Cross ratios and cubulations of hyperbolic groups

Many geometric structures associated to surface groups can be encoded in terms of invariant cross ratios on their circle at infinity; examples include points of Teichmüller space, Hitchin representations and geodesic currents. We add to this picture by studying cocompact cubulations of arbitrary Gromov hyperbolic groups G. Under weak assumptions, we show that the space of cubulations of G naturally injects into the space of G-invariant cross ratios on the Gromov boundary $$\partial _{\infty }G$$ ∂ ∞ G . A consequence of our results is that essential, hyperplane-essential, cocompact cubulations of hyperbolic groups are length-spectrum rigid, i.e. they are fully determined by their length function. This is the optimal length-spectrum rigidity result for cubulations of hyperbolic groups, as we demonstrate with some examples. In the hyperbolic setting, this constitutes a strong improvement on our previous work [4]. Along the way, we describe the relationship between the Roller boundary of a $$\mathrm{CAT(0)}$$ CAT ( 0 ) cube complex, its Gromov boundary and—in the non-hyperbolic case—the contracting boundary of Charney and Sultan. All our results hold for cube complexes with variable edge lengths.

Generalized John Gromov hyperbolic domains and extensions of maps

Let $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^n$ be a Gromov hyperbolic, $\varphi$-length John domain. We show that there is a uniformly continuous identification between the inner boundary of $\Omega$ and the Gromov boundary endowed with a visual metric, By using this result, we prove the boundary continuity not only for quasiconformal homeomorphisms, but also for more generally rough quasi-isometries between the domains equipped with the quasihyperbolic metrics.

Conformal dimension of hyperbolic groups that split over elementary subgroups

We study the (Ahlfors regular) conformal dimension of the boundary at infinity of Gromov hyperbolic groups which split over elementary subgroups. If such a group is not virtually free, we show that the conformal dimension is equal to the maximal value of the conformal dimension of the vertex groups, or 1, whichever is greater, and we characterise when the conformal dimension is attained. As a consequence, we are able to characterise which Gromov hyperbolic groups (without 2-torsion) have conformal dimension 1, answering a question of Bonk and Kleiner.

Hyperbolic distance versus quasihyperbolic distance in plane domains

We examine Euclidean plane domains with their hyperbolic or quasihyperbolic distance. We prove that the associated metric spaces are quasisymmetrically equivalent if and only if they are bi-Lipschitz equivalent. On the other hand, for Gromov hyperbolic domains, the two corresponding Gromov boundaries are always quasisymmetrically equivalent. Surprisingly, for any finitely connected hyperbolic domain, these two metric spaces are always quasiisometrically equivalent. We construct examples where the spaces are not quasiisometrically equivalent.

Quotients of the Gordian and H(2)-Gordian graphs

The Gordian graph and H(2)-Gordian graphs of knots are abstract graphs whose vertex sets represent isotopy classes of unoriented knots, and whose edge sets record whether pairs of knots are related by crossing changes or H(2)-moves, respectively. We investigate quotients of these graphs under equivalence relations defined by several knot invariants including the determinant, the span of the Jones polynomial, and an invariant related to tricolorability. We show, in all cases considered, that the quotient graphs are Gromov hyperbolic. We then prove a collection of results about the graph isomorphism type of the quotient graphs. In particular, we find that the H(2)-Gordian graph of links modulo the relation induced by the span of the Jones polynomial is isomorphic with the complete graph on infinitely many vertices.

A note on isoperimetric inequalities of Gromov hyperbolic manifolds and graphs

We study in this paper the relationship of isoperimetric inequality and hyperbolicity for graphs and Riemannian manifolds. We obtain a characterization of graphs and Riemannian manifolds (with bounded local geometry) satisfying the (Cheeger) isoperimetric inequality, in terms of their Gromov boundary, improving similar results from a previous work. In particular, we prove that having a pole is a necessary condition to have isoperimetric inequality and, therefore, it can be removed as hypothesis.