- journal article metadata
European Mathematical Society Publishing House
2016-09-19 17:05:48
Revista Matemática Iberoamericana
Rev. Mat. Iberoamericana
RMI
0213-2230
2235-0616
General
10.4171/RMI
http://www.ems-ph.org/doi/10.4171/RMI
subscribers
European Mathematical Society Publishing House
Zuerich, Switzerland
© European Mathematical Society (from 2012)
31
2015
3
Brownian motion on treebolic space: escape to infinity
Alexander
Bendikov
Uniwersytet Wrocławski, WROCŁAW, POLAND
Laurent
Saloff-Coste
Cornell University, ITHACA, UNITED STATES
Maura
Salvatori
Università di Milano, MILANO, ITALY
Wolfgang
Woess
Technische Universität Graz, GRAZ, AUSTRIA
Tree, hyperbolic plane, horocyclic product, Laplacian, Brownian motion, rate of escape, central limit theorem, boundary convergence
Treebolic space is an analog of the $\mathsf {Sol}$ geometry, namely, it is the horocylic product of the hyperbolic upper half plane $\mathbb H$ and the homogeneous tree $\mathbb T=\mathbb T_{\mathsf p}$ with degree $\mathsf p+1 \ge 3$, the latter seen as a one-complex. Let $\mathfrak h$ be the Busemann function of $\mathbb T$ with respect to a fixed boundary point. Then for real $\mathsf q > 1$ and integer $\mathsf p \ge 2$, treebolic space $\mathsf {HT}(\mathsf q,\mathsf p)$ consists of all pairs $(z=x+\mathfrak i y,w) \in \mathbb H \times \mathbb T$ with $\mathfrak h (w) = \mathrm {log}_{\mathsf q} y$. It can also be obtained by glueing together horizontal strips of $\mathbb H$ in a tree-like fashion. We explain the geometry and metric of $\mathsf HT$ and exhibit a locally compact group of isometries (a horocyclic product of affine groups) that acts with compact quotient. When $\mathsf q=\mathsf p$, that group contains the amenable Baumslag–Solitar group $\mathsf {BS} \mathsf p)$ as a co-compact lattice, while when $\mathsf q \ne \mathsf p$, it is amenable, but non-unimodular. $\mathsf {HT} (\mathsf q,\mathsf p)$ is a key example of a strip complex in the sense of [4].$ Relying on the analysis of strip complexes developed by the same authors in [4], we consider a family of natural Laplacians with "vertical drift" and describe the associated Brownian motion. The main difficulties come from the singularities which treebolic space (as any strip complex) has along its bifurcation lines. In this first part, we obtain the rate of escape and a central limit theorem, and describe how Brownian motion converges to the natural geometric boundary at infinity. Forthcoming work will be dedicated to positive harmonic functions.
Probability theory and stochastic processes
Combinatorics
Group theory and generalizations
Differential geometry
935
976
10.4171/RMI/859
http://www.ems-ph.org/doi/10.4171/RMI/859