Characterising acylindrical hyperbolicity via permutation actions (Q7008685)

This paper gives a new characterization of acylindrical hyperbolicity of finitely generated groups in terms of group actions on sets, without assuming any geometric structure. The authors introduce the notion of axial elements for arbitrary actions, inspired by the notion of WPD elements in hyperbolic geometry, and prove that the existence of such an element characterizes when a group is acylindrically hyperbolic.\N\NMore precisely, an element \(g \in G\) is called axial for an action of \(G\) on a set \(X\) if there exists a fundamental domain \(D \subset X\) such that two axioms hold: (1) only finitely many tame elements \(t \in G\) satisfy \(tD \cap D \ne \emptyset\), and (2) for every \(h \in G\), any wild element \(w\) such that \(hwD\) is unbounded satisfies a specific covering condition. This abstract setup allows a generalization of the geometric notion of loxodromicity.\N\NThe main result (Theorem 1.1) states that for a finitely generated non-virtually cyclic group \(G\), the following are equivalent: (1) \(g\) is a generalised loxodromic element; (2) \(g\) is axial for some action of \(G\); (3) \(g\) is axial for the regular action on \(G\); (4) \(g\) is axial for the action on a full-measure subset of the Furstenberg-Poisson boundary. It follows that \(G\) is acylindrically hyperbolic if and only if it contains an axial element.\N\NThe proof uses the construction by \textit{M. Bestvina} et al. [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 122, 1--64 (2015; Zbl 1372.20029)] of acylindrical actions on quasi-trees, reformulated in terms of projection data based on the wild/tame dichotomy. Section 2 constructs projections satisfying the Bestvina-Bromberg-Fujiwara axioms using interval and cycle decompositions. Section 3 shows that generalised loxodromics are axial for natural actions.\N\NApplications include a dynamical characterization of acylindrical hyperbolicity using permutation actions, and insights into the role of the Furstenberg-Poisson boundary in hyperbolic-like behavior.