Related papers: Translation length formula for two-generated group…
A group is called $\Lambda$-free if it has a free Lyndon length function in an ordered abelian group $\Lambda$, which is equivalent to having a free isometric action on a $\Lambda$-tree. A group has a regular free length function in…
Motivated by the work of Leininger on hyperbolic equivalence of homotopy classes of closed curves on surfaces, we investigate a similar phenomenon for free groups. Namely, we study the situation when two elements $g,h$ in a free group $F$…
In this paper we survey recent developments in the theory of groups acting on $\Lambda$-trees. We are trying to unify all significant methods and techniques, both classical and recently developed, in an attempt to present various faces of…
We initiate the study of affine actions of groups on $\Lambda$-trees for a general ordered abelian group $\Lambda$; these are actions by dilations rather than isometries. This gives a common generalisation of isometric action on a…
This is the second paper in a series of three, where we take on the unified theory of non-Archimedean group actions, length functions and infinite words. Here, for an arbitrary group $G$ of infinite words over an ordered abelian group…
Morgan and Culler proved that a minimal action of a free group on a tree is determined by its translation length function. We prove an analogue of this theorem for 2-dimensional right-angled Artin groups acting on CAT(0) rectangle…
Given a finite group with a generating subset there is a well-established notion of length for a group element given in terms of its minimal length expression as a product of elements from the generating set. Recently, certain quantities…
We consider weighted generating functions of trees where the weights are products of functions of the sizes of the subtrees. This work begins with the observation that three different communities, largely independently, found substantially…
We present a practical algorithm which, given a non-archimedean local field $K$ and any two elements $A,B\in {\rm SL_2}(K)$, determines after finitely many steps whether or not the subgroup $\langle A, B \rangle\le {\rm SL_2}(K)$ is…
We investigate the translation lengths of group elements that arise in random walks on the isometry groups of Gromov hyperbolic spaces. In particular, without any moment condition, we prove that non-elementary random walks exhibit at least…
This is the first paper in a series of three where we take on the unified theory of non-Archimedean group actions, length functions and infinite words. Our main goal is to show that group actions on Z^n-trees give one a powerful tool to…
A $\Lambda$-tree is a $\Lambda$-metric space satisfying three axioms (1), (2) and (3). We give a characterization of those ordered abelian groups $\Lambda$ for which axioms (1) and (2) imply axiom (3). As a special case, it follows that for…
For finitely generated groups H and G, equipped with word metrics, a translation-like action of H on G is a free action such that each element of H acts by a map which has finite distance from the identity map in the uniform metric. For…
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 find a family of groups generated by a pair of parabolic elements in which every relator must admit a long subword of a specific form. In particular, this collection contains groups in which the number of syllables of any relator is…
We give a complete criterion for when two hyperbolic automorphisms of a tree generate a free, discrete subgroup. The decision depends only on three geometric invariants: the translation lengths of the generators and the length of overlap of…
We study exhaustively the solution-generating transformations (dualities) that occur in the context of the low-energy effective action of superstring theory. We first consider target-space duality (``T duality'') transformations in absence…
We prove that all elements of infinite order in $Out(F_n)$ have positive translation lengths; moreover, they are bounded away from zero. Consequences include a new proof that solvable subgroups of $Out(F_n)$ are finitely generated and…
This paper has two parts, on Baumslag-Solitar groups and on general G-trees. In the first part we establish bounds for stable commutator length (scl) in Baumslag-Solitar groups. For a certain class of elements, we further show that scl is…
For a finitely generated group $G$, we introduce an asymmetric pseudometric on projectivized deformation spaces of $G$-trees, using stretching factors of $G$-equivariant Lipschitz maps, that generalizes the Lipschitz metric on Outer space…