Discrete parabolic groups in \(\text{PSL}(3, \mathbb{C})\) (Q2676755)

Whereas every purely parabolic subgroup of \(\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{C})\) (the group of Möbius transformations of the Riemann sphere \(\mathbb{P}^1_{\mathbb{C}}\)) is abelian and acts on the projective space \(\mathbb{P}^1_{\mathbb{C}}\) with limit set being a single point, the situation for \(\mathrm{PSL}(3,\mathbb{C})\) (the group of automorphisms of the projective plane \(\mathbb{P}^2_{\mathbb{C}}\)) is more subtle. In the present paper, the authors study and classify the purely parabolic discrete subgroups of \(\mathrm{PSL}(3,\mathbb{C})\), thus finding five families of such subgroups (with some subfamilies). Their first main theorem states that such a group is either virtually elliptic (a subgroup of the fundamental groups of an elliptic surface), or virtually conjugate to a subgroup of the Heisenberg group \(\mathrm{Heis}(3,\mathbb{C})\) (which is itself purely parabolic); its (Kulkarni) limit set is either a line, a cone of lines over a circle, or the whole \(\mathbb{P}^2_{\mathbb{C}}\), depending on the five types of groups and their subfamilies. The second main result concerns the dynamics of these five classes of groups in terms of the Conze-Guivarc'h limit set of an action on the dual of \(\mathbb{P}^2_{\mathbb{C}}\) group (see also [\textit{S. C. Bagchi} (ed.) and \textit{S. G. Dani} (ed.), Sankhyā, Ser. A 62, No. 3, 289--432 (2000; Zbl 0969.00051)]); this uses in an essential way the obstructor dimension of a group (a lower bound for the ``action dimension'') introduced by \textit{M. Bestvina} et al. [Invent. Math. 150, No. 2, 219--235 (2002; Zbl 1041.57016)], and is based on results of R. Bieri and R. Strebel (see [\textit{K. A. Bencsáth} et al., Lectures on finitely generated solvable groups. New York, NY: Springer (2013; Zbl 1271.20046)]) on finitely presented solvable groups as ascending HNN-extensions. The authors remark that, whereas every parabolic element in \(\mathrm{PSL}(3,\mathbb{C})\) is conjugate to a parabolic element in \(\mathrm{PU}(2,1)\) (the group of holomorphic isometries of complex hyperbolic space), the results of the present paper show that there are plenty of purely parabolic subgroups of \(\mathrm{PSL}(3,\mathbb{C})\) which are not conjugate to subgroups of \(\mathrm{PU}(2,1)\). The authors announce the complete classification of the elementary subgroups of \(\mathrm{PSL}(3,\mathbb{C})\) in a forthcoming paper.