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1. Equivariant hierarchically hyperbolic structures for 3-manifold groups via quasimorphisms

   https://doi.org/10.5802/aif.3654  

   Hagen, Mark; Russell, Jacob; Sisto, Alessandro; Spriano, Davide (January 2025, Annales de l'Institut Fourier)

   Behrstock, Hagen and Sisto classified 3-manifold groups admitting a hierarchically hyperbolic space structure. However, these structures were not always equivariant with respect to the group. In this paper, we classify 3-manifold groups admitting equivariant hierarchically hyperbolic structures. The key component of our proof is that the admissible groups introduced by Croke and Kleiner always admit equivariant hierarchically hyperbolic structures. For non-geometric graph manifolds, this is contrary to a conjecture of Behrstock, Hagen and Sisto and also contrasts with results about CAT(0) cubical structures on these groups. Perhaps surprisingly, our arguments involve the construction of suitable quasimorphisms on the Seifert pieces, in order to construct actions on quasi-lines. 

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2. Largest acylindrical actions and Stability in hierarchically hyperbolic groups

   https://doi.org/10.1090/btran/50  

   Abbott, Carolyn; Behrstock, Jason; Durham, Matthew (February 2021, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, Series B)

   We consider two manifestations of non-positive curvature: acylindrical actions (on hyperbolic spaces) and quasigeodesic stability. We study these properties for the class of hierarchically hyperbolic groups, which is a general framework for simultaneously studying many important families of groups, including mapping class groups, right-angled Coxeter groups, most 3 3 –manifold groups, right-angled Artin groups, and many others. A group that admits an acylindrical action on a hyperbolic space may admit many such actions on different hyperbolic spaces. It is natural to try to develop an understanding of all such actions and to search for a “best” one. The set of all cobounded acylindrical actions on hyperbolic spaces admits a natural poset structure, and in this paper we prove that all hierarchically hyperbolic groups admit a unique action which is the largest in this poset. The action we construct is also universal in the sense that every element which acts loxodromically in some acylindrical action on a hyperbolic space does so in this one. Special cases of this result are themselves new and interesting. For instance, this is the first proof that right-angled Coxeter groups admit universal acylindrical actions. The notion of quasigeodesic stability of subgroups provides a natural analogue of quasiconvexity which can be considered outside the context of hyperbolic groups. In this paper, we provide a complete classification of stable subgroups of hierarchically hyperbolic groups, generalizing and extending results that are known in the context of mapping class groups and right-angled Artin groups. Along the way, we provide a characterization of contracting quasigeodesics; interestingly, in this generality the proof is much simpler than in the special cases where it was already known. In the appendix, it is verified that any space satisfying the a priori weaker property of being an “almost hierarchically hyperbolic space” is actually a hierarchically hyperbolic space. The results of the appendix are used to streamline the proofs in the main text. 

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3. Extensions of multicurve stabilizers are hierarchically hyperbolic

   Russell, Jacob (December 2024, ArXiv)

   For a closed and orientable surface of genus at least 2, we prove the surface group extensions of the stabilizers of multicurves are hierarchically hyperbolic groups. This answers a question of Durham, Dowdall, Leininger, and Sisto. We also include an appendix that employs work of Charney, Cordes, and Sisto to characterize the Morse boundaries of hierarchically hyperbolic groups whose largest acylindrical action on a hyperbolic space is on a quasi-tree. 

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4. Extensions of Veech groups I: A hyperbolic action

   https://doi.org/10.1112/topo.12296  

   Dowdall, Spencer; Durham, Matthew G.; Leininger, Christopher J.; Sisto, Alessandro (May 2023, Journal of Topology)

   Abstract Given a lattice Veech group in the mapping class group of a closed surface , this paper investigates the geometry of , the associated ‐extension group. We prove that is the fundamental group of a bundle with a singular Euclidean‐by‐hyperbolic geometry. Our main result is that collapsing “obvious” product regions of the universal cover produces an action of on a hyperbolic space, retaining most of the geometry of . This action is a key ingredient in the sequel where we show that is hierarchically hyperbolic and quasi‐isometrically rigid. 

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5. Largest acylindrical actions and Stability in hierarchically hyperbolic groups

   Abbott, Carolyn; Behrstock, Jason; Durham, Matthew (July 2020, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society)

   We consider two manifestations of non-positive curvature: acylindrical actions (on hyperbolic spaces) and quasigeodesic stability. We study these properties for the class of hierarchically hyperbolic groups, which is a general framework for simultaneously studying many important families of groups, including mapping class groups, right-angled Coxeter groups, most 3–manifold groups, right-angled Artin groups, and many others. A group that admits an acylindrical action on a hyperbolic space may admit many such actions on different hyperbolic spaces. It is natural to try to develop an understanding of all such actions and to search for a “best” one. The set of all cobounded acylindrical actions on hyperbolic spaces admits a natural poset structure, and in this paper we prove that all hierarchically hyperbolic groups admit a unique action which is the largest in this poset. The action we construct is also universal in the sense that every element which acts loxodromically in some acylindrical action on a hyperbolic space does so in this one. Special cases of this result are themselves new and interesting. For instance, this is the first proof that right-angled Coxeter groups admit universal acylindrical actions. The notion of quasigeodesic stability of subgroups provides a natural analogue of quasi- convexity which can be considered outside the context of hyperbolic groups. In this paper, we provide a complete classification of stable subgroups of hierarchically hyperbolic groups, generalizing and extending results that are known in the context of mapping class groups and right-angled Artin groups. Along the way, we provide a characterization of contracting quasigeodesics; interestingly, in this generality the proof is much simpler than in the special cases where it was already known. 

   more » « less