Weak amenability of free products of hyperbolic and amenable groups

We show that if G is an amenable group and H is a hyperbolic group, then the free product $G\ast H$ is weakly amenable. A key ingredient in the proof is the fact that $G\ast H$ is orbit equivalent to $\mathbb{Z}\ast H$ .

Cannon–Thurston maps for $${{\,\mathrm{CAT}\,}}(0)$$ groups with isolated flats

Mahan Mitra (Mj) proved Cannon–Thurston maps exist for normal hyperbolic subgroups of a hyperbolic group (Mitra in Topology, 37(3):527–538, 1998). We prove that Cannon–Thurston maps do not exist for infinite normal hyperbolic subgroups of non-hyperbolic $${{\,\mathrm{CAT}\,}}(0)$$ CAT ( 0 ) groups with isolated flats with respect to the visual boundaries. We also show Cannon–Thurston maps do not exist for infinite infinite-index normal $${{\,\mathrm{CAT}\,}}(0)$$ CAT ( 0 ) subgroups with isolated flats in non-hyperbolic $${{\,\mathrm{CAT}\,}}(0)$$ CAT ( 0 ) groups with isolated flats. We obtain a structure theorem for the normal subgroups in these settings and show that outer automorphism groups of hyperbolic groups have no purely atoroidal $$\mathbb {Z}^2$$ Z 2 subgroups.

The relative exponential growth rate of subgroups of acylindrically hyperbolic groups

We introduce a new invariant of finitely generated groups, the ambiguity function, and we prove that every finitely generated acylindrically hyperbolic group has a linearly bounded ambiguity function. We use this result to prove that the relative exponential growth rate lim n → ∞ ⁡ | B H X ⁢ ( n ) | n \lim_{n\to\infty}\sqrt[n]{\lvert\vphantom{1_{1}}{B^{X}_{H}(n)}\rvert} of a subgroup 𝐻 of a finitely generated acylindrically hyperbolic group 𝐺 exists with respect to every finite generating set 𝑋 of 𝐺 if 𝐻 contains a loxodromic element of 𝐺. Further, we prove that the relative exponential growth rate of every finitely generated subgroup 𝐻 of a right-angled Artin group A Γ A_{\Gamma} exists with respect to every finite generating set of A Γ A_{\Gamma} .

Strongly aperiodic subshifts of finite type on hyperbolic groups

We prove that a hyperbolic group admits a strongly aperiodic subshift of finite type if and only if it has at most one end.

Towers and elementary embeddings in toral relatively hyperbolic groups

In a remarkable series of papers, Zlil Sela classified the first-order theories of free groups and torsion-free hyperbolic groups using geometric structures he called towers. It was later proved by Chloé Perin that if [Formula: see text] is an elementarily embedded subgroup (or elementary submodel) of a torsion-free hyperbolic group [Formula: see text], then [Formula: see text] is a tower over [Formula: see text]. We prove a generalization of Perin’s result to toral relatively hyperbolic groups using JSJ and shortening techniques.

Topological flows for hyperbolic groups

Weshow that for every non-elementary hyperbolic group the Bowen–Margulis current associated with a strongly hyperbolic metric forms a unique group-invariant Radon measure class of maximal Hausdorff dimension on the boundary square. Applications include a characterization of roughly similar hyperbolic metrics via mean distortion.

Formal language convexity in left-orderable groups

We propose a criterion for preserving the regularity of a formal language representation when passing from groups to subgroups. We use this criterion to show that the regularity of a positive cone language in a left-orderable group passes to its finite index subgroups, and to show that there exists no left order on a finitely generated acylindrically hyperbolic group such that the corresponding positive cone is represented by a quasi-geodesic regular language. We also answer one of Navas’ questions by giving an example of an infinite family of groups which admit a positive cone that is generated by exactly [Formula: see text] generators, for every [Formula: see text]. As a special case of our construction, we obtain a finitely generated positive cone for [Formula: see text].

On growth of double cosets in hyperbolic groups

Let [Formula: see text] be a hyperbolic group, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] be subgroups of [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] be the growth function of the double cosets [Formula: see text]. We prove that the behavior of [Formula: see text] splits into two different cases. If [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are not quasiconvex, we obtain that every growth function of a finitely presented group can appear as [Formula: see text]. We can even take [Formula: see text]. In contrast, for quasiconvex subgroups [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] of infinite index, [Formula: see text] is exponential. Moreover, there exists a constant [Formula: see text], such that [Formula: see text] for all big enough [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the growth function of the group [Formula: see text]. So, we have a clear dichotomy between the quasiconvex and non-quasiconvex case.

Hyperbolic Groups That Are Not Commensurably Co-Hopfian

Sela proved that every torsion-free one-ended hyperbolic group is co-Hopfian. We prove that there exist torsion-free one-ended hyperbolic groups that are not commensurably co-Hopfian. In particular, we show that the fundamental group of every simple surface amalgam is not commensurably co-Hopfian.

Relative cubulations and groups with a 2-sphere boundary

We introduce a new kind of action of a relatively hyperbolic group on a $\text{CAT}(0)$ cube complex, called a relatively geometric action. We provide an application to characterize finite-volume Kleinian groups in terms of actions on cube complexes, analogous to the results of Markovic and Haïssinsky in the closed case.