Coarse decompositions of boundaries for CAT(0) groups

Publication date: 31 October 2006

Abstract: In this work we introduce a new combinatorial notion of boundary

R e C

of an

o m e g a

-dimensional cubing

C

.

R e C

is defined to be the set of almost-equality classes of ultrafilters on the standard system of halfspaces of

C

, endowed with an order relation reflecting the interaction between the Tychonoff closures of the classes. When

C

arises as the dual of a cubulation -- or discrete system of halfspaces --

H H

of a CAT(0) space

X

(for example, the Niblo-Reeves cubulation of the Davis-Moussong complex of a finite rank Coxeter group), we show how

H H

induces a function

. We develop a notion of uniformness for

H H

, generalizing the parallel walls property enjoyed by Coxeter groups, and show that, if the pair

(X, H H)

admits a geometric action by a group

G

, then the fibers of

h o

form a stratification of

graded by the order structure of

R e C

. We also show how this structure computes the components of the Tits boundary of

X

. Finally, using our result from another paper, that the uniformness of a cubulation as above implies the local finiteness of

C

, we give a condition for the co-compactness of the action of

G

on

C

in terms of

h o

, generalizing a result of Williams, previously known only for Coxeter groups.

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