Genus bounds in right-angled Artin groups (Q2302178)

A right-angled Artin group (RAAG) is the group defined by a graph in the following way: each vertex of the graph gives a generator of the group, and two generators commute in the group exactly when they are connected by an edge in the graph. The family of RAAGs, which can be viewed as a way of interpolating between free groups and free abeliean groups, provides a rich source of examples in geometric group theory, and the machinery of (special) cube complexes is especially well suited to these groups. In this paper, the authors give a lower bound on the stable commutator length of elements of RAAGs, where the lower bound depends on the defining graph of the group. Specifically, they show that the stable commutator length is at least \(1/(6k)\), where \(k\) is the chromatic number of the graph, and in addition the stable commutator length is at least \(1/20\) if the graph is triangle-free. The commutator length \(\mathrm{cl}(g)\) of an element \(g \in [G,G]\) of the commutator subgroup of a group \(G\) is defined to be the minimal number of commutators whose product is the desired element. The stable commutator length \(\mathrm{scl}(g)\) is the stabilization \(\lim_{n\to\infty} \mathrm{cl}(g^n)/n\). Different viewpoints of stable commutator length provide an interesting connection between algebra, topology, and analysis. In general, it is difficult to compute \(\mathrm{scl}\), and bounds of any kind are interesting. See the introduction of the paper and its references for more details. The authors do a great job of providing a straightforward, well-explained train of thought to prove the main theorems. This goes by via the topology perspective on \(\mathrm{scl}\) and reduces to rearranging and understanding surface maps in an elementary but interesting way. There is one main technical theorem which enables this story, and it is conveniently isolated in its own section. This section uses more background from the language of cube complexes, but is still fairly self-contained. This paper is definitely recommended for anyone interested in stable commutator length, RAAGs, or applications of cube complexes.