No Arabic abstract
We build an analogue of the Gromov boundary for any proper geodesic metric space, hence for any finitely generated group. More precisely, for any proper geodesic metric space $X$ and any sublinear function $kappa$, we construct a boundary for $X$, denoted $mathcal{partial}_{kappa} X$, that is quasi-isometrically invariant and metrizable. As an application, we show that when $G$ is the mapping class group of a finite type surface, or a relatively hyperbolic group, then with minimal assumptions the Poisson boundary of $G$ can be realized on the $kappa$-Morse boundary of $G$ equipped the word metric associated to any finite generating set.
To every Gromov hyperbolic space X one can associate a space at infinity called the Gromov boundary of X. Gromov showed that quasi-isometries of hyperbolic metric spaces induce homeomorphisms on their boundaries, thus giving rise to a well-defined notion of the boundary of a hyperbolic group. Croke and Kleiner showed that the visual boundary of non-positively curved (CAT(0)) groups is not well-defined, since quasi-isometric CAT(0) spaces can have non-homeomorphic boundaries. For any sublinear function $kappa$, we consider a subset of the visual boundary called the $kappa$-Morse boundary and show that it is QI-invariant and metrizable. This is to say, the $kappa$-Morse boundary of a CAT(0) group is well-defined. In the case of Right-angled Artin groups, it is shown in the Appendix that the Poisson boundary of random walks is naturally identified with the $sqrt{t log t}$--boundary.
We introduce a new type of boundary for proper geodesic spaces, called the Morse boundary, that is constructed with rays that identify the hyperbolic directions in that space. This boundary is a quasi-isometry invariant and thus produces a well-defined boundary for any finitely generated group. In the case of a proper $mathrm{CAT}(0)$ space this boundary is the contracting boundary of Charney and Sultan and in the case of a proper Gromov hyperbolic space this boundary is the Gromov boundary. We prove three results about the Morse boundary of Teichmuller space. First, we show that the Morse boundary of the mapping class group of a surface is homeomorphic to the Morse boundary of the Teichmuller space of that surface. Second, using a result of Leininger and Schleimer, we show that Morse boundaries of Teichmuller space can contain spheres of arbitrarily high dimension. Finally, we show that there is an injective continuous map of the Morse boundary of Teichmuller space into the Thurston compactification of Teichmuller space by projective measured foliations.
This is the second in a two part series of papers concerning Morse quasiflats - higher dimensional analogs of Morse quasigeodesics. Our focus here is on their asymptotic structure. In metric spaces with convex geodesic bicombings, we prove asymptotic conicality, uniqueness of tangent cones at infinity and Euclidean volume growth rigidity for Morse quasiflats. Moreover, we provide some immediate consequences.
Given a compact smooth manifold $M$ with non-empty boundary and a Morse function, a pseudo-gradient Morse-Smale vector field adapted to the boundary allows one to build a Morse complex whose homology is isomorphic to the (absolute or relative to the boundary) homology of $M$ with integer coefficients. Our approach simplifies other methods which have been discussed in more specific geometric settings.
We propose a general framework for studying pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms on translation surfaces. This new approach, among other consequences, allows us to compute the systole of the Teichmueller geodesic flow restricted to the hyperelliptic connected components, settling a question of Farb. We stress that all proofs and computations are performed without the help of a computer. As a byproduct, our methods give a way to describe the bottom of the lengths spectrum of the hyperelliptic components.