Quasi-actions on trees. I: Bounded valence (Q1411284): Difference between revisions

The fundamental action of a discrete group on a proper geodesic metric space is geometric: that is, isometric, properly discontinuous, and cocompact. These criteria may be weakened to accommodate the study of quasi-isometries and quasi-isometry type. The authors call the associated generalizations quasi-actions that are proper and cobounded. The fundamental question they ask is this: ``Under what conditions can a quasi-action be replaced by a geometric action?'' Here is their main result: Theorem 1. If \(G\times T\to T\) is a cobounded quasi-action of a group \(G\) on a tree \(T\), where \(T\) is bushy and of bounded valence, then there is an isometric action \(G\times T'\to T'\) on a tree \(T'\), where \(T'\) is also bushy and of bounded valence, and a quasi-conjugacy \(f: T'\to T\) from the action of \(G\) on \(T'\) to the quasi-action of \(G\) on \(T\). [The tree \(T\) is bushy if each point of \(T\) is a uniformly bounded distance from a vertex having at least 3 unbounded complementary components.] Corresponding theorems are already known where both \(T\) and \(T'\) are replaced by \({\mathbf H}^n\), \({\mathbf C}{\mathbf H}^n\), quaternionic hyperbolic space, the Cayley hyperbolic plane, a nonpositively curved symmetric space, or a thick Euclidean building that is irreducible and of rank \(\geq 2\). The proofs are quite different. The results involve a good deal of coarse geometry, theory of ends, and Dunwoody's tracks (developed by Dunwoody for the study of accessibility). The authors describe numerous applications, which involve, among others, Bass-Serre trees, graphs of coarse \(\text{PD}(n)\) groups, and quasiconformal actions on Cantor sets.