arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jingyin Huang.
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.
Let $G_Γ\curvearrowright X$ and $G_Λ\curvearrowright Y$ be two free measure-preserving actions of one-ended right-angled Artin groups with trivial center on standard probability spaces. Assume they are irreducible, i.e. every element from a standard generating set acts ergodically. We prove that if the two actions are stably orbit equivalent (or merely stably $W^*$-equivalent), then they are automatically conjugate through a group isomorphism between $G_Γ$ and $G_Λ$. Through work of Monod and Shalom, we derive a superrigidity statement: if the action $G_Γ\curvearrowright X$ is stably orbit equivalent (or merely stably $W^*$-equivalent) to a free, measure-preserving, mildly mixing action of a countable group, then the two actions are virtually conjugate. We also use works of Popa and Ioana-Popa-Vaes to establish the $W^*$-superrigidity of Bernoulli actions of all ICC groups having a finite generating set made of infinite-order elements where two consecutive elements commute, and one has a nonamenable centralizer: these include one-ended non-abelian right-angled Artin groups, but also many other Artin groups and most mapping class groups of finite-type surfaces.
We prove that if two transvection-free right-angled Artin groups are measure equivalent, then they have isomorphic extension graphs. As a consequence, two right-angled Artin groups with finite outer automorphism groups are measure equivalent if and only if they are isomorphic. This matches the quasi-isometry classification. However, in contrast with the quasi-isometry question, we observe that no right-angled Artin group is superrigid for measure equivalence in the strongest possible sense, for two reasons. First, a right-angled Artin group $G$ is always measure equivalent to any graph product of infinite countable amenable groups over the same defining graph. Second, when $G$ is nonabelian, the automorphism group of the universal cover of the Salvetti complex of $G$ always contains infinitely generated (non-uniform) lattices.
Proper proximality of a countable group is a notion that was introduced by Boutonnet, Ioana and Peterson as a tool to study rigidity properties of certain von Neumann algebras associated to groups or ergodic group actions. In the present paper, we establish the proper proximality of many groups acting on nonpositively curved spaces. First, these include many countable groups $G$ acting properly nonelementarily by isometries on a proper $\mathrm{CAT}(0)$ space $X$. More precisely, proper proximality holds in the presence of rank one isometries or when $X$ is a locally thick affine building with a minimal $G$-action. As a consequence of Rank Rigidity, we derive the proper proximality of all countable nonelementary $\mathrm{CAT}(0)$ cubical groups, and of all countable groups acting properly cocompactly nonelementarily by isometries on either a Hadamard manifold with no Euclidean factor, or on a $2$-dimensional piecewise Euclidean $\mathrm{CAT}(0)$ simplicial complex. Second, we establish the proper proximality of many hierarchically hyperbolic groups. These include the mapping class groups of connected orientable finite-type boundaryless surfaces (apart from a few low-complexity cases), thus answering a question raised by Boutonnet, Ioana and Peterson. We also prove the proper proximality of all subgroups acting nonelementarily on the curve graph. In view of work of Boutonnet, Ioana and Peterson, our results have applications to structural and rigidity results for von Neumann algebras associated to all the above groups and their ergodic actions.
This is the first in a series of papers concerned with Morse quasiflats, which are a generalization of Morse quasigeodesics to arbitrary dimension. In this paper we introduce a number of alternative definitions, and under appropriate assumptions on the ambient space we show that they are equivalent and quasi-isometry invariant; we also give a variety of examples. The second paper proves that Morse quasiflats are asymptotically conical and have canonically defined Tits boundaries; it also gives some first applications.
