arXiv research

We describe a procedure which verifies that a group given by generators and relators is word-hyperbolic. This procedure always works with a group which is word-hyperbolic, provided there is sufficient memory and time devoted to the problem. If the group is not word-hyperbolic, the procedure continues indefinitely. We a…

We examine residual properties of word-hyperbolic groups, adapting a method introduced by Darren Long to study the residual properties of Kleinian groups.

New spectral Dehn function characterizes word-hyperbolic groups.

Proves restrictions on projective Anosov representations of hyperbolic groups.

Proves involutions on Right-angled Coxeter groups without fixed points.

Groups satisfy linear surface isoperimetric functions.

We prove an equivariant version of the fact that word-hyperbolic groups have finite asymptotic dimension. This is important in connection with our forthcoming proof of the Farrell-Jones conjecture in algebraic K-theory for every word-hyperbolic group G and every coefficient ring R.

Let S be a closed surface of genus at least 2. We show that a finitely generated group G which is an extension of the fundamental group H of S is word hyperbolic if and only the orbit map of the quotient group G/H on the complex of curves is a quasi-isometric embedding.This in turn is equivalent to G/H being convex coc…

We define the notion of affine Anosov representations of word hyperbolic groups into the affine group $\mathsf{SO}^0(n+1,n)\ltimes\mathbb{R}^{2n+1}$. We then show that a representation $ρ$ of a word hyperbolic group is affine Anosov if and only if its linear part $\mathtt{L}_ρ$ is Anosov in $\mathsf{SO}^0(n+1,n)$ with …

Thurston conjectured that a closed triangulated 3-manifold in which every edge has degree 5 or 6, and no two edges of degree 5 lie in a common 2-cell, has word-hyperbolic fundamental group. We establish Thurston's conjecture by proving that such a manifold admits a piecewise Euclidean metric of non-positive curvature a…

New examples show embeddings not approximated by Anosov representations.

We prove a Morse Lemma for coarsely regular quasigeodesics in nonpositively curved symmetric spaces and euclidean buildings X. The main application is a simpler coarse geometric characterization of Morse subgroups of the isometry groups Isom(X) as undistorted subgroups which are coarsely uniformly regular. We show furt…

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 ea…

We show that for a hyperbolic knot complement, all but at most 12 Dehn fillings are irreducible with infinite word-hyperbolic fundamental group.

Let $G$ be a non-elementary word-hyperbolic group acting as a convergence group on a compact metrizable space $Z$ so that there exists a continuous $G$-equivariant map $i:\partial G\to Z$, which we call a \emph{Cannon-Thurston map}. We obtain two characterzations (a dynamical one and a geometric one) of conical limit p…

The notions of stable and Morse subgroups of finitely generated groups generalize the concept of a quasiconvex subgroup of a word-hyperbolic group. For a word-hyperbolic group $G$, Kapovich provided a partial algorithm which, on input a finite set $S$ of $G$, halts if $S$ generates a quasiconvex subgroup of $G$ and run…

New findings on algebraic structure of hyperbolic graph braid groups.

Let (W,S) be a finite rank Coxeter system with W infinite. We prove that the limit weak order on the blocks of infinite reduced words of W is encoded by the topology of the Tits boundary of the Davis complex X of W. We consider many special cases, including W word hyperbolic, and X with isolated flats. We establish tha…

It is shown that a hyperbolic knot in the 3-sphere admits at most nine integral surgeries yielding 3-manifolds which are reducible or whose fundamental groups are not infinite word-hyperbolic.

We prove the Borel Conjecture for a class of groups containing word-hyperbolic groups and groups acting properly, isometrically and cocompactly on a finite dimensional CAT(0)-space.

The paper characterizes convex co-compact groups with one-dimensional boundary faces.

We study a notion of convex cocompactness for discrete subgroups of the projective general linear group acting (not necessarily irreducibly) on real projective space, and give various characterizations. A convex cocompact group in this sense need not be word hyperbolic, but we show that it still has some of the good pr…

A longstanding question of Gromov asks whether every one-ended word-hyperbolic group contains a subgroup isomorphic to the fundamental group of a closed hyperbolic surface. An infinite family of word-hyperbolic groups can be obtained by taking doubles of free groups amalgamated along words that are not proper powers. W…

We prove that the rank problem is decidable in the class of torsion-free word-hyperbolic Kleinian groups. We also show that every group in this class has only finitely many Nielsen equivalence classes of generating sets of a given cardinality.

We study the limit set of discrete subgroups arising from Anosov representations. Specially we study the limit set of discrete groups arising from strictly convex real projective structures and Anosov representations from a finitely generated word hyperbolic group into a semisimple Lie group.

Let $Γ$ be a word hyperbolic group with a cyclic JSJ decomposition that has only rigid vertex groups, which are all fundamental groups of closed surface groups. We show that any group $H$ quasi-isometric to $Γ$ is abstractly commensurable with $Γ$.

We develop a theory of convex cocompact subgroups of the mapping class group MCG of a closed, oriented surface S of genus at least 2, in terms of the action on Teichmuller space. Given a subgroup G of MCG defining an extension L_G: 1--> pi_1(S) --> L_G --> G -->1 we prove that if L_G is a word hyperbolic group then G i…

We establish several characterizations of Anosov representations of word hyperbolic groups into real reductive Lie groups, in terms of a Cartan projection or Lyapunov projection of the Lie group. Using a properness criterion of Benoist and Kobayashi, we derive applications to proper actions on homogeneous spaces of red…

Let G be a word-hyperbolic group, obtained as a graph of free groups amalgamated along cyclic subgroups. If H_2(G;Q) is nonzero, then G contains a closed hyperbolic surface subgroup. Moreover, the unit ball of the Gromov-Thurston norm on H_2(G;R) is a finite-sided rational polyhedron.

