Conformal dimension and Gromov hyperbolic groups with 2-sphere boundary. (Q2388863)

A well-known conjecture of Cannon states that if \(G\) is a hyperbolic group whose boundary \(\partial G\) is homeomorphic to the 2-sphere \(S^2\), then \(G\) admits an isometric, discrete and cocompact action on hyperbolic 3-space \(\mathbb{H}^3\). In this paper, the authors establish this conjecture in a particular case, with a hypothesis on \(G\) involving the notion of `Ahlfors regular conformal dimension'. The Ahlfors regular conformal dimension of a metric space \(Z\) is defined as the infimal Hausdorff dimension of all regular metric spaces that are quasisymmetrically homeomorphic to \(Z\). This notion is a variant of Pansu's conformal dimension and, as the authors say, it is implicitly contained in a paper by \textit{M. Bourdon} and \textit{H. Pajot} [Comment. Math. Helv. 75, No. 4, 701-736 (2000; Zbl 0976.30011)]. The authors prove the following Theorem: Let \(G\) be a hyperbolic group with boundary homeomorphic to \(S^2\). If the Ahlfors regular conformal dimension of \(\partial G\) is attained, then there exists an isometric, discrete and cocompact action of \(G\) on \(\mathbb{H}^3\). The converse of this theorem is a result by F. Paulin. Therefore, Cannon's conjecture is now equivalent to the fact that if \(G\) is a hyperbolic group whose boundary is homeomorphic to \(S^2\), then the Ahlfors regular dimension of \(\partial G\) is attained. The authors obtain their result as a consequence of a more general result on hyperbolic groups whose statement involves the notions of \(Q\)-regular conformal dimension (\(Q>1\)), of \(Q\)-regular metric spaces, of uniformly quasi-Möbius actions and of \(Q\)-Loewner metric spaces. The authors also deduce a result for convex cocompact Kleinian groups. The paper ends with a list of open problems related to the subject.