Rigidity phenomena and the statistical properties of group actions on \(\mathrm{CAT}(0)\) cube complexes (Q6926658)

The paper compares the marked length spectra of pairs of proper and cocompact cubical actions of a non-virtually cyclic group on CAT(0) cube complexes.\N\NThe cubulations are assumed to be virtually co-special, to share the same families of convex-cocompact subgroups and to admit a contracting element; these conditions are satisfied for broad classes of groups, including non-elementary cubulable hyperbolic groups, many cubulable relatively hyperbolic groups and numerous right-angled Artin and Coxeter groups.\N\NFor such pairs the Manhattan curve of the combinatorial metrics is analytic and convex and it is a straight line precisely when the marked length spectra are homothetic. This remains valid for invariant metrics with arbitrary edge lengths and a large-deviations theorem with shrinking intervals is established, also for pairs of word metrics on hyperbolic groups.\N\NA key ingredient is the construction of a finite-state automaton that simultaneously encodes the two marked length spectra, in the spirit of the treatment of (bi)combable functions on hyperbolic groups by \textit{D. Calegari} and \textit{K. Fujiwara} [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 30, No. 5, 1343--1369 (2010; Zbl 1217.37025)].