolic metric spaces, we provide a sufficient condition that guarantees the existence of a single element in G that is hyperbolic for each action. As an application we prove a conjecture of Handel and Mosher regarding relatively fully irreducible subgroups and elements in the outer automorphism group of a free group.
This note is concerned with the geometric classification of connected Lie groups of dimension three or less, endowed with left-invariant Riemannian metrics. On the one hand, assembling results from the literature, we give a review of the complete classification of such groups up to quasi-isometries and we compare the quasi-isometric classification with the bi-Lipschitz classification. On the other hand, we study the problem whether two quasi-isometrically equivalent Lie groups may be made isometric if equipped with suitable left-invariant Riemannian metrics. We show that this is the case for t…
We approach the quasi-isometric classification questions on Lie groups by considering low dimensional cases and isometries alongside quasi-isometries. First, we present some new results related to quasi-isometries between Heintze groups. Then we will see how these results together with the existing tools related to isometries can be applied to groups of dimension 4 and 5 in particular. Thus we take steps towards determining all the equivalence classes of groups up to isometry and quasi-isometry. We completely solve the classification up to isometry for simply connected solvable groups in dimen…
We show that every word hyperbolic, surface-by-(noncyclic) free group Gamma is as rigid as possible: the quasi-isometry group of Gamma equals the abstract commensurator group Comm(Gamma), which in turn contains Gamma as a finite index subgroup. As a corollary, two such groups are quasi-isometric if and only if they are commensurable, and any finitely generated group quasi-isometric to Gamma must be weakly commensurable with Gamma. We use quasi-isometries to compute Comm(Gamma) explicitly, an example of how quasi-isometries can actually detect finite index information. The proofs of these theor…
Let S be a closed, oriented surface of genus at least 2, and consider the extension 1 -> pi_1 S -> MCG(S,p) -> MCG(S) -> 1, where MCG(S) is the mapping class group of S, and MCG(S,p) is the mapping class group of S punctured at p. We prove that any quasi-isometry of MCG(S,p) which coarsely respects the cosets of the normal subgroup pi_1 S is a bounded distance from the left action of some element of MCG(S,p). Combined with recent work of Kevin Whyte this implies that if K is a finitely generated group quasi-isometric to MCG(S,p) then there is a homomorphism K -> MCG(S,p) with finite kernel and…
Let $\FN$ be a free group of finite rank $N \geq 2$, and let $T$ be an $\R$-tree with a very small, minimal action of $\FN$ with dense orbits. For any basis $\CA$ of $\FN$ there exists a {\em heart} $K_{\CA} \subset \bar T$ (= the metric completion of $T$) which is a compact subtree that has the property that the dynamical system of partial isometries $a_{i} : K_{\CA} \cap a_{i} K_{\CA} \to a_{i}\inv K_{\CA} \cap K_{\CA}$, for each $a_{i} \in \CA$, defines a tree $T_{(K_{\CA}, \CA)}$ which contains an isometric copy of $T$ as minimal subtree.
We study discrete groups from the view point of a dimension gap in connection to CAT(0) geometry. Developing studies by Brady-Crisp and Bridson, we show that there exist finitely presented groups of geometric dimension 2 which do not act properly on any proper CAT(0) spaces of dimension 2 by isometries, although such actions exist on CAT(0) spaces of dimension 3. Another example is the fundamental group, G, of a complete, non-compact, complex hyperbolic manifold M with finite volume, of complex-dimension n > 1. The group G is acting on the universal cover of M, which is isometric to H^n_C. It …
We revisit Sz.-Nagy's criteria for similarity of Hilbert space bounded linear operators to isometries or unitaries and present new ones. We also discuss counterparts of the Dixmier-Day theorem concerning bounded representations of amenable groups and semigroups. We highlight the role of Folner sets in similarity problems in both settings of unimodular, $σ$-compact, amenable groups and in discrete semigroups possessing the Strong Folner condition (SFC).
We propose the study of Markov chains on groups as a "quasi-isometry invariant" theory that encompasses random walks. In particular, we focus on certain classes of groups acting on hyperbolic spaces including (non-elementary) hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic groups, acylindrically hyperbolic 3-manifold groups, as well as fundamental groups of certain graphs of groups with edge groups of subexponential growth. For those, we prove a linear progress result and various applications, and these lead to a Central Limit Theorem for random walks on groups quasi-isometric to the ones we consider.
This article is concerned with perfect isometries between blocks of finite groups. Generalizing a method of Enguehard to show that any two p-blocks of (possibly different) symmetric groups with the same weight are perfectly isometric, we prove analogues of this result for p-blocks of alternating groups (where the blocks must also have the same sign when p is odd), of double covers of alternating and symmetric groups (for p odd, and where we obtain crossover isometries when the blocks have opposite signs),of complex reflection groups G(d,1,n) (for d prime to p), of Weyl groups of type B and D (…
Two groups are virtually isomorphic if they can be obtained one from the other via a finite number of steps, where each step consists in taking a finite extension or a finite index subgroup (or viceversa). Virtually isomorphic groups are always quasi-isometric, and a group G is quasi-isometrically rigid if every group quasi-isometric to G is virtually isomorphic to G. In this survey we describe quasi-isometric rigidity results for fundamental groups of manifolds which can be decomposed into geometric pieces. After stating by now classical results on lattices in semisimple Lie groups, we focus …
Initial steps in the study of inner expansion properties of infinite Cayley graphs and other infinite graphs, such as hyperbolic ones, are taken, in a flavor similar to the well-known Lipton-Tarjan square root separation result for planar graphs. Connections to relaxed versions of quasi-isometries are explored, such as regular and semiregular maps.
We define a complete Riemannian manifold X to be large-scale conformally rigid if all groups that are quasi-isometric to some complete Riemannian manifold of bounded geometry conformal to X are quasi-isometric to X. We prove that many 3-manifolds, including Euclidean 3-space, hyperbolic 3-space and the product of the hyperbolic plane with the real line are large-scale conformally rigid. This implies new characterizations of groups that can act properly, cocompactly by isometries on those manifolds.
We show that every non-precompact topological group admits a fixed point-free continuous action by affine isometries on a suitable Banach space. Thus, precompact groups are defined by the fixed point property for affine isometric actions on Banach spaces. For separable topological groups, in the above statements it is enough to consider affine actions on one particular Banach space: the unique Banach space envelope of the universal Urysohn metric space, known as the Holmes space. At the same time, we show that Polish groups need not admit topologically proper (in particular, free) affine isome…
