Dimension invariants of outer automorphism groups (Q1691969)

Summary: The geometric dimension for proper actions \(\underline{\mathrm{gd}}(G)\) of a group \(G\) is the minimal dimension of a classifying space for proper actions \(\underline{E}G\). We construct for every integer \(r\geq1\), an example of a virtually torsion-free Gromov-hyperbolic group \(G\) such that for every group \(\Gamma\) which contains \(G\) as a finite index normal subgroup, the virtual cohomological dimension \(\mathrm{vcd}(\Gamma)\) of \(\Gamma\) equals \(\underline{\mathrm{gd}}(\Gamma)\) but such that the outer automorphism group \(\mathrm{Out}(G)\) is virtually torsion-free, admits a cocompact model for \(\underline{E}\,\mathrm{Out}(G)\) but nonetheless has \(\mathrm{vcd}(\mathrm{Out}(G))\leq\underline{\mathrm{gd}}(\mathrm{Out}(G))-r\).