Proper proximality among various families of groups

  • Changying Ding

    Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA
  • Srivatsav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli

    Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA
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Abstract

In this paper, the notion of proper proximality (introduced by Boutonnet, Ioana, and Peterson [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 54 (2021), 445–482]) is studied and classified in various families of groups. We show that if a group acts non-elementarily by isometries on a tree such that, for any two edges, the intersection of their edge stabilizers is finite, then is properly proximal. We show that the wreath product is properly proximal if and only if is non-amenable. We then completely classify proper proximality among graph products of non-trivial groups. Our results generalize the recent work of Duchesne, Tucker-Drob, and Wesolek classifying inner amenability for these families of groups. Our results also recover some rigidity results associated to the group von Neumann algebras by virtue of being properly proximal. A key idea in the proofs of our theorems is a technique to upgrade from relative proper proximality using computations in the double dual of the small at infinity boundary.

Cite this article

Changying Ding, Srivatsav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli, Proper proximality among various families of groups. Groups Geom. Dyn. 18 (2024), no. 3, pp. 921–938

DOI 10.4171/GGD/778