Subset currents on free groups.

DOI10.1007/S10711-012-9797-YMaRDI QIDQ376290zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Ilya Kapovich, Tatiana Nagnibeda

Publication date 4 November 2013

Published in Geometriae Dedicata (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1105.5742

automorphisms of free groups Cayley graphs free groups geodesic currents locally finite Borel measures outer space subset currents word-hyperbolic groups

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Free nonabelian groups (20E05) Groups acting on trees (20E08) Automorphism groups of groups (20F28) Geometric group theory (20F65) Entropy and other invariants, isomorphism, classification in ergodic theory (37A35) Symbolic dynamics (37B10) Dynamical systems involving maps of trees and graphs (37E25) Topological methods in group theory (57M07)

Abstract: We introduce and study the space of emph{subset currents} on the free group

F_{N}

. A subset current on

F_{N}

is a positive

F_{N}

-invariant locally finite Borel measure on the space

m a t h f r a k C_{N}

of all closed subsets of

p a r t i a l F_{N}

consisting of at least two points. While ordinary geodesic currents generalize conjugacy classes of nontrivial group elements, a subset current is a measure-theoretic generalization of the conjugacy class of a nontrivial finitely generated subgroup in

F_{N}

, and, more generally, in a word-hyperbolic group. The concept of a subset current is related to the notion of an "invariant random subgroup" with respect to some conjugacy-invariant probability measure on the space of closed subgroups of a topological group. If we fix a free basis

A

of

F_{N}

, a subset current may also be viewed as an

F_{N}

-invariant measure on a "branching" analog of the geodesic flow space for

F_{N}

, whose elements are infinite subtrees (rather than just geodesic lines) of the Cayley graph of

F_{N}

with respect to

A

.

Review text

Let \(F_N\) be the free group on \(N\) generators. The geodesic currents on \(F_N\), denoted \(\text{Curr}(F_N)\), is the set of all positive, \(F_N\)-invariant, locally finite Borel measures defined on the set of two-element subsets of \(\partial F_N\). This set was used in the study of properties of the outer space of \(F_N\). The elements of \(\text{Curr}(F_N)\) are the analogues of the conjugacy classes of elements in \(F_N\). In the paper under review, the authors introduce a generalization of \(\text{Curr}(F_N)\), the subset currents, denoted by \(\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\), to be the set of all positive, \(F_N\)-invariant, locally finite Borel measures on the set \(\mathfrak C_N\) of all subset of \(\partial F_N\) containing at least two elements. The authors generalize the constructions on \(\text{Curr}(F_N)\) to \(\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\) and show that \(\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\) has much richer properties. As a first remark, the elements of \(\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\) are the analogues of conjugacy classes of finitely generated subgroups of \(F_N\). The space \(\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\) admits the weak \(*\)-topology of convergence of integrals of continuous functions with compact support. The space \(\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\) admits an action of \(\text{Out}(F_N)\). For \(\mu\in\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\), \(U\in\mathfrak C_N\), and \(\varphi\in\text{Out}(F_N)\), \(\varphi\mu(U)=\mu(\varphi^{-1}(U))\). That makes \(\text{Curr}(F_N)\) a closed \(\text{Out}(F_N)\)-invariant subset. Let \(H\) be a finitely generated nontrivial subgroup of \(F_N\), the authors define the counting measure of \(H\). Let \(\text{Comm}_{F_N}(H)\) be the virtual normalizer of \(H\). If \(H=\text{Comm}_{F_N}(H)\), define \(\eta_H\in\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\) to be the sum, over the conjugates of \(H\), of the \(\delta\) measures of the limit sets of the conjugates. In general, if \(H_0\) is the virtual normalizer of \(H\) and \(H\) has index \(m\) in \(H_0\), then \(\eta_H=m\eta_{H_0}\). Positive multiples of the measures \(\eta_H\) are called rational subset currents. The set of rational subset currents is a dense subset of \(\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\), generalizing the corresponding result for geodesic currents. Using \(\eta_H\), the authors define a pairing on \(\text{cv}_N\times\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\) with values in \(\mathbb R_{\geq 0}\), where \(\text{cv}_N\) is the outer space of \(F_N\). If \(T\) is a tree, representing an element of \(\text{cv}_N\) and \(\eta_H\) a counting measure, then \(\langle T,\eta_H\rangle=\text{vol}(T_H/H)\), where \(T_H\) is a minimal \(H\)-invariant subtree of \(T\). This covolume pairing generalizes the corresponding pairing on \(\text{Curr}(F_N)\). The only difference is that the new pairing does not extend to the compactification of \(\text{cv}_N\), as it does the old one. For a finitely generated subgroup \(F\) of \(F_N\), define the reduced rank \(\overline{\text{rk}}(F)\) to be \(\text{rk}F-1\), if \(F\) is not trivial and \(0\) if it is trivial. Then the function \(\overline{\text{rk}}\) defined on \(\mathcal S\text{Curr}(F_N)\) by the rule \(\overline{\text{rk}}(\eta_H)=\overline{\text{rk}}(H)\) is an \(\mathbb R_{\geq 0}\)-linear, \(\text{Out}(F_N)\)-invariant functional. Finally, the authors ask a series of questions that lead to further investigating the properties of the subset currents, as for example the extension of the constructions to general word hyperbolic groups.

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