Volume distortion in groups. (Q631331)

Let \(X\) be a geodesic metric space. Given a \((k-1)\)-cycle \(z\) in \(X\), the `filling volume' of \(z\) is the smallest volume of a \(k\)-chain whose boundary is \(z\). Given a subset \(Y\) of \(X\), there are two ways of filling a cycle in \(Y\): either by taking chains in \(Y\) or by taking chains anywhere in \(X\). This can be compared to the fact that there are two ways of defining a length metric on \(Y\): either by taking lengths of paths in \(Y\) or by allowing any path in \(X\). The author is interested in the case where \(X\) and \(Y\) are spaces on which a group \(G\) and a subgroup \(H\) act compactly and properly discontinuously by isometries. A `\(k\)-volume distorsion' function of \(H\) in \(G\) is then defined by measuring the large-scale difference between the volumes of such fillings. The author proves that these functions are quasi-isometry invariants, and thus therefore they are independent of the choice of spaces \(X\) and \(Y\). She provides several bounds in terms of other group properties, such as Dehn functions. She also computes the volume distorsion in a number of examples, including characterizing the \(k\)-volume distorsion of \(\mathbb Z^k\) in \(\mathbb Z^k\rtimes_M\mathbb Z\), where \(M\) is a diagonalizable matrix. She uses this to prove a conjecture of Gersten stating that for \(k\geq 3\), the group \(\mathbb Z^k\) is area undistorted in \(\mathbb Z^k\rtimes_M\mathbb Z\) if and only if \(M\) is of finite order in \(\mathrm{GL}(k,\mathbb Z)\).