Related papers: Random walks and contracting elements III: Outer s…

Continuing from a companion article: 'Random walks and contracting elements I: Deviation inequality and limit laws', we study random walks on metric spaces with contracting elements. We prove that random subgroups of the isometry group of a…

We study random walks on metric spaces with contracting isometries. In this first article of the series, we establish sharp deviation inequalities by adapting Gou\"ezel's pivotal time construction. As an application, we establish the…

This survey is concerned with random walks on mapping class groups. We illustrate how the actions of mapping class groups on Teichm\"uller spaces or curve complexes reveal the nature of random walks, and vice versa. Our emphasis is on the…

We extend some properties of random walks on hyperbolic groups to random walks on convergence groups. In particular we prove that if a convergence group $G$ acts on a compact metrizable space $M$ with the convergence property then we can…

We establish spectral theorems for random walks on mapping class groups of connected, closed, oriented, hyperbolic surfaces, and on $\text{Out}(F_N)$. In both cases, we relate the asymptotics of the stretching factor of the…

Random walks on a group $G$ model many natural phenomena. A random walk is defined by a probability measure $p$ on $G$. We are interested in asymptotic properties of the random walks and in particular in the linear drift and the asymptotic…

We give conditions of an extension of a free group to be hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic using the dynamics of the action of $\out$ on the complex of free factors combined with the weak attraction theory. We work with subgroups of…

We relate ergodic-theoretic properties of a very small tree or lamination to the behavior of folding and unfolding paths in Outer space that approximate it, and we obtain a criterion for unique ergodicity in both cases. Our main result is…

We prove that a "random" free group outer automorphism is an ageometric fully irreducible outer automorphism whose ideal Whitehead graph is a union of triangles. In particular, we show that its attracting (and repelling) tree is a…

The special linear groups, the mapping class groups of surfaces, the outer autormorphism groups of free groups appear in numerous domains. Their analogies, developped in particular in K. Vogtmann's work, have been written about a lot. In…

We study random walks on the three-strand braid group $B_3$, and in particular compute the drift, or average topological complexity of a random braid, as well as the probability of trivial entanglement. These results involve the study of…

We prove that the full automorphism group and the outer automorphism group of the free group of countably infinite rank are coarsely bounded. That is, these groups admit no continuous actions on a metric space with unbounded orbits, and…

A measure on a locally compact group is called spread out if one of its convolution powers is not singular with respect to Haar measure. Using Markov chain theory, we conduct a detailed analysis of random walks on homogeneous spaces with…

We investigate the combinatorial and geometric properties of automorphism groups of universal right-angled Coxeter groups, which are the automorphism groups of free products of copies of Z_2. It is currently an open question as to whether…

In the 1970s Stallings showed that one could learn a great deal about free groups and their automorphisms by viewing the free groups as fundamental groups of graphs and modeling their automorphisms as homotopy equivalences of graphs.…

Let $G$ be a countable group whose action on a metric space $X$ involves a contracting isometry. This setting naturally encompasses groups acting on Gromov hyperbolic spaces, Teichm{\"u}ller space, Culler-Vogtmann Outer space and CAT(0)…

The object of this expository work is to try to unveil the topological/geometric intuition behind the theory of free groups and their automorphism and outer automorphism groups. The method we follow is to focus on a series of problems in…

In this survey, we describe recent progress on asymptotic properties of various automorphic orbits in free groups. In particular, we address the problem of counting potentially positive elements of a given length. We also discuss complexity…

Let R a be countable ergodic equivalence relation of type II_1 on a standard probability space (X,m). The group Out(R) of outer automorphisms of R consists of all invertible Borel measure preserving maps of the space which map R-classes to…

The classical random walk isomorphism theorems relate the local times of a continuous-time random walk to the square of a Gaussian free field. A Gaussian free field is a spin system that takes values in Euclidean space, and this article…