Fillings, finite generation and direct limits of relatively hyperbolic groups. (Q2472587)

The Novikov, Baum-Connes and related conjectures are known to hold for a large class of groups. It is interesting, therefore, to construct ``exotic'' groups for which these conjectures do not hold. One could hope to build such a group by taking direct limits of hyperbolic groups, but hyperbolic groups are known to satisfy these conjectures and the rational injectivity of the Baum-Connes assembly map is preserved by direct limits. Thus, such groups satisfy the Novikov conjecture. \textit{D. V. Osin} [Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 843 (2006; Zbl 1093.20025)] constructed groups as direct limits of infinitely generated relatively hyperbolic groups. Although there are many results saying that a finitely generated group that is hyperbolic to groups satisfying the Novikov (or Baum-Connes, etc.) conjecture will itself satisfy the Novikov (or Baum-Connes) conjecture, it is conceivable that Osin's construction could lead to a counterexample. The main result of the paper is that this is probably not the case. The authors show that a direct limit of relatively hyperbolic groups is the direct limit of finitely generated relatively hyperbolic groups. The main result of the paper is this: groups that are exotic enough to provide a counter-example to the Strong Novikov Conjecture will have to have been built into the finitely generated subgroups of the parabolic subgroups.