We study $2$-dimensional Artin groups of hyperbolic type from the viewpoint of measure equivalence, and establish rigidity theorems. We first prove that they are boundary amenable. So is every group acting discretely by simplicial isometries on a connected piecewise hyperbolic $\mathrm{CAT}(-1)$ simplicial complex with countably many simplices in finitely many isometry types, assuming that vertex stabilizers are boundary amenable. Consequently, they satisfy the Novikov conjecture. We then show that measure equivalent $2$-dimensional Artin groups of hyperbolic type have isomorphic fixed set graphs -- an analogue of the curve graph, introduced by Crisp. This yields classification results. We obtain strong rigidity theorems. Let $G=G_Γ$ be a $2$-dimensional Artin group of hyperbolic type, with $\mathrm{Out}(G)$ finite. When the automorphism groups of the fixed set graph and of the Cayley complex $\mathfrak{C}$ coincide, every countable group $H$ which is measure equivalent to $G$, is commensurable to a lattice in $\mathrm{Aut}(\mathfrak{C})$. This happens whenever $Γ$ is triangle-free with all labels at least $3$ -- unless $G$ is commensurable to the direct sum of $\mathbb{Z}$ and a free group. When $Γ$ satisfies an additional star-rigidity condition, then $\mathrm{Aut}(\mathfrak{C})$ is countable, and $H$ is almost isomorphic to $G$. This has applications to orbit equivalence rigidity, and rigidity results for von Neumann algebras associated to ergodic actions of Artin groups. We also derive a rigidity statement regarding possible lattice envelopes of certain Artin groups, and a cocycle superrigidity theorem from higher-rank lattices to $2$-dimensional Artin groups of hyperbolic type.
A graph is Helly if every family of pairwise intersecting combinatorial balls has a nonempty intersection. We show that weak Garside groups of finite type and FC-type Artin groups are Helly, that is, they act geometrically on Helly graphs. In particular, such groups act geometrically on spaces with convex geodesic bicombing, equipping them with a nonpositive-curvature-like structure. That structure has many properties of a CAT(0) structure and, additionally, it has a combinatorial flavor implying biautomaticity. As immediate consequences we obtain new results for FC-type Artin groups (in particular braid groups and spherical Artin groups) and weak Garside groups, including e.g.\ fundamental groups of the complements of complexified finite simplicial arrangements of hyperplanes, braid groups of well-generated complex reflection groups, and one-relator groups with non-trivial center. Among the results are: biautomaticity, existence of EZ and Tits boundaries, the Farrell-Jones conjecture, the coarse Baum-Connes conjecture, and a description of higher order homological and homotopical Dehn functions. As a mean of proving the Helly property we introduce and use the notion of a (generalized) cell Helly complex.
The complement of an arrangement of hyperplanes in $\mathbb C^n$ has a natural bordification to a manifold with corners formed by removing (or "blowing up") tubular neighborhoods of the hyperplanes and certain of their intersections. When the arrangement is the complexification of a real simplicial arrangement, the bordification closely resembles Harvey's bordification of moduli space. We prove that the faces of the universal cover of the bordification are parameterized by the simplices of a simplicial complex $\mathcal{C}$, the vertices of which are the irreducible "parabolic subgroups" of the fundamental group of the arrangement complement. So, the complex $\mathcal{C}$ plays a similar role for an arrangement complement as the curve complex does for moduli space. Also, in analogy with curve complexes and with spherical buildings, we prove that $\mathcal{C}$ has the homotopy type of a wedge of spheres.
We describe the structure of quasiflats in two-dimensio\-nal Artin groups. We rely on the notion of metric systolicity developed in our previous work. Using this weak form of non-positive curvature and analyzing in details the combinatorics of tilings of the plane we describe precisely the building blocks for quasiflats in all two-dimensional Artin groups -- atomic sectors. This allows us to provide useful quasi-isometry invariants for such groups -- completions of atomic sectors, stable lines, and the intersection pattern of certain abelian subgroups. These are described combinatorially, in terms of the structure of the graph defining an Artin group. As an important tool, we introduce an analogue of the curve complex in the context of two-dimensional Artin groups -- the intersection graph. We show quasi-isometric invariance of the intersection graph under natural assumptions. As immediate consequences we present a number of results concerning quasi-isometric rigidity for the subclass of CLTTF Artin groups. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for such groups to be strongly rigid (self quasi-isometries are close to automorphisms), we describe quasi-isometry groups, we indicate when quasi-isometries imply isomorphisms for such groups. In particular, there exist many strongly rigid large-type Artin groups. In contrast, none of the right-angled Artin groups are strongly rigid by a previous work of Bestvina, Kleiner and Sageev.
