Let G be a one-ended group acting discretely and co-compactly on a CAT(0) space X. We show that the boundary of X has no cut points and that one can detect splittings of $G$ over two-ended groups and recover its JSJ decomposition from the boundary.
We show that any discrete action of a group G on a CAT(0) space X satisfies a convergence type property. This is used in the proof of the results above but it is also of independent interest. In particular, if G acts co-compactly on X, then one obtains as a Corollary that if the Tits diameter of the boundary of X is bigger than $\frac {3π} 2$ then it is infinite and G contains a free subgroup of rank 2.
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 present an algorithm to construct the JSJ decomposition of one-ended hyperbolic groups which are fundamental groups of graphs of free groups with cyclic edge groups. Our algorithm runs in double exponential time, and is the first algorithm on JSJ decompositions to have an explicit time bound. Our methods are combinatorial/geometric and rely on analysing properties of immersed cycles in certain CAT(0) square complexes.
A JSJ-splitting of a group $G$ over a certain class of subgroups is a graph of groups decomposition of $G$ which describes all possible decompositions of $G$ as an amalgamated product or an HNN extension over subgroups lying in the given class. Such decompositions originated in 3-manifold topology. In this paper we generalize the JSJ-splitting constructions of Sela, Rips-Sela and Dunwoody-Sageev and we construct a JSJ-splitting for any finitely presented group with respect to the class of all slender subgroups along which the group splits. Our approach relies on Haefliger's theory of group act…
We construct `structure invariants' of a one-ended, finitely presented group that describe the way in which the factors of its JSJ decomposition over two-ended subgroups fit together. For groups satisfying two technical conditions, these invariants reduce the problem of quasi-isometry classification of such groups to the problem of relative quasi-isometry classification of the factors of their JSJ decompositions. The first condition is that their JSJ decompositions have two-ended cylinder stabilizers. The second is that every factor in their JSJ decompositions is either `relatively rigid' or `…
In this paper, we study CAT(0) spaces with non-locally connected boundary. We give some condition of a CAT(0) space whose boundary is not locally connected.
A simplicial complex is called negatively curved if all its simplices are isometric to simplices in hyperbolic space, and it satisfies Gromov's Link Condition. We prove that, subject to certain conditions, a compact graph of spaces whose vertex spaces are negatively curved 2-complexes, and whose edge spaces are points or circles, is negatively curved. As a consequence, we deduce that certain groups are CAT(-1). These include hyperbolic limit groups, and hyperbolic groups whose JSJ components are fundamental groups of negatively curved 2-complexes---for example, finite graphs of free groups wit…
In all known examples of a CAT(0) group acting on CAT(0) spaces with non-homeomorphic CAT(0) visual boundaries, the boundaries are each not path connected. In this paper, we show this does not have to be the case by providing examples of right-angled Artin groups which exhibit non-unique CAT(0) boundaries where all of the boundaries are arbitrarily connected. We also prove a combination theorem for certain amalgams of CAT(0) groups to act on spaces with non-path connected visual boundaries. We apply this theorem to some right-angled Artin groups.
In this paper, we investigate an equivariant homeomorphism of the boundaries $\partial X$ and $\partial Y$ of two proper CAT(0) spaces $X$ and $Y$ on which a CAT(0) group $G$ acts geometrically. We provide a sufficient condition to obtain a $G$-equivariant homeomorphism of the two boundaries $\partial X$ and $\partial Y$ as a continuous extension of the quasi-isometry $ϕ:Gx_0\to Gy_0$ defined by $ϕ(gx_0)=gy_0$, where $x_0\in X$ and $y_0\in Y$.
Croke and Kleiner constructed two homeomorphic locally CAT(0) complexes whose universal covers have visual boundaries that are not homeomorphic. We construct two homeomorphic locally CAT(0) complexes so that the visual boundary of one universal cover contains a nonplanar graph, while the visual boundary of the other does not. In contrast, we prove for any two locally CAT(0) metrics on the Croke-Kleiner complex, if a finite graph embeds in the visual boundary of one universal cover, then the graph embeds in the visual boundary of the other.
