Local-to-global rigidity of Bruhat-Tits buildings (Q2408439)

A vertex-transitive graph \(X\) is called LG-rigid, if for some positive real \(R\) every other graph whose balls of radius \(R\) are isometric to the balls of radius \(R\) in \(X\) is covered by \(X\). Let \(K\) be a non-Archimedean local skew field. The authors prove the following main result. The Bruhat-Tits building of type \(\widetilde A_{d-1}\) constructed from \(K\) (belonging to the group \(\mathrm{PGL}(d,K)\)) is not LG-rigid if \(d\geq 3\) and \(\operatorname {char}K \neq 0\), but it is LG-rigid if \(d\geq 4\) and \(\operatorname{char}K =0\). The proof uses earlier work of the authors [``Characterizing a vertex-transitive graph by a large ball'', J. Topology (to appear)].