Skip to main content
Log in

Counting problems in graph products and relatively hyperbolic groups

  • Published:
Israel Journal of Mathematics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We study properties of generic elements of groups of isometries of hyperbolic spaces. Under general combinatorial conditions, we prove that loxodromic elements are generic (i.e., they have full density with respect to counting in balls for the word metric in the Cayley graph) and translation length grows linearly. We provide applications to a large class of relatively hyperbolic groups and graph products, including all right-angled Artin groups and right-angled Coxeter groups.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Y. Antolín and L. Ciobanu, Finite generating sets of relatively hyperbolic groups and applications to geodesic languages, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 368 (2016), 7965–8010.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. G. N. Arzhantseva, C. Cashen and J. Tao, Growth tight actions, Pacific Journal of Mathematics 278 (2015), 1–49.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. T. Aougab, M. G. Durham and S. J. Taylor, Pulling back stability with applications to Out(F) and relatively hyperbolic groups, Journal of the London Mathematical Society 96 (2017), 565–583.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. G. N. Arzhantseva and I. G. Lysenok, Growth tightness for word hyperbolic groups, Mathematische Zeitschrift 241 (2002), 597–611.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. G. Arzhantseva and A. Olshanskii, Generality of the class of groups in which subgroups with a lesser number of generators are free, Matematichesie Zametki 59 (1996), 489–496.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. J. Athreya and A. Prasad, Growth in right-angled groups and monoids, https://arxiv.org/abs/1409.4142.

  7. G. N. Arzhantseva, Generic properties of finitely presented groups and Howson's theorem, Communications in Algebra 26 (1998), 3783–3792.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. J. Behrstock and R. Charney, Divergence and quasimorphisms of right-angled Artin groups, Mathematische Annalen 352 (2012), 339–356.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. M. Bestvina and M. Feighn, Hyperbolicity of the complex of free factors, Advances in Mathematics 256 (2014), 104–155.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. M. R Bridson and A. Haefliger, Metric Spaces of Non-positive Curvature, Grundlehren der Mathematischen Wissenschaften, Vol. 319, Springer, Berlin, 1999.

  11. Y.-G. Baik, J. Howie and S. J. Pride, The identity problem for graph products of groups, Journal of Algebra 162 (1993), 168–177.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. A. V. Borovik, A. G. Myasnikov and V. N. Remeslennikov, Multiplicative measures on free groups, International Journal of Algebra and Computation 13 (2003), 705–731.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. B. H. Bowditch, Tight geodesics in the curve complex, Inventiones Mathematicae 171 (2008), 281–300.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. B. H. Bowditch, Relatively hyperbolic groups, International Journal of Algebra and Computation 22 (2012), Article no. 1250016.

  15. D. Calegari, The ergodic theory of hyperbolic groups, in Geometry and Topology Down Under, Contemporary Mathematics, Vol. 597, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2013, pp. 15–52.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. J. W. Cannon, The combinatorial structure of cocompact discrete hyperbolic groups, Geometriae Dedicata 16 (1984), 123–148.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  17. D. Calegari and K. Fujiwara, Combable functions, quasimorphisms, and the central limit theorem, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems 30 (2010), 1343–1369.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. C. Champetier, Propriétés statistiques des groupes de présentation finie, Advances in Mathematics 116 (1995), 197–262.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. I. M. Chiswell, The growth series of a graph product, Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society 26 (1994), 268–272.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  20. C. Connell and R. Muchnik, Harmonicity of quasiconformal measures and Poisson boundaries of hyperbolic spaces, Geometric and Functional Analysis 17 (2007), 707–769.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  21. D. Calegari and J. Maher, Statistics and compression of scl, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems 35 (2015), 64–110.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  22. R. Charney and H. Sultan, Contracting boundaries of cat (0) spaces, Journal of Topology 8 (2014), 93–117.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. C. Drutu, S. Mozes and M. Sapir, Divergence in lattices in semisimple Lie groups and graphs of groups, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 362 (2010), 2451–2505.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. T. Das, D. Simmons and M. Urbański, Geometry and Dynamics in Gromov Hyperbolic Metric Spaces, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, Vol. 218, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2017.

  25. N. Dunfield and W. P. Thurston, Finite covers of random 3-manifolds, Inventiones Mathematicae 166 (2006), 457–521.

    Google Scholar 

  26. D. Epstein, M. S. Paterson, J. W. Cannon, D. F. Holt, S. V. Levy and W. P. Thurston, Word Processing in Groups, Jones and Bartlett, Boston, MA, 1992.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  27. B. Farb, Relatively hyperbolic groups, Geometric and Functional Analysis 8 (1998), 810–840.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  28. A. Furman, Coarse-geometric perspective on negatively curved manifolds and groups, in Rigidity in Dynamics and Geometry, Springer, Berlin, 2002, pp. 149–166.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  29. É. Ghys and P. de la Harpe (eds.), Sur les groupes hyperboliques d'aprés Mikhael Gromov, Progress in Mathematics, Vol. 83, Birkhäuser, Boston, MA, 1990.

  30. D. Groves and J. F. Manning, Dehn filling in relatively hyperbolic groups, Israel Journal of Mathematics 168 (2008), 317–429.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  31. S. Gouëzel, F. Mathéus and F. Maucourant, Entropy and drift in word hyperbolic groups, Inventiones Mathematicae 211 (2018), 1201–1255.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  32. E. R. Green, Graph products of groups, Ph.D. thesis, University of Leeds, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  33. M. Gromov, Hyperbolic groups, in Essays in Group Theory, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Publications, Vol. 8, Springer, New York, 1987, pp. 75–263.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  34. M Gromov, Asymptotic invariants of infinite groups, in Geometric Group Theory, Vol. 2, London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, Vol. 182, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993, pp. 1–295.

