We prove a rigidity theorem that shows that, under many circumstances, quasi-isometric embeddings of equal rank, higher rank symmetric spaces are close to isometric embeddings. We also produce some surprising examples of quasi-isometric embeddings of
higher rank symmetric spaces. In particular, we produce embeddings of $SL(n,mathbb R)$ into $Sp(2(n-1),mathbb R)$ when no isometric embeddings exist. A key ingredient in our proofs of rigidity results is a direct generalization of the Mostow-Morse Lemma in higher rank. Typically this lemma is replaced by the quasi-flat theorem which says that maximal quasi-flat is within bounded distance of a finite union of flats. We improve this by showing that the quasi-flat is in fact flat off of a subset of codimension $2$.
In this paper, which is the continuation of [EFW2], we complete the proof of the quasi-isometric rigidity of Sol and the lamplighter groups. The results were announced in [EFW1].
We develop a coarse notion of bundle and use it to understand the coarse geometry of group extensions and, more generally, groups acting on proper metric spaces. The results are particularly sharp for groups acting on (locally finite) trees with Abel
ian stabilizers, which we are able to classify completely.
We study a new holographic gauge theory based on probe D4-branes in the background dual to D4-branes on a circle with antiperiodic boundary conditions for fermions. Field theory configurations with baryons correspond to smooth embeddings of the probe
D4-branes with nontrivial winding around an S^4 in the geometry. As a consequence, physics of baryons and nuclei can be studied reliably in this model using the abelian Born-Infeld action. However, surprisingly, we find that the meson spectrum is not discrete. This is related to a curious result that the action governing small fluctuations of the gauge field on the probe brane is the five-dimensional Maxwell action in Minkowski space despite the non-trivial embedding of the probe brane in the curved background geometry.
Let $X$ be a geodesic metric space with $H_1(X)$ uniformly generated. If $X$ has asymptotic dimension one then $X$ is quasi-isometric to an unbounded tree. As a corollary, we show that the asymptotic dimension of the curve graph of a compact, oriente
d surface with genus $g ge 2$ and one boundary component is at least two.
In this paper, we prove that certain spaces are not quasi-isometric to Cayley graphs of finitely generated groups. In particular, we answer a question of Woess and prove a conjecture of Diestel and Leader by showing that certain homogeneous graphs ar
e not quasi-isometric to a Cayley graph of a finitely generated group. This paper is the first in a sequence of papers proving results announced in [EFW0]. In particular, this paper contains many steps in the proofs of quasi-isometric rigidity of lattices in Sol and of the quasi-isometry classification of lamplighter groups. The proofs of those results are completed in [EFW1]. The method used here is based on the idea of coarse differentiation introduced in [EFW0].
In this note, we announce the first results on quasi-isometric rigidity of non-nilpotent polycyclic groups. In particular, we prove that any group quasi-isometric to the three dimenionsional solvable Lie group Sol is virtually a lattice in Sol. We pr
ove analogous results for groups quasi-isometric to $R ltimes R^n$ where the semidirect product is defined by a diagonalizable matrix of determinant one with no eigenvalues on the unit circle. Our approach to these problems is to first classify all self quasi-isometries of the solvable Lie group. Our classification of self quasi-isometries for $R ltimes R^n$ proves a conjecture made by Farb and Mosher in [FM4]. Our techniques for studying quasi-isometries extend to some other classes of groups and spaces. In particular, we characterize groups quasi-isometric to any lamplighter group, answering a question of de la Harpe [dlH]. Also, we prove that certain Diestel-Leader graphs are not quasi-isometric to any finitely generated group, verifying a conjecture of Diestel and Leader from [DL] and answering a question of Woess from [SW],[Wo1]. We also prove that certain non-unimodular, non-hyperbolic solvable Lie groups are not quasi-isometric to finitely generated groups. The results in this paper are contributions to Gromovs program for classifying finitely generated groups up to quasi-isometry [Gr2]. We introduce a new technique for studying quasi-isometries, which we refer to as coarse differentiation.
Let G and F be finitely generated groups with infinitely many ends and let A and B be graph of groups decompositions of F and G such that all edge groups are finite and all vertex groups have at most one end. We show that G and F are quasi-isometric
if and only if every one-ended vertex group of A is quasi-isometric to some one-ended vertex group of B and every one-ended vertex group of B is quasi-isometric to some one-ended vertex group of A. From our proof it also follows that if G is any finitely generated group, of order at least three, the groups: G*G, G*Z,G*G*G and G* Z/2Z are all quasi-isometric.
Let G be a subgroup of finite index in SL(n,Z) for N > 4. Suppose G acts continuously on a manifold M, with fundamental group Z^n, preserving a measure that is positive on open sets. Further assume that the induced G action on H^1(M) is non-trivial.
We show there exists a finite index subgroup G of G and a G equivariant continuous map from M to the n-torus that induces an isomorphism on fundamental groups. We prove more general results providing continuous quotients in cases where the fundamental group of M surjects onto a finitely generated torsion free nilpotent group. We also give some new examples of manifolds with G actions to which the theorems apply.
