For any finite collection $f_i$ of fully irreducible automorphisms of the free group $F_n$ we construct a connected $delta$-hyperbolic $Out(F_n)$-complex in which each $f_i$ has positive translation length.
We prove that $Out(F_N)$ is boundary amenable. This also holds more generally for $Out(G)$, where $G$ is either a toral relatively hyperbolic group or a finitely generated right-angled Artin group. As a consequence, all these groups satisfy the Novikov conjecture on higher signatures.
We give upper bounds, linear in rank, to the topological dimensions of the Gromov boundaries of the intersection graph, the free factor graph and the cyclic splitting graph of a finitely generated free group.
We show that if a f.g. group $G$ has a non-elementary WPD action on a hyperbolic metric space $X$, then the number of $G$-conjugacy classes of $X$-loxodromic elements of $G$ coming from a ball of radius $R$ in the Cayley graph of $G$ grows exponentially in $R$. As an application we prove that for $Nge 3$ the number of distinct $Out(F_N)$-conjugacy classes of fully irreducibles $phi$ from an $R$-ball in the Cayley graph of $Out(F_N)$ with $loglambda(phi)$ on the order of $R$ grows exponentially in $R$.
We discuss a problem posed by Gersten: Is every automatic group which does not contain Z+Z subgroup, hyperbolic? To study this question, we define the notion of n-tracks of length n, which is a structure like Z+Z, and prove its existence in the non-hyperbolic automatic groups with mild conditions. As an application, we show that if a group acts effectively, cellularly, properly discontinuously and cocompactly on a CAT(0) cube complex and its quotient is weakly special, then the above question is answered affirmatively.
In this two part work we prove that for every finitely generated subgroup $Gamma < text{Out}(F_n)$, either $Gamma$ is virtually abelian or $H^2_b(Gamma;mathbb{R})$ contains an embedding of $ell^1$. The method uses actions on hyperbolic spaces, for purposes of constructing quasimorphisms. Here in Part I, after presenting the general theory, we focus on the case of infinite lamination subgroups $Gamma$ - those for which the set of all attracting laminations of all elements of $Gamma$ is infinite - using actions on free splitting complexes of free groups.