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Hg toolkit non elementary groups have independent loxodromics
Statement
A finitely generated hyperbolic group that is neither finite nor virtually cyclic contains two infinite-order elements with disjoint pole sets. This assertion is choice-free.
More precisely, two infinite-order elements whose pole sets intersect have equal pole sets. After independently replacing them by their inverses if needed to make their positive poles agree, some positive powers of them are equal.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: The standing finitely generated -slim hyperbolic group, with identity ; for the first assertion assume it is neither finite nor virtually cyclic. Write .
An infinite group under this hypothesis has an infinite-order element by Hg toolkit infinite hyperbolic groups have infinite order elements.
Infinite-order elements are loxodromic; their signed power sequences define distinct poles independently of basepoint, and bijective isometries act on these classes, by Hg toolkit loxodromics and independent poles. For each such element , the same item supplies , , with and for .
The finite orbit-chord bounds, the point-to-segment estimate and the finite-index conclusion for the unordered pole-pair stabilizer are proved in Axis fellow travelling controls the centralizer.
The product inequality with constant holds by Slim triangles imply the gromov product inequality. Mixed joint divergence defines equality of sequence-boundary classes by Asymptotic gromov sequences form an equivalence relation.
Every word-metric ball is finite by Balls of a word metric are finite if and only if the generating set is finite. Group and virtually cyclic conventions are those of Hg toolkit hyperbolic group and stable length.
Proof
We first prove the more precise assertion. Inversion interchanges the two signed power sequences in F2, so if the pole sets of intersect, orient each element to make . Apply F3 to and fix its supplied , writing . The positive sequence represents : a subsequence of a Gromov sequence is equivalent to it whenever its indices tend to infinity, directly from the joint-divergence quantifiers. Use the constants of F2 for , and put , .
Separately, for the existence assertion, by infinitude and F1 choose an infinite-order . For , the conjugate has infinite order: a vanishing positive power would give , hence . Its pole pair is . Indeed , and F2's basepoint independence identifies this with the image under the isometry of the signed orbit at .
Fix any . Since and represent the same pole, choose integers and large enough that . F2 gives . Applying F4 with bridge gives . Expanding the product formula at the other basepoint gives the exact identity , so this product is at most .
Take any segment from to . The point-to-segment estimate of F3 gives a point on it at distance less than from . The reverse orbit-chord inclusion of F3 then gives an integer with Thus, for each , define to be the least nonnegative integer satisfying this strict inequality. This makes a specified function without a choice axiom. Since by subadditivity, we have . Since , it follows that as .
By left invariance, every has word length less than . This is a finite set by F5. At least one value occurs for infinitely many : otherwise each value would have finitely many occurrences and their finite union could not contain all integers . Fix such a value and one occurrence . Its infinite set of indices is unbounded, and step 3.1 gives a later occurrence with . We have equality of group elements, not merely equal bounds on distances: Multiplying on the left by and on the right by yields Both exponents are strictly positive.
For every positive integer , the signed power sequences of are the corresponding subsequences of those of . F2 and the direct subsequence observation of step 1.1 show that has exactly the same ordered pair of poles as . The same is true for . Their equal positive powers in step 4.1 therefore force both pole pairs to agree. Undoing either initial inversion leaves the unordered pairs unchanged. This proves the precise assertion in full.
If every conjugate pole pair intersected , step 5.1 would make every one of them equal to this pair. Then every would preserve the unordered pair. F3 would make have finite index in all of , contrary to the given non-virtually-cyclic hypothesis. Therefore some has a disjoint conjugate pole pair, and are the required independent infinite-order elements. The argument uses finite witnesses, least nonnegative integers and the finite pigeonhole argument; no simultaneous selection of representatives, ray compactness or AC occurs. Zero slimness is included, and the non-elementary hypothesis excludes the finite and virtually cyclic cases precisely where used.
Depends on
- Hg toolkit infinite hyperbolic groups have infinite order elements
- Hg toolkit loxodromics and independent poles
- Axis fellow travelling controls the centralizer
- Slim triangles imply the gromov product inequality
- Asymptotic gromov sequences form an equivalence relation
- Balls of a word metric are finite if and only if the generating set is finite
- Hg toolkit hyperbolic group and stable length
Used by
Dependency tree · two levels
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Sources
- Hamann Theorems 5.3.7–5.3.8 pp.91–94; complete torsion-allowed proof (standard reference, not scraped)