Geometric Intersection Number and analogues of the Curve Complex for free groups

For the free group $F_{N}$ of finite rank $N \geq 2$ we construct a canonical Bonahon-type continuous and $Out(F_N)$-invariant \emph{geometric intersection form} $$: \bar{cv}(F_N)\times Curr(F_N)\to \mathbb R_{\ge 0}.$$ Here $\bar{cv}(F_N)$ is the closure of unprojectivized Culler-Vogtmann's Outer space $cv(F_N)$ in the equivariant Gromov-Hausdorff convergence topology (or, equivalently, in the length function topology). It is known that $\bar{cv}(F_N)$ consists of all \emph{very small} minimal isometric actions of $F_N$ on $\mathbb R$-trees. The projectivization of $\bar{cv}(F_N)$ provides a free group analogue of Thurston's compactification of the Teichm\"uller space. As an application, using the \emph{intersection graph} determined by the intersection form, we show that several natural analogues of the curve complex in the free group context have infinite diameter.Comment: Revised version, to appear in Geometry & Topolog

Kleinian groups and the rank problem

We prove that the rank problem is decidable in the class of torsion-free word-hyperbolic Kleinian groups. We also show that every group in this class has only finitely many Nielsen equivalence classes of generating sets of a given cardinality.Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol9/paper12.abs.htm

Triangle inequalities in path metric spaces

We study side-lengths of triangles in path metric spaces. We prove that unless such a space X is bounded, or quasi-isometric to line or half-line, every triple of real numbers satisfying the strict triangle inequalities, is realized by the side-lengths of a triangle in X. We construct an example of a complete path metric space quasi-isometric to the Euclidean plane, for which every degenerate triangle has one side which is shorter than a certain uniform constant.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure

Krull dimensions of rings of holomorphic functions

We prove that the Krull dimension of the ring of holomorphic functions of a connected complex manifold is at least continuum if it is positive.Comment: 6 pages. An error pointed out by Pete Clark is corrected. The stronger statement about the Krull dimension at least continuum is prove

Homological dimension and critical exponent of Kleinian groups

We prove that the relative homological dimension of a Kleinian group G does not exceed 1 + the critical exponent of G. As an application of this result we show that for a geometrically finite Kleinian group G, if the topological dimension of the limit set of G equals its Hausdorff dimension, then the limit set is a round sphere.Comment: 38 page