Beyond Hyperbolicity

This book focuses on generalisations of Gromov hyperbolicity in geometric group theory. Five self-contained expository articles introduce topics 'beyond hyperbolicity': these can be used as an introduction for students or as a reference for experts. The final part contains research articles on the latest results in this rich and active field.

Since the notion was introduced by Gromov in the 1980s, hyperbolicity of groups and spaces has played a significant role in geometric group theory; hyperbolic groups have good geometric properties that allow us to prove strong results. However, many classes of interest in our exploration of the universe of finitely generated groups contain examples that are not hyperbolic. Thus we wish to go ''beyond hyperbolicity'' to find good generalisations that nevertheless permit similarly strong results. This book is the ideal resource for researchers wishing to contribute to this rich and active field. The first two parts are devoted to mini-courses and expository articles on coarse median spaces, semihyperbolicity, acylindrical hyperbolicity, Morse boundaries, and hierarchical hyperbolicity. These serve as an introduction for students and a reference for experts. The topics of the surveys (and more) re-appear in the research articles that make up Part III, presenting the latest results beyond hyperbolicity.