Limits of (certain) CAT(0) groups. I: Compactification. (Q2571385)

The class of groups acting properly cocompactly on CAT(0) spaces with the isolated flats condition can be seen as lying between hyperbolic groups and CAT(0) groups. \textit{Z.~Sela} [Diophantine geometry over groups: a list of research problems, \texttt{http://www.ma.huji.ac.il/\(\sim\)zlil/prob\-lems}] asked whether a group acting properly cocompactly on a CAT(0) space with isolated flats is Hopfian and whether one can construct Makanin-Razborov diagrams for it. This question is answered in the affirmative in the sequel to the paper under review. The paper under review establishes the tools necessary to answer these questions. In his work showing that torsion-free hyperbolic groups are Hopfian, \textit{Z. Sela} [Topology 38, No. 2, 301-321 (1999; Zbl 0929.20033)] used results of \textit{F. Paulin} [Invent. Math. 94, No. 1, 53-80 (1988; Zbl 0673.57034), and Publ., Math. Sci. Res. Inst. 19, 331-343 (1991; Zbl 0804.57002)], which yield an isometric action on an \(\mathbb{R}\)-tree from sequences of actions on \(\delta\)-hyperbolic spaces. Given finitely generated groups \(\Gamma\) and \(G\) and a sequence of non-conjugate homomorphisms \(\{h_i\colon G\to\Gamma\}\) the author constructs an action of \(G\) on an asymptotic cone of \(X\) with no global fixed point. Restricting attention to \(\Gamma\) acting properly and cocompactly on a CAT(0) space with isolated flats, the author studies the asymptotic cone of the space and, under the assumption that the stabilizers of maximal flats are free Abelian, constructs an \(\mathbb{R}\)-tree and an isometric action of \(G\) on this \(\mathbb{R}\)-tree, allowing much of Sela's program to be carried through. The paper gives a nice overview of CAT(0) spaces with isolated flats and isometric group actions on them before proceeding to the construction of the \(\mathbb{R}\)-tree and the action of \(G\) on it. In the final section of the paper an application of these results is given (more follow in the sequel to this work) and there is a discussion of the relationship between this work and (various definitions of) \(\Gamma\)-limit groups.