In this paper, we study CAT(0) groups and Coxeter groups whose boundaries are scrambled sets. Suppose that a group $G$ acts geometrically (i.e. properly and cocompactly by isometries) on a CAT(0) space $X$. (Such group $G$ is called a {\it CAT(0) group}.) Then the group $G$ acts by homeomorphisms on the boundary $\partial X$ of $X$ and we can define a metric $d_{\partial X}$ on the boundary $\partial X$. The boundary $\partial X$ is called a {\it scrambled set} if for any $α,β\in\partial X$ with $α\neqβ$, (1) $\limsup\{d_{\partial X}(gα,gβ) | g\in G\}>0$ and (2) $\liminf\{d_{\partial X}(gα,gβ)…
M. Bestvina has shown that for any given torsion-free CAT(0) group G, all of its boundaries are shape equivalent. He then posed the question of whether they satisfy the stronger condition of being cell-like equivalent. In this article we prove that the answer is "Yes" in the situation where the group in question splits as a direct product with infinite factors. We accomplish this by proving an interesting theorem in shape theory.
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 prove the following rank rigidity result for proper CAT(0) spaces with one-dimensional Tits boundaries: Let $Γ$ be a group acting properly discontinuously, cocompactly, and by isometries on such a space $X$. If the Tits diameter of $\partial X$ equals $π$ and $Γ$ does not act minimally on $\partial X$, then $\partial X$ is a spherical building or a spherical join. If $X$ is also geodesically complete, then $X$ is a Euclidean building, higher rank symmetric space, or a nontrivial product. Much of the proof, which involves finding a Tits-closed convex building-like subset of $\partial X$, doe…
A seminal result in geometric group theory is that a 1-ended hyperbolic group has a locally connected visual boundary. As a consequence, a 1-ended hyperbolic group also has a path connected visual boundary. In this paper, we study when this phenomenon occurs for CAT(0) groups. We show if a 1-ended CAT(0) group with isolated flats acts geometrically on a CAT(0) space, then the visual boundary of the space is path connected. As a corollary, we prove all CAT(0) groups with isolated flats are semistable at infinity.
In this paper, we study dense subsets of boundaries of CAT(0) groups. Suppose that a group $G$ acts geometrically on a CAT(0) space $X$ and suppose that there exists an element $g_0\in G$ such that (1) $Z_{g_0}$ is finite, (2) $X\setminus F_{g_0}$ is not connnected, and (3) each component of $X\setminus F_{g_0}$ is convex and not $g_0$-invariant, where $Z_{g_0}$ is the centralizer of $g_0$ and $F_{g_0}$ is the fixed-point set of $g_0$ in $X$ (that is, $Z_{g_0}=\{h\in G| g_0h=hg_0\}$ and $F_{g_0}=\{x\in X| g_0x=x\}$). Then we show that each orbit $G α$ is dense in the boundary $\partial X$ (i.e…
In this paper, we investigate an equivariant homeomorphism of the boundaries $\partial X$ and $\partial Y$ of two proper CAT(0) spaces $X$ and $Y$ on which a CAT(0) group $G$ acts geometrically. We provide a sufficient condition and an equivalent condition to obtain a $G$-equivariant homeomorphism of the boundaries $\partial X$ and $\partial Y$ as a continuous extension of the quasi-isometry $ϕ:Gx_0\rightarrow Gy_0$ defined by $ϕ(gx_0)=gy_0$, where $x_0\in X$ and $y_0\in Y$. In this paper, we say that a CAT(0) group $G$ is {\it equivariant (boundary) rigid}, if $G$ determines its ideal boundar…
C Croke and B Kleiner have constructed an example of a CAT(0) group with more than one visual boundary. J Wilson has proven that this same group has uncountably many distinct boundaries. In this article we prove that the knot group of any connected sum of two non-trivial torus knots also has uncountably many distinct CAT(0) boundaries.
The Roller boundary is a well-known compactification of a CAT(0) cube complex X. When X is locally finite, essential, irreducible, non-Euclidean and admits a cocompact action by a group G, Nevo-Sageev show that a subset, B(X), of the Roller boundary is the realization of the Poisson boundary and that the action of G on B(X) is minimal and strongly proximal. Additionally, these authors show B(X) satisfies many other desirable dynamical and topological properties. In this article we give several equivalent characterizations for when B(X) is equal to the entire Roller boundary. As an application …
For all systolic groups we construct boundaries which are EZ--structures. This implies the Novikov conjecture for torsion--free systolic groups. The boundary is constructed via a system of distinguished geodesics in a systolic complex, which we prove to have coarsely similar properties to geodesics in CAT(0) spaces.
