Finsler bordifications of symmetric and certain locally symmetric spaces (Q1637305)

The authors give a geometric interpretation of the maximal Satake compactification of symmetric spaces $X=G/K$ of noncompact type, showing that it arises by attaching the horofunction boundary for a suitable $G$-invariant Finsler metric on $X$. As an application, they establish the existence of natural bordifications, as orbifolds-with corners, of locally symmetric spaces $X/\Gamma$ for arbitrary discrete subgroups $\Gamma<G$. These bordifications result from attaching $\Gamma$-quotients of suitable domains of proper discontinuity at infinity. They further prove that such bordifications are compactifications in the case of Anosov subgroups. They show, conversely, that Anosov subgroups are characterized by the existence of such compactifications among uniformly regular subgroups. Along the way, they give a positive answer, in the torsion free case, to a question of Haissinky and Tukia on convergence groups regarding the compactness of their actions on the domains of discontinuity.