arXiv research

Sharp conditions link separators to R-trees for space transformations.

We show how to associate an R-tree to the set of cut points of a continuum. If X is a continuum without cut points we show how to associate an R-tree to the set of cut pairs of X.

We show that every inner metric space X is the metric quotient of a complete R-tree via a free isometric action, which we call the covering R-tree of X. The quotient mapping is a weak submetry (hence, open) and light. In the case of compact 1-dimensional geodesic space X, the free isometric action is via a subgroup of …

We present some explicit constructions of universal R-trees with applications to the asymptotic geometry of hyperbolic spaces. In particular, we show that any asymptotic cone of a complete simply connected manifold of negative curvature is a complete homogeneous R-tree with the valency $2^{\aleph_0}$ at every point. It…

In this paper, we study the dynamics of degenerating sequences of rational maps on Riemann sphere $\hat{\mathbb{C}}$ using $\mathbb{R}$-trees. Given a sequence of degenerating rational maps, we give two constructions for limiting dynamics on $\mathbb{R}$-trees: one geometric and one algebraic. The geometric constructio…

We prove an acylindrical accessibility theorem for finitely generated groups acting on $\mathbf R$-trees. Namely, we show that if $G$ is a freely indecomposable non-cyclic $k$-generated group acting minimally and $M$-acylindrically on an $\mathbf R$-tree $X$ then for any $ε>0$ there is a finite subtree $Y_ε\subseteq X$…

Study of tree automorphisms via arc-stabilizers.

We study isometric actions of finitely presented groups on $\mathbb{R}$-trees. In this paper, we develop a relative version of the Rips machine to study $\textit{pairs}$ of such actions. An important example of a $\textit{pair}$ is a group action on an $\mathbb{R}$-tree and a subgroup action on its minimal invariant su…

It is shown that for any action of a finitely presented group $G$ on an $\R$-tree, there is a decomposition of $G$ as the fundamental group of a graph of groups related to this action. If the action of $G$ on $T$ is non-trivial, i.e. there is no global fixed point, then $G$ has a non-trivial action on a simplcial $\R$…

Estimates dimensions of maximal simplices for rational and irrational trees in Outer space.

Researchers create a new compactification of character varieties using geometric and algebraic methods.

The study proves unique path lifting properties and their implications on quotient spaces and covering maps.

We show that the Korevaar-Schoen limit of the sequence of equivariant harmonic maps corresponding to a sequence of irreducible $SL_2({\mathbb C})$ representations of the fundamental group of a compact Riemannian manifold is an equivariant harmonic map to an ${\mathbb R}$-tree which is minimal and whose length function …

In this paper, we show that one can naturally associate a limiting dynamical system $F: T\longrightarrow T$ on an $\R$-tree to any degenerating sequence of rational maps $f_n: \hat\C \longrightarrow \hat\C$ of fixed degree. The construction of $F$ is in $2$ steps: first we use barycentric extension to get $\E f_n : \Hy…

Tree-graded spaces are generalizations of R-trees. They appear as asymptotic cones of groups (when the cones have cut points). Since many questions about endomorphisms and automorphisms of groups, solving equations over groups, studying embeddings of a group into another group, etc. lead to actions of groups on the asy…

The Thurston compactification of Teichmuller spaces has been generalized to many different representation spaces by J. Morgan, P. Shalen, M. Bestvina, F. Paulin, A. Parreau and others. In the simplest case of representations of fundamental groups of closed hyperbolic surfaces in PSL(2,R), we prove that this compactific…

We prove that if $T$ is an $\mathbb R$-tree with a minimal free isometric action of $F_N$, then the $Out(F_N)$-stabilizer of the projective class $[T]$ is virtually cyclic. For the special case where $T=T_+(φ)$ is the forward limit tree of an atoroidal iwip element $φ\in Out(F_N)$ this is a consequence of the results o…

Characterizes fundamental groups of disjointly tree-graded spaces.

We construct examples of finitely generated groups L that have non-trivial actions on $\mathbb{R}$-trees but which cannot act, without fixing a vertex, on any simplicial tree. Moreover, any finitely presented group mapping onto L does have a fixed point-free action on some simplicial tree.

The paper connects harmonic forms to tree maps and character varieties.

We prove a finiteness theorem for the class of complete finite volume Riemannian manifolds with pinched negative sectional curvature, fixed fundamental group, and of dimension $>2$. One of the key ingredients is that the fundamental group of such a manifold does not admit a small nontrivial action on an $R$-tree.

We prove that a "random" free group outer automorphism is an ageometric fully irreducible outer automorphism whose ideal Whitehead graph is a union of triangles. In particular, we show that its attracting (and repelling) tree is a nongeometric $\mathbb R$-tree all of whose branch points are trivalent

In their study of fundamental groups of one-dimensional path-connected compact metric spaces, Cannon and Conner have asked: Is there a tree-like object that might be considered the topological Cayley graph? We answer this question in the positive and provide a combinatorial description of such an object.

This work is the first step towards a description of the Gromov boundary of the free factor graph of a free product, with applications to subgroup classification for outer automorphisms. We extend the theory of algebraic laminations dual to trees, as developed by Coulbois, Hilion, Lustig and Reynolds, to the context of…

This is an addendum to arXiv: 0810.5376. We show, using our methods and an auxiliary result of Bestvina-Bromberg-Fujiwara, that a finitely generated group with infinitely many pairwise non-conjugate homomorphisms to a mapping class group virtually acts non-trivially on an $\R$-tree, and, if it is finitely presented, it…

There is a well-known correspondence between infinite trees and ultrametric spaces which can be interpreted as an equivalence of categories and comes from considering the end space of the tree. In this equivalence, uniformly continuous maps between the end spaces are translated to some classes of coarse maps (or even c…

Non-convex extremal length found in surface metrics.

