We show that low-density random quotients of cubulated hyperbolic groups are again cubulated (and hyperbolic). Ingredients of the proof include cubical small-cancellation theory, the exponential growth of conjugacy classes, and the statement that hyperplane stabilizers grow exponentially more slowly than the ambient cubical group.
We give a conjectural classification of virtually cocompactly cubulated Artin-Tits groups (i.e. having a finite index subgroup acting geometrically on a CAT(0) cube complex), which we prove for all Artin-Tits groups of spherical type, FC type or two-dimensional type. A particular case is that for $n geq 4$, the $n$-strand braid group is not virtually cocompactly cubulated.
Let $G$ be either a non-elementary (word) hyperbolic group or a large group (both in the sense of Gromov). In this paper we describe several approaches for constructing continuous families of periodic quotients of $G$ with various properties. The first three methods work for any non-elementary hyperbolic group, producing three different continua of periodic quotients of $G$. They are based on the results and techniques, that were developed by Ivanov and Olshanskii in order to show that there exists an integer $n$ such that $G/G^n$ is an infinite group of exponent $n$. The fourth approach starts with a large group $G$ and produces a continuum of pairwise non-isomorphic periodic residually finite quotients. Speaking of a particular application, we use each of these methods to give a positive answer to a question of Wiegold from Kourovka Notebook.
Let $C(Gamma)$ be the set of isomorphism classes of the finite groups that are homomorphic images of $Gamma$. We investigate the extent to which $C(Gamma)$ determines $Gamma$ when $Gamma$ is a group of geometric interest. If $Gamma_1$ is a lattice in ${rm{PSL}}(2,R)$ and $Gamma_2$ is a lattice in any connected Lie group, then $C(Gamma_1) = C(Gamma_2)$ implies that $Gamma_1$ is isomorphic to $Gamma_2$. If $F$ is a free group and $Gamma$ is a right-angled Artin group or a residually free group (with one extra condition), then $C(F)=C(Gamma)$ implies that $FcongGamma$. If $Gamma_1<{rm{PSL}}(2,Bbb C)$ and $Gamma_2< G$ are non-uniform arithmetic lattices, where $G$ is a semi-simple Lie group with trivial centre and no compact factors, then $C(Gamma_1)= C(Gamma_2)$ implies that $G cong {rm{PSL}}(2,Bbb C)$ and that $Gamma_2$ belongs to one of finitely many commensurability classes. These results are proved using the theory of profinite groups; we do not exhibit explicit finite quotients that distinguish among the groups in question. But in the special case of two non-isomorphic triangle groups, we give an explicit description of finite quotients that distinguish between them.
We show that Out(G) is residually finite if G is a one-ended group that is hyperbolic relative to virtually polycyclic subgroups. More generally, if G is one-ended and hyperbolic relative to proper residually finite subgroups, the group of outer automorphisms preserving the peripheral structure is residually finite. We also show that Out(G) is virtually p-residually finite for every prime p if G is one-ended and toral relatively hyperbolic, or infinitely-ended and virtually p-residually finite.
We prove that for a one-ended hyperbolic graph $X$, the size of the quotient $X/G$ by a group $G$ acting freely and cocompactly bounds from below the number of simplices in an Eilenberg-MacLane space for $G$. We apply this theorem to show that one-ended hyperbolic cubulated groups (or more generally, one-ended hyperbolic groups with globally stable cylinders `a la Rips-Sela) cannot contain isomorphic finite-index subgroups of different indices.