The flat closing problem for buildings

DOI10.2140/AGT.2014.14.3089MaRDI QIDQ470711zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Corina Ciobotaru

Publication date 13 November 2014

Published in Algebraic \& Geometric Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1402.5554

zbMATH Keywords

Gromov's flat closing problemgroups acting on buildings

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Groups with a (BN)-pair; buildings (20E42) Reflection and Coxeter groups (group-theoretic aspects) (20F55) Discrete subgroups of Lie groups (22E40) Buildings and the geometry of diagrams (51E24) Groups acting on specific manifolds (57S25)

Abstract: Using the notion of a strongly regular hyperbolic automorphism of a locally finite Euclidean building, we prove that any (not necessarily discrete) closed, co-compact subgroup of the type-preserving automorphisms group of a locally finite general non-spherical building contains a compact-by-Z^d subgroup, where d is the dimension of a maximal flat.

Review text

The author proves that every closed, cocompact subgroup of the group of type preserving automorphisms of a locally finite building contains a discrete free abelian group of rank \(d\), where \(d\) is the dimension of a maximal flat in the building. The proof uses the notion of a strongly regular hyperbolic automorphism of a Euclidean building. The main result contains a partial solution of Gromov's flat closing problem. It asks if given a proper \(CAT(0)\)-space and a discrete group \(\Gamma\) which acts properly, isometrically and cocompactly on \(X\), does then \(\Gamma\) contain a copy of \(\mathbb{Z}^d\) if \(X\) contains a \(d\)-flat. Another motivation for the main result was the following result of Prasad and Raghunathan: Every lattice in a semisimple real Lie group of rank \(r\) contains a free abelian group of rank \(r\).

Recommendations

• Flat rank of automorphism groups of buildings
• Geometric characterization of flat groups of automorphisms
• Scale and tidy subgroups for Weyl-transitive automorphism groups of buildings
• Combinatorial and group-theoretic compactifications of buildings
• Open subgroups of the automorphism group of a right-angled building

Cites work

• Buildings with isolated subspaces and relatively hyperbolic Coxeter groups.
• Cartan subgroups and lattices in semi-simple groups
• Dynamics of the action of a \(\text{CAT}(0)\) group on the boundary
• Gelfand pairs and strong transitivity for Euclidean buildings
• Hadamard spaces with isolated flats. (With an appendix written jointly with Mohamad Hindawi).
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1101561 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 194825 (Why is no real title available?)
• Rank-one isometries of buildings and quasi-morphisms of Kac-Moody groups.
• Regular elements in CAT(0) groups.
• Regular elements of semisimple algebraic groups

Cited in

(8)

• Geometric characterization of flat groups of automorphisms
• Scale and tidy subgroups for Weyl-transitive automorphism groups of buildings
• Open subgroups of the automorphism group of a right-angled building
• A prime geodesic theorem for higher rank buildings
• Flat rank of automorphism groups of buildings
• On Geometric Flats in the CAT(0) Realization of Coxeter Groups and Tits Buildings
• Groups with flat-rank greater than \(1\)
• Weak Tits alternative for groups acting geometrically on buildings

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