A strong Schottky lemma for nonpositively curved singular spaces (Q698130)

The authors give a criterion for pairs of isometries of a nonpositively curved metric space in the sense of Alexandrov to generate a free group. The criterion does not involve taking powers of the two elements, as in the classical Schottky lemma. This criterion holds for complete nonpositively curved (i.e. CAT(0)) metric spaces in which there is no pair of geodesics which issue from the same point, have zero angle at that point, yet are disjoint except at that point. The condition is satisfied for example by any piecewise Euclidean CAT(0) simplicial complex with finitely many isometry types of cells. In the case of Euclidean (thick) buildings, the criterion takes a particularly simple form. The authors say that the original motivation for the criterion was to prove that the four dimensional Burau representation is faithful, which is still an open question.