We show that if a 1-ended group $G$ acts geometrically on a CAT(0) space $X$ and $\bd X$ is separated by $m$ points then either $G$ is virtually a surface group or $G$ splits over a 2-ended group. In the course of the proof we study nesting actions on $\R $-trees and we show that nesting actions with non overlapping translation intervals give rise to isometric actions.
We introduce a $\mathbb{Z}$-valued cross ratio on Roller boundaries of ${\rm CAT(0)}$ cube complexes. We motivate its relevance by showing that every cross-ratio preserving bijection of Roller boundaries uniquely extends to a cubical isomorphism. Our results are strikingly general and even apply to infinite dimensional, locally infinite cube complexes with trivial automorphism group.
The Morse boundary of a proper geodesic metric space is designed to encode hypberbolic-like behavior in the space. A key property of this boundary is that a quasi-isometry between two such spaces induces a homeomorphism on their Morse boundaries. In this paper we investigate when the converse holds. We prove that for cocompact CAT(0) spaces, a homeomorphism of Morse boundaries is induced by a quasi-isometry if and only if the homeomorphism is quasi-mobius and 2-stable.
This paper introduces a new class of right-angled Coxeter groups with totally disconnected Morse boundaries. We construct this class recursively by examining how the Morse boundary of a right-angled Coxeter group changes if we glue a graph to its defining graph. More generally, we present a method to construct amalgamated free products of CAT(0) groups with totally disconnected Morse boundaries that act geometrically on CAT(0) spaces that have a treelike block decomposition.
It is well known that every word hyperbolic group has a well-defined visual boundary. An example of C. Croke and B. Kleiner shows that the same cannot be said for CAT(0) groups. All boundaries of a CAT(0) group are, however, shape equivalent, as observed by M. Bestvina and R. Geoghegan. Bestvina has asked if they also satisfy the stronger condition of being cell-like equivalent. This article describes a construction which will produce CAT(0) groups with multiple boundaries. These groups have very complicated boundaries in high dimensions. It is our hope that their study may provide insight int…
Given a sublinear function $κ$, $κ$-Morse boundaries $\pka X$ of proper \CAT spaces are introduced by Qing, Rafi and Tiozzo. It is a topological space that consists of a large set of quasi-geodesic rays and it is quasi-isometrically invariant and metrizable. In this paper, we study the sublinearly Morse boundaries with the assumption that there is a proper cocompact action of a group $G$ on the \CAT space in question. We show that $G$ acts minimally on $\pka G$ and that contracting elements of $G$ induces a weak north-south dynamic on $\pka G$. Furthermore, we show that a homeomorphism $f \fro…
It is well known that the Tits boundary of a proper cocompact CAT(0) space embeds into every asymptotic cone of the space. We explore the relationships between the asymptotic cones of a CAT(0) space and its boundary under both the standard visual (i.e. cone) topology and the Tits metric. We show that the set of asymptotic cones of a proper cocompact CAT(0) space admits canonical connecting maps under which the direct limit is isometric to the Euclidean cone on the Tits boundary. The resulting projection from any asymptotic cone to the Tits boundary is determined by the visual topology; on the …
In this paper, based on research on rank-one isometries by W.Ballmann and M.Brin and recent research on rank-one isometries of Coxeter groups by P.Caprace and K.Fujiwara, we study a topological fractal structure of boundaries of Coxeter groups. We also show that the limit-point set is dense in a boundary of a Coxeter group and introduce some remarks on boundaries of CAT(0) groups with rank-one isometries.
