Packing subgroups in relatively hyperbolic groups. (Q1016793)

There has been substantial progress in the past few years generalizing properties of word-hyperbolic groups to properties of relatively hyperbolic groups with hypotheses on the peripheral subgroups. The paper under review is part of this trend where the focus is on generalizations of ideas related to a certain important property of quasiconvex subgroups. An infinite quasiconvex subgroup \(H\) of a word-hyperbolic group \(G\) cannot be normal unless it is of finite index. The width of \(H\) in \(G\) equals \((n-1)\) if \(n\) is the smallest number with the property that for any \(n\) distinct right cosets \(g_1H,\dots,g_nH\) the intersection \(g_iHg^{-1}_i\cap g_jHg^{-1}_j\) is finite for some \(i,j\). It is unknown whether having finite width characterizes quasiconvexity. In a metric space \((X,d)\) the distance between two subsets \(Y\) and \(Z\) is the infimum of the distances between points \(y\in Y\) and \(z\in Z\). If \(H\) is a subgroup \(G\), then \(H\) has bounded packing in \(G\) if for each \(D\), there is a bound \(M=M(D)\) on the number of distinct cosets \(g_iH\) such that \(d(g_iH,g_jH)<D\) for each \(i,j\). The goal of the paper under review is to prove a bounded packing statement in the relatively hyperbolic context, and to deduce from this an appropriate finite width consequence. The main result is the following. Let \(H\) be a relatively quasiconvex subgroup of a relatively hyperbolic group \(G\). Suppose \(H\cap gPg^{-1}\) has bounded packing in \(gPg^{-1}\) for each conjugate of each peripheral subgroup \(P\). Then \(H\) has bounded packing in \(G\). -- Moreover, it is shown that under mild hypotheses an action of a group \(G\) on a CAT(0) cube complex \(C\) gives rise to natural subgroups of \(G\) with bounded packing. These subgroups arise as stabilizers of hyperplanes in \(C\). Also, some applications as well as many examples are given.