We prove that Artin groups from a class containing all large-type Artin groups are systolic. This provides a concise yet precise description of their geometry. Immediate consequences are new results concerning large-type Artin groups: biautomaticity; existence of $EZ$-boundaries; the Novikov conjecture; descriptions of finitely presented subgroups, of virtually solvable subgroups, and of centralizers for infinite order elements; the Burghelea conjecture; existence of low-dimensional models for classifying spaces for some families of subgroups.
We investigate the virtual specialness of a compact cube complex $X$ that splits as a graph of nonpositively curved cube complexes. We prove virtual specialness of $X$ when each vertex space of $X$ has word-hyperbolic $π_1$ and $π_1X$ has ``finite stature'' relative to its edge groups. The results generalize the motivating case when tree $\times$ tree lattices are virtual products.
We introduce the notion of finite stature of a family $\{H_i\}$ of subgroups of a group $G$. We investigate the separability of subgroups of a group $G$ that splits as a graph of hyperbolic special groups with quasiconvex edge groups. We prove that when the vertex groups of $G$ have finite stature, then quasiconvex subgroups of the vertex groups of $G$ are separable in $G$. We present some partial results in a relatively hyperbolic framework.
We introduce the notion of metrically systolic simplicial complexes. We study geometric and large-scale properties of such complexes and of groups acting on them geometrically. We show that all two-dimensional Artin groups act geometrically on metrically systolic complexes. As direct corollaries we obtain new results on two-dimensional Artin groups and all their finitely presented subgroups: we prove that the Conjugacy Problem is solvable, and that the Dehn function is quadratic. We also show several large-scale features of finitely presented subgroups of two-dimensional Artin groups, lying background for further studies concerning their quasi-isometric rigidity.
We study the structure of the commensurator of a virtually abelian subgroup $H$ in $G$, where $G$ acts properly on a $\mathrm{CAT}(0)$ space $X$. When $X$ is a Hadamard manifold and $H$ is semisimple, we show that the commensurator of $H$ coincides with the normalizer of a finite index subgroup of $H$. When $X$ is a $\mathrm{CAT}(0)$ cube complex or a thick Euclidean building and the action of $G$ is cellular, we show that the commensurator of $H$ is an ascending union of normalizers of finite index subgroups of $H$. We explore several special cases where the results can be strengthened and we discuss a few examples showing the necessity of various assumptions. Finally, we present some applications to the constructions of classifying spaces with virtually abelian stabilizers.
We study the problem of extending partial isomorphisms for hypertournaments, which are relational structures generalizing tournaments. This is a generalized version of an old question of Herwig and Lascar. We show that the generalized problem has a negative answer, and we provide a positive answer in a special case. As a corollary, we show that the extension property holds for tournaments in case the partial isomorphisms have pairwise disjoint ranges and pairwise disjoint domains.
We show that if a hyperbolic group acts geometrically on a CAT(0) cube complex, then the induced boundary action is hyperfinite. This means that for a cubulated hyperbolic group the natural action on its Gromov boundary is hyperfinite, which generalizes an old result of Dougherty, Jackson and Kechris for the free group case.
Under the assumption that a defining graph of a Coxeter group admits only twists in $\mathbb{Z}_2$ and is of type FC, we prove Mühlherr's Twist Conjecture.
Let $G$ and $G'$ be two right-angled Artin groups (RAAG). We show they are quasi-isometric iff they are isomorphic, under the assumption that $Out(G)$ and $Out(G')$ are finite. If only $Out(G)$ is finite, then $G'$ is quasi-isometric $G$ iff $G'$ is isomorphic to a finite index subgroup of $G$. In this case, we give an algorithm to determine whether $G$ and $G'$ are quasi-isometric by looking at their defining graphs.