Controlled connectivity for semidirect products acting on locally finite trees. (Q2510059)

The article under review is concerned with the variant of the Bieri-Neumann-Strebel invariants as generalized by Bieri and Geoghegan to groups acting on CAT(0) spaces. Recall the definition of these: let a group \(G\) act on a CAT(0) space \(M\) (via \(\rho\colon G\to\mathrm{Isom}(M)\)). Suppose that \(G\) admits a free cocompact action on an \((n-1)\)-connected CW-complex \(\widetilde X\). Consider a \(G\)-equivariant map \(h\colon\widetilde X\to M\). Then a point \(e\) in the boundary of \(M\) lies in \(\Sigma^n(\rho)\) if \(h^{-1}(H)\) is coarsely \((n-1)\)-connected for every horoball \(H\) centered at \(e\). Being coarsely \((n-1)\)-connected here means that there is a larger horoball \(H'\) such that every sphere (up to dimension \((n-1)\)) in \(H\) can be filled within \(H'\). Clearly \(H'\) will depend on \(H\) and \(h\) but whether or not an \(H'\) exists does not. Thus \(\Sigma^n(\rho)\) is well-defined. The author studies the following special situation: the group \(G\) is a semidirect product \(B\rtimes A\) and acts on a tree \(T\) by an action \(\rho\colon G\to\mathrm{Isom}(T)\) that factors through \(A\). He is interested in the invariant \(\Sigma^1(\rho)\), so \(G\) (and thus \(A\)) is assumed to be finitely generated. The main interest is in constructing examples where \(\Sigma^1(\rho)\) is neither empty nor all of \(\partial T\). It is known that if cell stabilizers are finitely generated then \(\Sigma^1(\rho)=\partial T\). The author takes stabilizers in \(A\) to be finitely generated and thus has to take \(B\) not to be finitely generated to get interesting examples. The main result is a criterion for deciding whether a point \(e\in\partial T\) lies in \(\Sigma^1(\rho)\). It relies on a specific free \(A\)-space \(\overline X\) that is a \(K(B,1)\) together with a map \(\overline r\colon\overline X\to T\). The statement is that \(e\) is in \(\Sigma^1(\rho)\) if there is a cocompact subspace \(\overline W\subseteq\overline X\) such that for every horoball \(H\) centered at \(e\) the set \(\overline W\cap\overline r^{-1}(H)\) is connected and its fundamental group surjects onto \(\pi_1(\overline X)=B\). And \(e\) is not in \(\Sigma^1(\rho)\) if there is a cocompact \(\overline W\) and a horoball \(H\) such that \(\overline W\cap\overline r^{-1}(H)\) is connected and does not \(\pi_1\)-surject onto \(B\). The space \(\overline X\) is assembled as the total space of a graph of classifying spaces of cell stabilizers over \(T\). The first example of an action \(\rho\) on a tree \(T\) where \(\Sigma^1(\rho)\) is neither empty nor all of \(\partial T\) was given by Ralf Lehnert. It consists of the group \(\mathbb Z[1/6]\rtimes F_2\) acting on the Cayley graph of \(F_2\) where the two generators of \(F_2\) act by multiplication by \(2\) and \(3\), respectively. In the present article this example is generalized to products of arbitrarily many primes. Another example is \(K\wr_{F_n}F_m\) for \(K\) finitely generated and \(n\leq m\), acting on the Cayley graph of \(F_m\). Finally, the author presents the example \(H\wr_{\mathbb Z}A\) where \(H\) is finitely generated, \(A=\langle a,b\mid a^4,\;b^4\rangle\), and the action on \(\mathbb Z\) is through the quotient \(A\to D_\infty\).