Unfolding paths in Outer space accumulate on a simplex, not converge.

Extremal length is an important conformal invariant on Riemann surface. It is closely related to the geometry of Teichmuller metric on Teichmuller space. By identifying extremal length functions with energy of harmonic maps from Riemann surfaces to $\mathbb{R}$-trees, we study the second variation of extremal length fu…

We explicate a number of notions of algebraic laminations existing in the literature, particularly in the context of an exact sequence $1\to H\to G \to Q \to 1$ of hyperbolic groups. These laminations arise in different contexts: existence of Cannon-Thurston maps; closed geodesics exiting ends of manifolds; dual to …

We describe the space of measured foliations induced on a compact Riemann surface by meromorphic quadratic differentials. We prove that any such foliation is realized by a unique such differential $q$ if we prescribe, in addition, the principal parts of $\sqrt q$ at the poles. This generalizes a theorem of Hubbard and …

We define a new compactification of outer space $CV_N$ (the \emph{Pacman compactification}) which is an absolute retract, for which the boundary is a $Z$-set. The classical compactification $\overline{CV_N}$ made of very small $F_N$-actions on $\mathbb{R}$-trees, however, fails to be locally $4$-connected as soon as $N…

New inequality helps map stability in minimal surfaces.

This is the third in a series of papers constructing hyperbolic structures on all Haken three-manifolds. This portion deals with the mixed case of the deformation space for manifolds with incompressible boundary that are not acylindrical, but are more complicated than interval bundles over surfaces. This is a slight re…

It is known that all but finitely many leaves of a measured foliated 2-complex of thin type are quasi-isometric to an infinite tree with at most two topological ends. We show that if the foliation is cooriented, and the associated R-tree is self-similar, then a typical leaf has exactly one topological end. We also cons…

Compactifies group representations into thin triangle spaces.

We study the limits of holonomy representations of complex projective structures on a compact Riemann surface in the Morgan-Shalen compactification of the character variety. We show that the dual R-trees of the quadratic differentials associated to a divergent sequence of projective structures determine the Morgan-Shal…

It is well-known that quasi-isometries between R-trees induce power quasi-symmetric homeomorphisms between their ultrametric end spaces. This paper investigates power quasi-symmetric homeomorphisms between bounded, complete, uniformly perfect, ultrametric spaces (i.e., those ultrametric spaces arising up to similarity …

Benedetti and Guadagnini have conjectured that the marked lenght spectrum of the constant mean curvature foliation $M_τ$ in a 2+1 dimensional flat spacetime $V$ with compact hyperbolic Cauchy surfaces converges, in the direction of the singularity, to that of the marked measure spectrum of the R-tree dual to the measur…

Consider a lattice $Γ$ in a group $G = SL_2(\R), SO(1,n), SU(1,n)$, $SL_2(\Q_p)$. We discuss actions of $Γ$ by affine isometric transformations of Hilbert spaces. We show that for irreducible affine isometric action of $G$ its restriction to $Γ$ is irreducible. We prove the existence of canonical irreducible affine iso…

We study actions of finitely generated groups on $\bbR$-trees under some stability hypotheses. We prove that either the group splits over some controlled subgroup (fixing an arc in particular), or the action can be obtained by gluing together actions of simple types: actions on simplicial trees, actions on lines, and a…

Unstable minimal surfaces in n-space link to hyperbolic products.

A class of groups is investigated, each of which has a fairly simple presentation . For example the group $R = (a, b, c, d | a^3 = b^3 = c^3 = d^3 = 1, ba^{-1} =dc^{-1}, ca^{-1} = db^{-1})$ is in the class. Such a group does not have as a homomorphic image any group which is a 2-orbifold group or which is a group of i…

Let $S$ be a closed surface of genus $g \geq 2$ and let $ρ$ be a maximal $\mathrm{PSL}(2, \mathbb{R}) \times \mathrm{PSL}(2, \mathbb{R})$ surface group representation. By a result of Schoen, there is a unique $ρ$-equivariant minimal surface $\widetildeΣ$ in $\mathbb{H}^{2} \times \mathbb{H}^{2}$. We study the induced m…

Let $F_N$ be a free group of rank $N\ge 2$, let $μ$ be a geodesic current on $F_N$ and let $T$ be an $\mathbb R$-tree with a very small isometric action of $F_N$. We prove that the geometric intersection number $<T, μ>$ is equal to zero if and only if the support of $μ$ is contained in the dual algebraic lamination $L^…

We present a practical algorithm which, given a non-archimedean local field $K$ and any two elements $A,B\in {\rm SL_2}(K)$, determines after finitely many steps whether or not the subgroup $\langle A, B \rangle\le {\rm SL_2}(K)$ is discrete and free of rank two. This makes use of the Ping Pong Lemma applied to the act…

Study of non-Archimedean Hitchin map for SL2(F) characters.

Let $T$ be an $\mathbb{R}$-tree, equipped with a very small action of the rank $n$ free group $F_n$, and let $H \leq F_n$ be finitely generated. We consider the case where the action $F_n \curvearrowright T$ is indecomposable--this is a strong mixing property introduced by Guirardel. In this case, we show that the acti…