Using Quillen's superconnection formalism we give a new "twisted" approach to the rational Gromov-Lawson-Rosenberg (GLR) conjecture on topological obstructions to the existence of Riemannian metrics of positive scalar curvature on compact spin manifolds. In particular, we present a short proof of the rational GLR conje…

The study of geometric group theory has suggested several theorems related to subdivision tilings that have a natural hyperbolic structure. However, few examples exist. We construct subdivision tilings for the complement of every nonsingular, prime alternating link. These tilings define a combinatorial space at infinit…

We introduce the notion of a topological geodesic in a 3-manifold. Under suitable hypotheses on the fundamental group, for instance word-hyperbolicity, topological geodesics are shown to have the useful properties of, and play the same role in several applications as, geodesics in negatively curved spaces. This permits…

Let $G$ be a word hyperbolic group. We prove that the algebraic $K$-theory groups of $\dbZ [G]$, $K_n(\dbZ[G])$, have finite rank for all $n\in \dbZ$. For a few classes of groups, we give explicit formulas for the ranks of the algebraic $K$-theory groups of their group rings.

We prove that a word hyperbolic group which admits a $P_{2q+1}$-Anosov representation into $\mathsf{PGL}(4q+2, \mathbb{R})$ contains a finite-index subgroup which is either free or a surface group. As a consequence, we give an affirmative answer to Sambarino's question for Borel Anosov representations into $\mathsf{SL}…

For relatively hyperbolic groups, we investigate conditions guaranteeing that the subgroup generated by two relatively quasiconvex subgroups $Q_1$ and $Q_2$ is relatively quasiconvex and isomorphic to $Q_1 \ast_{Q_1 \cap Q_2} Q_2$. The main theorem extends results for quasiconvex subgroups of word-hyperbolic groups, an…

Let G be a finitely presented group, and G' its commutator subgroup. Let C be the Cayley graph of G' with all commutators in G as generators. Then C is large scale simply connected. Furthermore, if G is a torsion-free nonelementary word-hyperbolic group, C is one-ended. Hence (in this case), the asymptotic dimension of…

Characterizes Coxeter groups with specific boundary shapes.

We give a criterion in terms of the boundary for the existence of a proper cocompact action of a word-hyperbolic group on a CAT(0) cube complex. We describe applications towards lattices and hyperbolic 3-manifold groups. In particular, by combining the theory of special cube complexes, the surface subgroup result of Ka…

The reflection length of an element of a Coxeter group is the minimal number of conjugates of the standard generators whose product is equal to that element. In this paper we prove the conjecture of McCammond and Petersen that reflection length is unbounded in any non-affine Coxeter group. Among the tools used, the con…

Consider a one-ended word-hyperbolic group. If it is the fundamental group of a graph of free groups with cyclic edge groups then either it is the fundamental group of a surface or it contains a finitely generated one-ended subgroup of infinite index. As a corollary, the same holds for limit groups. We also obtain a ch…

We describe smooth compactifications of certain families of reductive homogeneous spaces such as group manifolds for classical Lie groups, or pseudo-Riemannian analogues of real hyperbolic spaces and their complex and quaternionic counterparts. We deduce compactifications of Clifford-Klein forms of these homogeneous sp…

We show that the isomorphism problem is solvable in the class of central extensions of word-hyperbolic groups, and that the isomorphism problem for biautomatic groups reduces to that for biautomatic groups with finite centre. We describe an algorithm that, given an arbitrary finite presentation of an automatic group $Γ…

Let $G$ be a word hyperbolic group in the sense of Gromov and $P$ its associated Rips complex. We prove that the fixed point set $P^H$ is contractible for every finite subgroups $H$ of $G$. This is the main ingredient for proving that $P$ is a finite model for the universal space $e.g.$ of proper actions. As a corollar…

An open convex set in real projective space is called divisible if there exists a discrete group of projective automorphisms which acts co-compactly. There are many examples of such sets and a theorem of Benoist implies that many of these examples are strictly convex, have $C^1$ boundary, and have word hyperbolic divid…

We show that for every $n\ge 2$ there exists a torsion-free one-ended word-hyperbolic group $G$ of rank $n$ admitting generating $n$-tuples $(a_1,\ldots ,a_n)$ and $(b_1,\ldots ,b_n)$ such that the $(2n-1)$-tuples $$(a_1,\ldots ,a_n, \underbrace{1,\ldots ,1}_{n-1 \text{times}})\hbox{ and }(b_1,\ldots, b_n, \underbrace{…

We give a complete characterization of countable primitive groups in several settings including linear groups, subgroups of mapping class groups, groups acting minimally on trees and convergence groups. The latter category includes as a special case Kleinian groups as well as subgroups of word hyperbolic groups. As an …

A generic finite presentation defines a word hyperbolic group whose boundary is homeomorphic to the Menger curve. In this article, we produce the first known examples of non-hyperbolic $CAT(0)$ groups whose visual boundary is homeomorphic to the Menger curve. The examples in question are the Coxeter groups whose nerve …

New hyperbolic 3-pseudomanifolds with unique properties.