Let G be a group acting geometrically on a CAT(0) cube complex X. We prove first that G is hyperbolic relative to the collection P of subgroups if and only if the simplicial boundary of X is the disjoint union of a nonempty discrete set, together with a pairwise-disjoint collection of subcomplexes corresponding, in the appropriate sense, to elements of P. As a special case of this result is a new proof, in the cubical case, of a Theorem of Hruska--Kleiner regarding Tits boundaries of relatively hyperbolic CAT(0) spaces. Second, we relate the existence of cut-points in asymptotic cones of a cub…
Let $X$ be a nonelementary CAT(0) cubical complex. We prove that if $X$ is essential and irreducible, then the contact graph of $X$ (introduced in \cite{Hagen}) is unbounded and its boundary is homeomorphic to the regular boundary of $X$ (defined in \cite{Fernos}, \cite{KarSageev}). Using this, we reformulate the Caprace-Sageev's Rank-Rigidity Theorem in terms of the action on the contact graph. Let $G$ be a group with a nonelementary action on $X$, and $(Z_n)$ a random walk corresponding to a generating probability measure on $G$ with finite second moment. Using this identification of the bou…
We show under weak hypotheses that the pushforward $\{Z_no\}$ of a random-walk to a CAT(0) cube complex converges to a point on the boundary. We introduce the notion of squeezing points, which allows us to consider the convergence in either the Roller boundary or the visual boundary, with the appropriate hypotheses. This study allows us to show that any nonelementary action necessarily contains regular elements, that is, elements that act as rank-1 hyperbolic isometries in each irreducible factor of the essential core.
We generalize a result of Paulin on the Gromov boundary of hyperbolic groups to the Morse boundary of proper, maximal hierarchically hyperbolic spaces admitting cocompact group actions by isometries. Namely we show that if the Morse boundaries of two such spaces each contain at least three points, then the spaces are quasi-isometric if and only if there exists a 2-stable, quasi-möbius homeomorphism between their Morse boundaries. Our result extends a recent result of Charney-Murray, who prove such a classification for CAT(0) groups, and is new for mapping class groups and the fundamental group…
We prove that the class of convex-cocompact Kleinian groups is quasi-isometrically rigid. We also establish that a word hyperbolic group with a planar boundary different from the sphere is virtually a convex-cocompact Kleinian group provided that its boundary has Ahlfors regular conformal dimension strictly less than $2$ or if it acts geometrically on a CAT(0) cube complex.
We prove that the sublinearly Morse boundary of every known cubulated group continuously injects in the Gromov boundary of a certain hyperbolic graph. We also show that for all CAT(0) cube complexes, convergence to sublinearly Morse geodesic rays has a simple combinatorial description using the hyperplanes crossed by such sequences. As an application of this combinatorial description, we show that a certain subspace of the Roller boundary continously surjects on the subspace of the visual boundary consisting of sublinearly Morse geodesic rays.
We show that the sublinearly Morse boundary of a CAT(0) cubical group with a factor system is well-defined up to homeomorphism with respect to the visual topology. The key tool used in the proof is a new topology on sublinearly Morse boundaries that is induced by group actions on hyperbolic spaces that are sufficiently nice, for example, largest acylindrical actions. Using the same techniques, we obtain a explicit description of this new topology on the sublinearly Morse boundary of any hierarchically hyperbolic group in terms of medians. Finally, we explicitly describe the sublinear Morse bou…
We give new examples of hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic groups of cohomological dimension $d$ for all $d\geq 4$. These examples result from applying CAT$(0)$/CAT$(-1)$ filling constructions (based on singular doubly warped products) to finite volume hyperbolic manifolds with toral cusps. The groups obtained have a number of interesting properties, which are established by analyzing their boundaries at infinity by a kind of Morse-theoretic technique, related to but distinct from ordinary and combinatorial Morse theory.
We explain why semistability of a one-ended proper CAT(0) space can be determined by the geodesic rays. This is applied to boundaries of CAT(0) groups.
To every Gromov hyperbolic space X one can associate a space at infinity called the Gromov boundary of X. Gromov showed that quasi-isometries of hyperbolic metric spaces induce homeomorphisms on their boundaries, thus giving rise to a well-defined notion of the boundary of a hyperbolic group. Croke and Kleiner showed that the visual boundary of non-positively curved (CAT(0)) groups is not well-defined, since quasi-isometric CAT(0) spaces can have non-homeomorphic boundaries. For any sublinear function $κ$, we consider a subset of the visual boundary called the $κ$-Morse boundary and show that …
We investigate the Tits boundary of locally compact CAT(0) 2-complexes. In particular we show that away from the endpoints, a geodesic segment in the Tits boundary is the ideal boundary of an isometrically embedded Euclidean sector. As applications, we provide sufficient conditions for two points in the Tits boundary to be the endpoints of a geodesic in the 2-complex and for a group generated by two hyperbolic isometries to contain a free group. We also show that if two CAT(0) 2-complexes are quasi-isometric then the cores of their Tits boundaries are bi-Lipschitz.
