Most automorphisms of a hyperbolic group have very simple dynamics (Q2769908)

Let \(G\) be a hyperbolic group. Assume it is non-elementary (i.e., \(G\) is not virtually cyclic). Let \(\alpha\) be an automorphism of \(G\) and \(\partial\alpha\) the homeomorphism induced by \(\alpha\) on \(\partial G\). We say that \(\partial\alpha\), or \(\alpha\), has ``North-South'' dynamics if \(\partial\alpha\) has two distinct fixed points \(X^+\), \(X^-\) and \(\lim_{n\to\infty}\partial\alpha^n(X^\pm)=X^\pm\) uniformly on compact subsets of \(\partial X\setminus\{X^\pm\}\).NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINELet \(\Phi\in\text{Out}(G)\), \(\alpha,\beta\in\Phi\) are isogredient if \(\beta=i_h\alpha i^{-1}_h\) for some \(h\in G\), with \(i_h(G)=hgh^{-1}\). We denote by \(S(\Phi)\) the set of isogredience classes of automorphisms representing \(\Phi\).NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEOne of the main results of the paper under review is the following Theorem: (1) All but finitely many \(s\in\Phi\) have ``North-South'' dynamics. (2) The set \(S(\Phi)\) of isogredience classes is infinite.NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEThe proof of the first assertion of the above theorem when \(G\) is not free uses the following fact. Let \(f\) be a \((\lambda,C)\)-quasiisometry of \(\delta\)-hyperbolic proper geodesic metric space \((E,d)\) to itself. There exists \(M(\delta,\lambda,C)\) independent of \(E\) and \(f\) with the following property: if \(d(f(x),x)>M\) for all \(x\in E\), then there exists a bi-infinite geodesic \(\gamma\) such that the Hausdorff distance between \(\gamma\) and \(f(\gamma)\) is finite.