Existence, covolumes and infinite generation of lattices for Davis complexes

DOI10.4171/GGD/174MaRDI QIDQ1932136zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Anne Thomas

Publication date 17 January 2013

Published in Groups, Geometry, and Dynamics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0807.3312

zbMATH Keywords

buildingcomplex of groupsCoxeter groupDavis complex

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Groups with a (BN)-pair; buildings (20E42) General properties and structure of locally compact groups (22D05) Groups as automorphisms of other structures (22F50) Topological methods in group theory (57M07)

Abstract: Let $Sigma$ be the Davis complex for a Coxeter system (W,S). The automorphism group G of $Sigma$ is naturally a locally compact group, and a simple combinatorial condition due to Haglund--Paulin determines when G is nondiscrete. The Coxeter group W may be regarded as a uniform lattice in G. We show that many such G also admit a nonuniform lattice $Gamma$, and an infinite family of uniform lattices with covolumes converging to that of $Gamma$. It follows that the set of covolumes of lattices in G is nondiscrete. We also show that the nonuniform lattice $Gamma$ is not finitely generated. Examples of $Sigma$ to which our results apply include buildings and non-buildings, and many complexes of dimension greater than 2. To prove these results, we introduce a new tool, that of "group actions on complexes of groups", and use this to construct our lattices as fundamental groups of complexes of groups with universal cover $Sigma$.

Review text

For a locally compact topological group \(G\) interesting questions are if \(G\) contains a uniform or non-uniform lattice, what the set of covolumes of lattices in \(G\) is and if lattices in \(G\) are finitely generated. These questions are well studied in classical cases, e.g. for reductive groups over local fields. Surprising new phenomena have been discovered for the group \(G\) of automorphisms of a locally finite tree. In the paper under review the author studies these questions for \(G\) the group of automorphisms of the Davis complex \(\Sigma\) of a Coxeter system \((W, S)\). The Davis complex is a locally finite, piecewise Euclidean CAT(0) polyhedral complex and the Coxeter group \(W\) may be regarded as a uniform lattice in \(G\). The main result of the paper exhibits for certain Coxeter systems a non-uniform not finitely generated lattice in \(G\) and an infinite sequence of uniform lattices whose covolumes converge to the covolume of a non-uniform lattice. The author describes several infinite families of Davis complexes to which this result applies. In dimension two these include certain Fuchsian buildings and highly symmetric Platonic polygonal complexes. The main result also applies to many higher dimensional \(\Sigma\), including both buildings and complexes which are not buildings. The method of proof of the main result is to construct the lattices as fundamental groups of complexes of groups with universal cover \(\Sigma\).

Recommendations

• On the set of covolumes of lattices for Fuchsian buildings.
• Coxeter-Davis lattices and commensurators
• Infinite generation of non-cocompact lattices on right-angled buildings.
• Lattices in hyperbolic buildings
• Covolumes of uniform lattices acting on polyhedral complexes

Cites work

• Automorphism groups of tree actions and of graphs of groups
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3598578 (Why is no real title available?)
• Polygonal complexes and combinatorial group theory
• Tree lattices. With appendices by H. Bass, L. Carbone, A. Lubotzky, G. Rosenberg, and J. Tits.

Cited in

(7)

• Coxeter-Davis lattices and commensurators
• Coxeter systems with two-dimensional Davis-Vinberg complexes.
• Infinite generation of non-cocompact lattices on right-angled buildings.
• Covolumes of uniform lattices acting on polyhedral complexes
• Topological rigidity fails for quotients of the Davis complex
• Bounding the covolume of lattices in products
• On the set of covolumes of lattices for Fuchsian buildings.

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