    Google Scholar 

  35. M. Gromov, Random walk in random groups, Geometric and Functional Analysis 13 (2003), 73–146.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  36. D. Gruber, A. Sisto and R. Tessera, Gromov's random monsters do not act nonelementarily on hyperbolic spaces, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, https://doi.org/10.1090/proc/14754.

  37. I. Gekhtman, S. Taylor and G. Tiozzo, Counting loxodromics for hyperbolic actions, Journal of Topology 11 (2018), 379–419.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  38. F. Haglund, Finite index subgroups of graph products, Geometriae Dedicata 135 (2008), 167–209.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  39. M. F. Hagen, Weak hyperbolicity of cube complexes and quasi-arboreal groups, Journal of Topology 7 (2014), 385–418.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  40. S. Hermiller and J. Meier, Algorithms and geometry for graph products of groups, Journal of Algebra 171 (1995), 230–257.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  41. M. Handel and L. Mosher, The free splitting complex of a free group. I: hyperbolicity, Geometry & Topology 17 (2013), 1581–1670.

    Google Scholar 

  42. D. F. Holt, S. Rees and C. E. Röver, Groups, Languages and Automata, London Mathematical Society Student Texts, Vol. 88, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2017.

  43. G. Hruska, Relative hyperbolicity and relative quasiconvexity for countable groups, Algebraic & Geometric Topology 10 (2010), 1807–1856.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  44. T. Hsu and D. T. Wise, On linear and residual properties of graph products, Michigan Mathematical Journal 46 (1999), 251–259.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  45. V. Kaimanovich, Ergodicity of harmonic invariant measures for the geodesic flow on hyperbolic spaces, Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik 455 (1994), 57–104.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  46. I. Kapovich and N. Benakli, Boundaries of hyperbolic groups, in Combinatorial and Geometric Group Theory (New York, 2000/Hoboken, NJ, 2001) Contemporary Mathematics, Vol. 296, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2002, pp. 39–93.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  47. S.-H. Kim and T. Koberda, The geometry of the curve graph of a right-angled Artin group, International Journal of Algebra and Computation 24 (2014), 121–169.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  48. I. Kapovich, A. Myasnikov, P. Schupp and V. Shpilrain, Generic-case complexity, decision problems in group theory, and random walks, Journal of Algebra 264 (2003), 665–694.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  49. R. Kellerhals and G. Perren, On the growth of cocompact hyperbolic Coxeter groups, European Journal of Combinatorics 32 (2011), 1299–1316.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  50. I. Kapovich, I. Rivin, P. Schupp and V. Shpilrain, Densities in free groups and Zn, visible points and test elements, Mathematical Research Letters 14 (2007), 263–284.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  51. I. Kapovich and P. Schupp, Genericity, the Arzhantseva-Ol'shanskii method and the isomorphism problem for one-relator groups, Mathematische Annalen 331 (2005), 1–19.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  52. J. Maher, Random walks on the mapping class group, Duke Mathematical Journal 156 (2011), 429–468.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  53. H. Meinert, The Bieri-Neumann-Strebel invariant for graph products of groups, Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra 103 (1995), 205–210.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  54. J. Meier, When is the graph product of hyperbolic groups hyperbolic?, Geometriae Dedicata 61 (1996), 29–41.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  55. H. A. Masur and Y. N. Minsky, Geometry of the complex of curves. I. Hyperbolicity, Inventiones Mathematicae 138 (1999), 103–149.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  56. P. Mathieu and A. Sisto, Deviation inequalities for random walks, Duke Mathematical Journal 169 (2020), 961–1036.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  57. J. Maher and G. Tiozzo, Random walks on weakly hyperbolic groups, Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik 742 (2018), 187–239.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  58. J. Maher and G. Tiozzo, Random walks, WPD actions, and the Cremona group, https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.10230.

  59. B. H. Neumann, Groups covered by finitely many cosets, Publicationes Mathematicae Debrecen 3 (1954), 227–242.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  60. W. Neumann and M. Shapiro,, Automatic structures, rational growth and geometrically finite hyperbolic groups, Inventiones Mathematicae 120 (1995), 259–287.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  61. A. Yu. Ol'shanskii, Almost every group is hyperbolic, International Journal of Algebra and Computation 2 (1992), 1–17.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  62. D. V. Osin, Relatively hyperbolic groups: intrinsic geometry, algebraic properties, and algorithmic problems, Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society 179 (2006).

  63. D. Osin, Acylindrically hyperbolic groups, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 368 (2016), 851–888.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  64. D. G. Radcliffe, Rigidity of graph products of groups, Algebraic & Geometric Topology 3 (2003), 1079–1088.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  65. I. Rivin, Walks on groups, counting reducible matrices, polynomials, and surface and free group automorphisms, Duke Mathematical Journal 142 (2008), 353–379.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  66. A. Sisto, Contracting elements and random walks, Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik 742 (2018), 79–114.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  67. S. J. Taylor and G. Tiozzo, Random extensions of free groups and surface groups are hyperbolic, International Mathematics Research Notices (2016), 294–310.

    Google Scholar 

  68. B. Wiest, On the genericity of loxodromic actions, Israel Journal of Mathematics 220 (2017), 559–582.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  69. W. Yang, Patterson-Sullivan measures and growth of relatively hyperbolic groups, https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.6326.

  70. W. Yang, Statistically convex-cocompact actions of groups with contracting elements, International Mathematics Research Notices (2019), 7259–7323.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samuel J. Taylor.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gekhtman, I., Taylor, S.J. & Tiozzo, G. Counting problems in graph products and relatively hyperbolic groups. Isr. J. Math. 237, 311–371 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11856-020-2008-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11856-020-2008-x

Navigation