We study the synchronous and asynchronous automatic structures on the fundamental group of a graph of groups in which each edge group is finite. Up to a natural equivalence relation, the set of biautomatic structures on such a graph product bijects to the product of the sets of biautomatic structures on the vertex groups. The set of automatic structures is much richer. Indeed, it is dense in the infinite product of the sets of automatic structures of all conjugates of the vertex groups. We classify these structures by a class of labelled graphs which ``mimic" the underlying graph of the graph of groups. Analogous statements hold for asynchronous automatic structures. We also discuss the boundaries of these structures.
To any finite graph $X$ (viewed as a topological space) we assosiate some explicit compact metric space ${\cal X}^r(X)$ which we call {\it the reflection tree of graphs $X$}. This space is of topological dimension $\le1$ and its connected components are locally connected. We show that if $X$ is appropriately triangulated (as a simplicial graph $Γ$ for which $X$ is the geometric realization) then the visual boundary $\partial_\infty(W,S)$ of the right angled Coxeter system $(W,S)$ with the nerve isomorphic to $Γ$ is homeomorphic to ${\cal X}^r(X)$. For each $X$, this yields in particular many w…
We give upper bounds, linear in rank, to the topological dimensions of the Gromov boundaries of the intersection graph, the free factor graph and the cyclic splitting graph of a finitely generated free group.
We prove that the fundamental group of a finite graph of convergence groups with parabolic edge groups is a convergence group. Using this result, under some mild assumptions, we prove a combination theorem for a graph of convergence groups with dynamically quasi-convex edge groups (Theorem 1.3). To prove these results, we use a modification of Dahmani's technique [Dah03]. Then we show that the fundamental group of a graph of relatively hyperbolic groups with edge groups either parabolic or infinite cyclic is relatively hyperbolic and construct Bowditch boundary. Finally, we show that the homeo…
We show that the higher rank lamplighter groups, or Diestel-Leader groups $Γ_d(q)$ for $d \geq 3$, are graph automatic. This introduces a new family of graph automatic groups which are not automatic.
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.
We give an example of a 4-regular infinite automatic graph of intermediate growth. It is constructed as a Schreier graph of a certain group generated by 3-state automaton. The question was motivated by an open problem on the existence of Cayley automatic groups of intermediate growth.
Let a finitely generated group $G$ split as a graph of groups. If edge groups are undistorted and do not contribute to the Morse boundary $\partial_MG$, we show that every connected component of $\partial_MG$ with at least two points originates from the Morse boundary of a vertex group. Under stronger assumptions on the edge groups (such as wideness in the sense of Druţu-Sapir), we show that Morse boundaries of vertex groups are topologically embedded in $\partial_MG$.
In this article we construct asynchronous and sometimes synchronous automatic structures for amalgamated products and HNN extensions of groups that are strongly asynchronously (or synchronously) coset automatic with respect to the associated automatic subgroups, subject to further geometric conditions. These results are proved in the general context of fundamental groups of graphs of groups. The hypotheses of our closure results are satisfied in a variety of examples such as Artin groups of sufficiently large type, Coxeter groups, virtually abelian groups, and groups that are hyperbolic relati…
Diestel-Leader graphs are neither hyperbolic nor CAT(0), so their visual boundaries may be pathological. Indeed, we show that for $d>2$, $\partial\text{DL}_d(q)$ carries the indiscrete topology. On the other hand, $\partial\text{DL}_2(q)$, while not Hausdorff, is $T_1$, totally disconnected, and compact. Since $\text{DL}_2(q)$ is a Cayley graph of the lamplighter group $L_q$, we also obtain a nice description of $\partial\text{DL}_2(q)$ in terms of the lamp stand model of $L_q$ and discuss the dynamics of the action.
We investigate the geometry of the graphs of nonseparating curves for surfaces of finite positive genus with potentially infinitely many punctures. This graph has infinite diameter and is known to be Gromov hyperbolic by work of the author. We study finite covers between such surfaces and show that lifts of nonseparating curves to the nonseparating curve graph of the cover span quasiconvex subgraphs which are infinite diameter and not coarsely equal to the nonseparating curve graph of the cover. In the finite type case, we also reprove a theorem of Hamenstädt identifying the Gromov boundary wi…
It is not known whether Thompson's group F is automatic. With the recent extensions of the notion of an automatic group to graph automatic by Kharlampovich, Khoussainov and Miasnikov and then to C-graph automatic by the authors, a compelling question is whether F is graph automatic or C-graph automatic for an appropriate language class C. The extended definitions allow the use of a symbol alphabet for the normal form language, replacing the dependence on generating set. In this paper we construct a 1-counter graph automatic structure for F based on the standard infinite normal form for group e…
Given a countable group $G$ splitting as a free product $G=G_1\ast\dots\ast G_k\ast F_N$, we establish classification results for subgroups of the group $Out(G,\mathcal{F})$ of all outer automorphisms of $G$ that preserve the conjugacy classes of each $G_i$. We show that every finitely generated subgroup $H\subseteq Out(G,\mathcal{F})$ either contains a relatively fully irreducible automorphism, or else it virtually preserves the conjugacy class of a proper free factor relative to the decomposition (the finite generation hypothesis on $H$ can be dropped for $G=F_N$, or more generally when $G$ …
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.
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 that the Morse boundary of a right-angled Coxeter group may contain embedded circles that do not arise as the boundary of a Morse Fuchsian subgroup visible in the defining graph.
We undertake a systematic study of the approximation properties of the topological and measurable versions of the coarse boundary groupoid associated to a sequence of finite graphs of bounded degree. On the topological side, we prove that asymptotic coarse embeddability of the graph sequence into a Hilbert space is equivalent to the coarse boundary groupoid being topologically a-T-menable, thus answering a question by Rufus Willett. On the measure-theoretic side, we prove that measure-theoretic amenability resp. a-T-menability of the coarse boundary groupoid are related to hyperfiniteness and …
We study those automatic sequences which are produced by an automaton whose underlying graph is the Cayley graph of a finite group. For $2$-automatic sequences, we find a characterization in terms of what we call homogeneity, and among homogeneous sequences, we single out those enjoying what we call self-similarity. It turns out that self-similar $2$-automatic sequences (viewed up to a permutation of their alphabet) are in bijection with many interesting objects, for example dessins d'enfants (covers of the Riemann sphere with three points removed). For any $p$ we show that, in the case of an …
We introduce and study certain topological spaces associated with connected rooted graphs. These spaces reflect combinatorial and order theoretic properties of the underlying graph and relate in the case of hyperbolic graphs to Gromov's hyperbolic compactification. They are particularly tractable in the case of Cayley graphs of finite rank Coxeter groups. In that context we speak of the compactification and the boundary of the Coxeter group. As it turns out, the canonical action of the Coxeter group on its Cayley graph induces a natural action on the compactification and the boundary. From thi…
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…
