Related papers: On laminar groups, Tits alternatives, and converge…

We explore the geometry of nonpositively curved spaces with isolated flats, and its consequences for groups that act properly discontinuously, cocompactly, and isometrically on such spaces. We prove that the geometric boundary of the space…

Let k be a local field, and G a linear group over k. We prove that either G contains a relatively open solvable subgroup, or it contains a relatively dense free subgroup. This result has applications in dynamics, Riemannian foliations and…

We present a new notion of non-positively curved groups: the collection of discrete countable groups acting (AU-)acylindrically on finite products of $\delta$-hyperbolic spaces with general type factors. Inspired by the classical theory of…

We show that two-dimensional Artin groups satisfy a strengthening of the Tits alternative: their subgroups either contain a non-abelian free group or are virtually free abelian of rank at most $2$. When in addition the associated Coxeter…

Given a toric affine algebraic variety $X$ and a collection of one-parameter unipotent subgroups $U_1,\ldots,U_s$ of $\mathop{\rm Aut}(X)$ which are normalized by the torus acting on $X$, we show that the group $G$ generated by…

We analyse the existence question for essential laminations in 3-manifolds. The purpose is to prove that there are infinitely many closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds which do not admit essential laminations. This answers in the negative a…

We show that some laminar group which has an invariant veering pair of laminations is a hyperbolic 3-orbifold group. On the way, we show that from a veering pair of laminations, one can construct a loom space (in the sense of…

We study the Fibered Isomorphism conjecture of Farrell and Jones for groups acting on trees. We show that under certain conditions the conjecture is true for groups acting on trees when the stabilizers satisfy the conjecture. These…

Geometrization theorem, fibered case: Every three-manifold that fibers over the circle admits a geometric decomposition. Double limit theorem: for any sequence of quasi-Fuchsian groups whose controlling pair of conformal structures tends…

We prove the Tits alternative for an almost coherent $PD(3)$ group which is not virtually properly locally cyclic. In particular, we show that an almost coherent $PD(3)$ group which cannot be generated by fewer than four elements always…

In two previous papers the author presented a general construction of finite, fiber- and orientation-preserving group actions on orientable Seifert manifolds. In this paper we restrict our attention to elliptic 3-manifolds. A proof is given…

We prove a version of the Tits alternative for groups acting on complete, finite rank median spaces. This shows that group actions on finite rank median spaces are much more restricted than actions on general median spaces. Along the way,…

We describe a special class of representations of an inverse semigroup S on Hilbert's space which we term "tight". These representations are supported on a subset of the spectrum of the idempotent semilattice of S, called the "tight…

Recall that a pseudofree group action on a space is one whose singular set consists only of isolated points. In this paper, we classify all of the finite groups which admit pseudofree actions on S^2 x S^2. The groups turn out to be exactly…

We prove the Tits Alternative for groups acting on $2$-dimensional "recurrent" complexes with uniformly bounded cell stabilisers. This class of complexes includes, among others: $2$-dimensional Euclidean buildings, $2$-dimensional systolic…

Building on previous results concerning hyperbolicity of groups of Fibonacci type, we give an almost complete classification of the (non-elementary) hyperbolic groups within this class. We are unable to determine the hyperbolicity status of…

Let $\Gamma$ be a finitely generated group acting properly discontinuously by isometries on a visibility CAT(0) space $X$ that satisfies the bounded packing property. We prove that $\Gamma$ satisfies the Tits alternative: it is either…

This article has two purposes. In \cite{R3} (math.KT/0405211) we showed that the FIC (Fibered Isomorphism Conjecture for pseudoisotopy functor) for a particular class of 3-manifolds (we denoted this class by \cal C) is the key to prove the…

We generalize the notion of tight geodesics in the curve complex to tight trees. We then use tight trees to construct model geometries for certain surface bundles over graphs. This extends some aspects of the combinatorial model for doubly…

We exhibit a closed aspherical 5-manifold of nonpositive curvature that fibers over a circle whose fundamental group is hyperbolic relative to abelian subgroups such that the fiber is a closed aspherical 4-manifold whose fundamental group…