In this paper, we study boundary actions of CAT(0) spaces from a point of view of topological dynamics and $C^*$-algebras. First, we investigate the actions of right-angled Coexter groups and right-angled Artin groups with finite defining graphs on the visual boundaries and the Nevo-Sageev boundaries of their natural assigned CAT(0) cube complexes. In particular, we establish (strongly) pure infiniteness results for reduced crossed product $C^*$-algebras of these actions through investigating the corresponding $\cat$ cube complexes and establishing necessary dynamical properties such as minima…
Bestvina's notion of a Z-structure provides a general framework for group boundaries that includes Gromov boundaries of hyperbolic groups and visual boundaries of CAT(0) groups as special cases. A refinement, known as an EZ-structure has proven useful in attacks on the Novikov Conjecture and related problems. Characterizations of groups admitting a Z- or EZ-structure are longstanding open problems. In this paper, we examine semidirect products of a group G with the integers. For example, we show that, if G is torsion-free and admits a Z-structure, then so does every semidirect product of this …
We show that a one-ended simply connected at infinity hyperbolic group $G$ with enough codimension-1 surface subgroups has $\partial G \cong \mathbb{S}^2$. Combined with a result of Markovic, our result gives a new characterization of virtually fundamental groups of hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Keywords: CAT(0) cube complexes, Hyperbolic groups, hyperbolic 3-manifolds.
In this work we introduce a new combinatorial notion of boundary $\Re C$ of an $ω$-dimensional cubing $C$. $\Re C$ is defined to be the set of almost-equality classes of ultrafilters on the standard system of halfspaces of $C$, endowed with an order relation reflecting the interaction between the Tychonoff closures of the classes. When $C$ arises as the dual of a cubulation -- or discrete system of halfspaces -- $\HH$ of a CAT(0) space $X$ (for example, the Niblo-Reeves cubulation of the Davis-Moussong complex of a finite rank Coxeter group), we show how $\HH$ induces a function $ρ:\bd X\to\Re…
Mahan Mitra (Mj) proved Cannon--Thurston maps exist for normal hyperbolic subgroups of a hyperbolic group. We prove that Cannon--Thurston maps do not exist for infinite normal hyperbolic subgroups of non-hyperbolic CAT(0) groups with isolated flats with respect to the visual boundaries. We also show Cannon--Thurston maps do not exist for infinite infinite-index normal CAT(0) subgroups with isolated flats in non-hyperbolic CAT(0) groups with isolated flats. We obtain a structure theorem for the normal subgroups in these settings and show that outer automorphism groups of hyperbolic groups have …
We show that if G is an admissible group acting geometrically on a CAT(0) space X, then G is a hierarchically hyperbolic space and with mild assumptions the sublinearly-Morse boundary of the group is a topological model for associated Poisson boundaries .
One way to show that Thompson's group F is non-amenable is to exhibit an action of F on a locally compact CAT(0) space X containing no F-invariant flats and having no global fixed points in its boundary-at-infinity. We study the actions of Thompson's groups F, T, and V on the boundaries-at-infinity of proper CAT(0) cubical complexes. In particular, we show that Thompson's groups T and V act without fixing any points in the boundaries of their CAT(0) cubical complexes. This in particular gives another proof of the well-known fact that these groups are non-amenable. We obtain a partial descripti…
We generalize the natural cross ratio on the ideal boundary of a rank one symmetric spaces, or even $\mathrm{CAT}(-1)$ space, to higher rank symmetric spaces and (non-locally compact) Euclidean buildings - we obtain vector valued cross ratios defined on simplices of the building at infinity. We show several properties of those cross ratios; for example that (under some restrictions) periods of hyperbolic isometries give back the translation vector. In addition, we show that cross ratio preserving maps on the chamber set are induced by isometries and vice versa - motivating that the cross ratio…
We show that group actions on irreducible ${\rm CAT(0)}$ cube complexes with no free faces are uniquely determined by their $\ell^1$ length function. Actions are allowed to be non-proper and non-cocompact, as long as they are minimal and have no finite orbit in the visual boundary. This is, to our knowledge, the first length-spectrum rigidity result in a setting of non-positive curvature (with the exception of some particular cases in dimension 2 and symmetric spaces). As our main tool, we develop a notion of cross ratio on Roller boundaries of ${\rm CAT(0)}$ cube complexes. Inspired by result…
