Divergence, thick groups, and short conjugators

zbMATH Open1353.20024arXiv1110.5005MaRDI QIDQ892087FDOQ892087

Authors: Jason A. Behrstock, Cornelia Drutu 

Publication date: 18 November 2015

Published in: Illinois Journal of Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In this paper we explore relationships between divergence and thick groups, and with the same techniques we estimate lengths of shortest conjugators. We produce examples, for every positive integer n, of CAT(0) groups which are thick of order n and with polynomial divergence of order n+1, both these phenomena are new. With respect to thickness, these examples show the non-triviality at each level of the thickness hierarchy defined by Behrstock-Drutu-Mosher. With respect to divergence our examples resolve questions of Gromov and Gersten (the divergence questions were also recently and independently answered by Macura. We also provide general tools for obtaining both lower and upper bounds on the divergence of geodesics and spaces, and we give the definitive lower bound for Morse geodesics in the CAT(0) spaces, generalizing earlier results of Kapovich-Leeb and Bestvina-Fujiwara. In the final section, we turn to the question of bounding the length of the shortest conjugators in several interesting classes of groups. We obtain linear and quadratic bounds on such lengths for classes of groups including 3-manifold groups and mapping class groups (the latter gives new proofs of corresponding results of Masur-Minsky in the pseudo-Anosov case and Tao in the reducible case).

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.5005

Recommendations

• Divergence of finitely presented subgroups of CAT(0) groups
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zbMATH Keywords

geodesicsthickness\(\mathrm{CAT}(0)\) groupsMorse quasi-geodesicspolynomial divergenceshortest conjugators

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Geometric group theory (20F65) Hyperbolic groups and nonpositively curved groups (20F67) Asymptotic properties of groups (20F69) Global geometric and topological methods (à la Gromov); differential geometric analysis on metric spaces (53C23) Topological methods in group theory (57M07) Word problems, other decision problems, connections with logic and automata (group-theoretic aspects) (20F10)

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Cited In (31)

• Hyperbolic models for \(\mathrm{CAT}(0)\) spaces
• Divergence in right-angled Coxeter groups
• A quasi-isometry invariant and thickness bounds for right-angled Coxeter groups
• Quasi-isometries of pairs: Surfaces in graph manifolds
• Tracing cyclic homology pairings under twisting of graded algebras
• Coarse injectivity, hierarchical hyperbolicity and semihyperbolicity
• Combinatorial higher dimensional isoperimetry and divergence
• The relative hyperbolicity and manifold structure of certain right-angled Coxeter groups
• A remark on thickness of free-by-cyclic groups
• Thick groups have trivial Floyd boundary
• Divergence of finitely presented subgroups of CAT(0) groups
• Morse quasiflats. I
• Divergence, undistortion and Hölder continuous cocycle superrigidity for full shifts
• Higher dimensional divergence for mapping class groups
• Infinitely presented graphical small cancellation groups are acylindrically hyperbolic
• On distortion of normal subgroups
• Contracting boundaries of CAT(0) spaces
• Conjugator length in Thompson's groups
• Characterizing divergence and thickness in right‐angled Coxeter groups
• Square percolation and the threshold for quadratic divergence in random right‐angled Coxeter groups
• Relative divergence of finitely generated groups
• Geometry of the conjugacy problem in lamplighter groups
• Divergence of Morse geodesics
• Divergence in lattices in semisimple Lie groups and graphs of groups.
• Conjugator lengths in hierarchically hyperbolic groups
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• Divergence of finitely presented groups
• Negative curvature in graphical small cancellation groups
• Hyperbolic quasi-geodesics in CAT(0) spaces.
• Quasi-isometric rigidity of a class of right-angled Coxeter groups

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