Property (QT) for \(3\)-manifold groups (Q7001329)

The paper under review investigates property (QT) for fundamental groups of compact, orientable 3-manifolds. A finitely generated group has property (QT) if it admits a proper isometric action on a finite product of quasitrees such that the orbit map is a quasi-isometric embedding. This concept, introduced by \textit{M. Bestvina} et al. [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 122, 1--64 (2015; Zbl 1372.20029)], strengthens coarse median structures and implies important geometric properties such as undistortedness and finite asymptotic dimension.\N\NThe main result (Theorem 1.1) establishes that \(\pi_1(M)\) has property (QT) if and only if no summand in the sphere-disc decomposition of \(M\) supports Sol or Nil geometry. This provides a complete characterization for compact 3-manifolds and refines previous partial results.\N\NA central technical contribution is the extension of projection complex techniques to Croke-Kleiner admissible (CKA) groups. The authors prove that such groups have property (QT), provided that all vertex group quotients of the associated Bass-Serre decomposition satisfy (QT) (Theorem 1.3). This generalizes the case of graph manifold groups considered by \textit{H. T. Nguyen} and \textit{W. Yang} [Mich. Math. J. 73, No. 5, 971--1019 (2023; Zbl 1530.20132)] and builds upon the framework of hierarchical hyperbolicity.\N\NAnother major result concerns relatively hyperbolic groups: Theorem 1.5 proves that if a group \(G\) is hyperbolic relative to subgroups \(H_i\) and each \(H_i\) has property (QT), then \(G\) itself satisfies (QT), assuming residual finiteness and the separability of peripheral subgroups.\N\NThe authors apply these structural results to show that all mixed \(3\)-manifold groups whose geometric decomposition avoids Sol geometry admit property (QT) (Theorem 1.2). Further applications include an algebraic characterization of virtually abelian groups among solvable and subexponential growth groups with property (QT) (Theorem 1.8), as well as a new spectral obstruction result for non-uniform lattices in \(\mathrm{SU}(n,1)\) and \(\mathrm{Sp}(n,1)\) (Corollary 1.9).