No Arabic abstract
We show that any filtering family of closed convex subsets of a finite-dimensional CAT(0) space $X$ has a non-empty intersection in the visual bordification $ bar{X} = X cup partial X$. Using this fact, several results known for proper CAT(0) spaces may be extended to finite-dimensional spaces, including the existence of canonical fixed points at infinity for parabolic isometries, algebraic and geometric restrictions on amenable group actions, and geometric superrigidity for non-elementary actions of irreducible uniform lattices in products of locally compact groups.
We show that the class of CAT(0) spaces is closed under suitable conformal changes. In particular, any CAT(0) space admits a large variety of non-trivial deformations.
Let $G$ be a group acting properly and essentially on an irreducible, non-Euclidean finite dimensional CAT(0) cube complex $X$ without fixed points at infinity. We show that for any finite collection of simultaneously inessential subgroups ${H_1, ldots, H_k}$ in $G$, there exists an element $g$ of infinite order such that $forall i$, $langle H_i, grangle cong H_i * langle grangle$. We apply this to show that any group, acting faithfully and geometrically on a non-Euclidean possibly reducible CAT(0) cube complex, has property $P_{naive}$ i.e. given any finite list ${g_1, ldots, g_k}$ of elements from $G$, there exists $g$ of infinite order such that $forall i$, $langle g_i, grangle cong langle g_i rangle *langle grangle$. This applies in particular to the Burger-Moses simple groups that arise as lattices in products of trees. The arguments utilize the action of the group on its Poisson boundary and moreover, allow us to summarise equivalent conditions for the reduced $C^*$-algebra of the group to be simple.
It is known that a cocompact special group $G$ does not contain $mathbb{Z} times mathbb{Z}$ if and only if it is hyperbolic; and it does not contain $mathbb{F}_2 times mathbb{Z}$ if and only if it is toric relatively hyperbolic. Pursuing in this direction, we show that $G$ does not contain $mathbb{F}_2 times mathbb{F}_2$ if and only if it is weakly hyperbolic relative to cyclic subgroups, or cyclically hyperbolic for short. This observation motivates the study of cyclically hyperbolic groups, which we initiate in the class of groups acting geometrically on CAT(0) cube complexes. Given such a group $G$, we first prove a structure theorem: $G$ virtually splits as the direct sum of a free abelian group and an acylindrically hyperbolic cubulable group. Next, we prove a strong Tits alternative: every subgroup $H leq G$ either is virtually abelian or it admits a series $H=H_0 rhd H_1 rhd cdots rhd H_k$ where $H_k$ is acylindrically hyperbolic and where $H_i/H_{i+1}$ is finite or free abelian. As a consequence, $G$ is SQ-universal and it cannot contain subgroups such that products of free groups and virtually simple groups.
We prove that a minimal disc in a CAT(0) space is a local embedding away from a finite set of branch points. On the way we establish several basic properties of minimal surfaces: monotonicity of area densities, density bounds, limit theorems and the existence of tangent maps. As an application, we prove Fary-Milnors theorem in the CAT(0) setting.
We study abstract group actions of locally compact Hausdorff groups on CAT(0) spaces. Under mild assumptions on the action we show that it is continuous or has a global fixed point. This mirrors results by Dudley and Morris-Nickolas for actions on trees. As a consequence we obtain a geometric proof for the fact that any abstract group homomorphism from a locally compact Hausdorff group into a torsion free CAT(0) group is continuous.