Virtual specialness of certain graphs of special cube complexes

DOI10.1007/S00208-022-02527-0MaRDI QIDQ6144248zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 29 January 2024

Published in Mathematische Annalen (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.06799

cube complexes graphs of groups hyperbolic groups virtual specialness

Geometric group theory (20F65) Global geometric and topological methods (à la Gromov); differential geometric analysis on metric spaces (53C23)

Abstract: We investigate the virtual specialness of a compact cube complex

X

that splits as a graph of nonpositively curved cube complexes. We prove virtual specialness of

X

when each vertex space of

X

has word-hyperbolic

p i_{1}

and

p i_{1} X

has ``finite stature relative to its edge groups. The results generalize the motivating case when tree $i m e s$ tree lattices are virtual products.

Review text

Suppose $\Sigma$ is a surface of finite type with infinite fundamental group, and draw a family of (essential) disjoint simple closed curves on the surface. Lifting to the universal cover $\tilde \Sigma$, we see in the preimage of these curves a pattern of disjoint lines, each of which divides $\tilde \Sigma$ into two pieces. We may form a graph with vertices the complementary components of these lines, connecting two vertices by an edge when their closures intersect in one of our lines. This graph turns out to be a tree, and $G = \pi_1(\Sigma)$ acts on this tree, which we say is a \textit{splitting} of $G$. If the curves are allowed to (self-)intersect, the lifted pattern of lines will have intersections and this ``dual graph is no longer a tree, even though the lines, being codimension one in $\tilde\Sigma$, separate it into two pieces. It was \textit{M. Sageev} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (3) 71, No. 3, 585--617 (1995; Zbl 0861.20041)] who showed that the proper ``dual object is a \textit{CAT(0) cube complex,} and that one may be constructed any time one has a ``codimension-one subgroup of a group $G$. CAT(0) cube complexes and splittings of groups lie at the heart of geometric group theory. Particularly of interest when one has a nonpositively curved cube complex (that is, the quotient, or ``downstairs object analogous to $\Sigma$ rather than to $\tilde\Sigma$) is the behavior of its \textit{hyperplanes.} These hyperplanes may exhibit certain pathologies; when they are absent, one says that one has a \textit{special cube complex.} Fundamental groups of (virtually) compact special cube complexes are highly constrained (for example, they are linear over $\mathbb{Z}$), and yet a rich and varied family (for example, containing the fundamental groups of all finite-volume hyperbolic $3$-manifolds). Verifying that some finite cover of a given nonpositively curved cube complex is special thus becomes a thorny and very interesting problem. In this paper, the authors state a conjectural characterization of virtual specialness: a compact nonpositively curved cube complex $X$ is virtually special if and only if $\pi_1(X)$ has \textit{finite stature} (a term introduced by the authors in a previous paper) with respect to the collection of all hyperplane stabilizers in the action of $\pi_1(X)$ on $\tilde X$. They verify the ``only if direction of this conjecture, and provide evidence in its favor by studying splittings of groups as graphs of nonpositively curved cubical groups. The notion of \textit{finite stature} is related (as the name implies) to the notion of \textit{finite height}, see [\textit{R. Gitik} et al., Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 350, No. 1, 321--329 (1998; Zbl 0897.20030)], but is weaker. Here is the main theorem: suppose $X$ is a compact nonpositively curved cube complex which splits as a graph of nonpositively curved cube complexes. If the fundamental group of each vertex space is word-hyperbolic (notice that $\pi_1(X)$ emphatically need not be) and $\pi_1(X)$ has finite stature with respect to the collection of these vertex groups, then $X$ is virtually special. (This is in fact an ``if and only if by the ``only if direction of the main conjecture.)

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