Affine actions on real trees (Q5950069)

In this paper, an affine group action on a real tree is defined as a pair \((T,G)\), where \(T\) is a real tree and \(G\) a countable group acting on \(T\) by homeomorphisms in such a way that for each element \(g\) of \(G\), there exists \(\lambda_g>0\) such that for every \((x,y)\in T\times T\), we have \(d(g(x),g(y))=\lambda_gd(x,y)\). The main results of this paper are the following Theorem 1. Let \((G,T)\) be an affine group action such that there exists \(g\in G\), with \(\lambda_g\not=1\), and such that no point of \(T\) is fixed by every element of \(G\). Then, there exists a smallest \(G\)-invariant subtree \(T_0\) of \(T\). Furthermore, if \(T_0\) contains a subtree which is isomorphic to the real line and if there does not exist a global fixed point for the natural action of \(G\) on the completion of \(T_0\), then the commutator subgroup \([G,G]\) contains an element which has no fixed point on \(T_0\) and which acts minimally on \(T_0\). The author then constructs affine actions on real trees out of transversely affine foliations on surfaces. She then generalizes this construction to spaces obtained by gluing surfaces together, and obtains the following Theorem 2. There exist finitely generated groups which admit no free isometric actions, but which admit free affine actions, on real trees.