Cubulated groups: thickness, relative hyperbolicity, and simplicial boundaries (Q2630769)

Summary: Let \(G\) be a group acting geometrically on a \(\operatorname{CAT}(0)\) cube complex \(\mathbf X\). We prove first that \(G\) is hyperbolic relative to the collection \(\mathbb P\) of subgroups if and only if the simplicial boundary \(\partial_{\triangle} \mathbf X\) is the disjoint union of a nonempty discrete set, together with a pairwise-disjoint collection of subcomplexes corresponding, in the appropriate sense, to elements of \(\mathbb P\). As a special case of this result is a new proof, in the cubical case, of a Theorem of \textit{G. C. Hruska} and \textit{B. Kleiner} [Geom. Topol. 9, 1501--1538 (2005; Zbl 1087.20034)] regarding Tits boundaries of relatively hyperbolic \(\operatorname{CAT}(0)\) spaces. Second, we relate the existence of cut-points in asymptotic cones of a cube complex \(\mathbf X\) to boundedness of the 1-skeleton of \(\partial_{\triangle} \mathbf X\). We deduce characterizations of thickness and strong algebraic thickness of a group \(G\) acting properly and cocompactly on the \(\operatorname{CAT}(0)\) cube complex \(\mathbf X\) in terms of the structure of, and nature of the \(G\)-action on, \(\partial_{\triangle} \mathbf X\). Finally, we construct, for each \(n\geq 0, k\geq 2\), infinitely many quasi-isometry types of group \(G\) such that \(G\) is strongly algebraically thick of order \(n\), has polynomial divergence of order \(n+1\), and acts properly and cocompactly on a \(k\)-dimensional \(\operatorname{CAT}(0)\) cube complex.