Embeddings of hyperbolic groups into products of binary trees (Q948621)

A metric tree is a geodesic metric space in which every geodesic triangle is isometric to a (maybe degenerate) tripod, i.e. to the union of three segments with a common point which is the only common point for any pair of the segments. A metric tree \(T\) is simplicial if it admits a triangulation. The valence of a vertex is the number of edges adjacent to it. The binary metric tree is a simplicial metric tree in which the valence of every vertex equals 3. The main result of the paper under review is following. Every Gromov hyperbolic group \(\Gamma\) admits a quasi-isometric embedding into the product of \(n+1\) copies of the binary metric tree where \(n=\dim\partial_\infty\Gamma\) is the topological dimension of the boundary at infinity. The authors mention that the above embedding is by no means equivariant with respect to \(\Gamma\). The result can be compared with the Bonk-Schramm embedding theorem, see \textit{M. Bonk} and \textit{O. Schramm} [Geom. Funct. Anal. 10, 266--306 (2000; Zbl 0972.53021)]: Every Gromov hyperbolic group admits a roughly similar embedding into the standard hyperbolic space \(\mathbb{H}^N\) for some \(N\). The proof of the main theorem consists of three main steps: 1. Construction of a quasi-isometric embedding \(\Gamma\to\Pi_cT_c\) of \(\Gamma\) into a finite product of trees \(T_c\), where each tree \(T_c\) has in general infinite valence. 2. Construction of a map \(T_c\to T\) of the infinite valence tree \(T_c\) into the binary tree \(T\). 3. Proof that the composition \(\Gamma\to \Pi_cT_c\to\Pi T\) is quasi-isometric. According to the authors the most inventive part of the proof is Step 2, the construction of the map \(T_c\to T\). The construction is based on what they call Alice's diary.