Finite index rigidity of hyperbolic groups

We prove that the topological complexity of a finite index subgroup of a hyperbolic group is linear in its index. This follows from a more general result relating the size of the quotient of a free cocompact action of hyperbolic group on a graph to the minimal number of cells in a simplicial classifying space for the group. As a corollary we prove that any two isomorphic finite-index subgroups of a non-elementary hyperbolic group have the same index.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure

Uniform symplicity of groups with proximal action

We prove that groups acting boundedly and order-primitively on linear orders or acting extremly proximality on a Cantor set (the class including various Higman-Thomson groups and Neretin groups of almost automorphisms of regular trees, also called groups of spheromorphisms) are uniformly simple. Explicit bounds are provided.Comment: 23 pages, appendix by Nir Lazarovich, corrected versio

CAT(0) Polygonal Complexes are 2-Median

Median spaces are spaces in which for every three points the three intervals between them intersect at a single point. It is well known that rank-1 affine buildings are median spaces, but by a result of Haettel, higher rank buildings are not even coarse median. We define the notion of ``2-median space'', which roughly says that for every four points the minimal discs filling the four geodesic triangles they span intersect in a point or a geodesic segment. We show that CAT(0) Euclidean polygonal complexes, and in particular rank-2 affine buildings, are 2-median. In the appendix, we recover a special case of a result of Stadler of a Fary-Milnor type theorem and show in elementary tools that a minimal disc filling a geodesic triangle is injective.Comment: 42 pages, 30 figures; final version - published in Geometriae Dedicat