Rank rigidity for CAT(0) cube complexes

We prove that any group acting essentially without a fixed point at infinity on an irreducible finite-dimensional CAT(0) cube complex contains a rank one isometry. This implies that the Rank Rigidity Conjecture holds for CAT(0) cube complexes. We derive a number of other consequences for CAT(0) cube complexes, including a purely geometric proof of the Tits Alternative, an existence result for regular elements in (possibly non-uniform) lattices acting on cube complexes, and a characterization of products of trees in terms of bounded cohomology.Comment: 39 pages, 4 figures. Revised version according to referee repor

Open subgroups of locally compact Kac-Moody groups

Let G be a complete Kac-Moody group over a finite field. It is known that G possesses a BN-pair structure, all of whose parabolic subgroups are open in G. We show that, conversely, every open subgroup of G is contained with finite index in some parabolic subgroup; moreover there are only finitely many such parabolic subgroups. The proof uses some new results on parabolic closures in Coxeter groups. In particular, we give conditions ensuring that the parabolic closure of the product of two elements in a Coxeter group contains the respective parabolic closures of those elements.Comment: Minor changes. Theorem A has been slightly improved and now contains an additional finiteness statemen

A lattice in more than two Kac--Moody groups is arithmetic

Let $\Gamma$ be an irreducible lattice in a product of n infinite irreducible complete Kac-Moody groups of simply laced type over finite fields. We show that if n is at least 3, then each Kac-Moody groups is in fact a simple algebraic group over a local field and $\Gamma$ is an arithmetic lattice. This relies on the following alternative which is satisfied by any irreducible lattice provided n is at least 2: either $\Gamma$ is an S-arithmetic (hence linear) group, or it is not residually finite. In that case, it is even virtually simple when the ground field is large enough. More general CAT(0) groups are also considered throughout.Comment: Subsection 2.B was modified and an example was added ther

Fixed points and amenability in non-positive curvature

Consider a proper cocompact CAT(0) space X. We give a complete algebraic characterisation of amenable groups of isometries of X. For amenable discrete subgroups, an even narrower description is derived, implying Q-linearity in the torsion-free case. We establish Levi decompositions for stabilisers of points at infinity of X, generalising the case of linear algebraic groups to Is(X). A geometric counterpart of this sheds light on the refined bordification of X (\`a la Karpelevich) and leads to a converse to the Adams-Ballmann theorem. It is further deduced that unimodular cocompact groups cannot fix any point at infinity except in the Euclidean factor; this fact is needed for the study of CAT(0) lattices. Various fixed point results are derived as illustrations.Comment: 33 page

On the distortion of twin building lattices

We show that twin building lattices are undistorted in their ambient group; equivalently, the orbit map of the lattice to the product of the associated twin buildings is a quasi-isometric embedding. As a consequence, we provide an estimate of the quasi-flat rank of these lattices, which implies that there are infinitely many quasi-isometry classes of finitely presented simple groups. In an appendix, we describe how non-distortion of lattices is related to the integrability of the structural cocycle

Abstract involutions of algebraic groups and of Kac-Moody groups

Based on the second author's thesis in this article we provide a uniform treatment of abstract involutions of algebraic groups and of Kac-Moody groups using twin buildings, RGD systems, and twisted involutions of Coxeter groups. Notably we simultaneously generalize the double coset decompositions established by Springer and by Helminck-Wang for algebraic groups and by Kac-Wang for certain Kac-Moody groups, we analyze the filtration studied by Devillers-Muhlherr in the context of arbitrary involutions, and we answer a structural question on the combinatorics of involutions of twin buildings raised by Bennett-Gramlich-Hoffman-Shpectorov

Automorphisms of Partially Commutative Groups II: Combinatorial Subgroups

We define several "standard" subgroups of the automorphism group Aut(G) of a partially commutative (right-angled Artin) group and use these standard subgroups to describe decompositions of Aut(G). If C is the commutation graph of G, we show how Aut(G) decomposes in terms of the connected components of C: obtaining a particularly clear decomposition theorem in the special case where C has no isolated vertices. If C has no vertices of a type we call dominated then we give a semi-direct decompostion of Aut(G) into a subgroup of locally conjugating automorphisms by the subgroup stabilising a certain lattice of "admissible subsets" of the vertices of C. We then characterise those graphs for which Aut(G) is a product (not necessarily semi-direct) of two such subgroups.Comment: 7 figures, 63 pages. Notation and definitions clarified and typos corrected. 2 new figures added. Appendix containing details of presentation and proof of a theorem adde

At infinity of finite-dimensional CAT(0) spaces

We show that any filtering family of closed convex subsets of a finite-dimensional CAT(0) space $X$ has a non-empty intersection in the visual bordification $\bar{X} = X \cup \partial X$. Using this fact, several results known for proper CAT(0) spaces may be extended to finite-dimensional spaces, including the existence of canonical fixed points at infinity for parabolic isometries, algebraic and geometric restrictions on amenable group actions, and geometric superrigidity for non-elementary actions of irreducible uniform lattices in products of locally compact groups.Comment: An erratum filling in a gap in the proof of an application of the main result has been included to the original pape

Residual Finiteness Growths of Virtually Special Groups

Let $G$ be a virtually special group. Then the residual finiteness growth of $G$ is at most linear. This result cannot be found by embedding $G$ into a special linear group. Indeed, the special linear group $\text{SL}_k(\mathbb{Z})$, for $k > 2$, has residual finiteness growth $n^{k-1}$.Comment: Updated version contains minor changes incorporating referee comments/suggestions and a simplified proof of Lemma 4.