Gromov-hyperbolic metric space Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For , a geodesic metric space is -hyperbolic when each side of every metric geodesic triangle lies in the closed -neighbourhood of the other two sides.
Each factor is a free abelian group of rank two. Take the infinite symmetric generating set
The Bass-Serre tree has an edge joining to for every . Indeed, the normal form theorem for a free product gives , so a nonempty coset intersection consists of exactly one element. Let be the midpoint of and send the Cayley vertex to .
Two distinct edges share an endpoint precisely when or . This is exactly adjacency in the Cayley graph for . A path in that graph therefore gives a path between the midpoints of the same length in the tree. Conversely, the unique tree segment between two edge midpoints passes through a succession of adjacent edges and gives a Cayley path of that length. Hence, on vertices,
All edge midpoints occur, and every tree point is within of one of them. Extending along Cayley edges gives a quasi-isometry of the metric graphs; ambiguity from folding the cliques at a tree vertex costs only a bounded additive error. This is the free product with factor generating set construction.
For finite generating sets the answer changes. Use . The retraction killing sends every generator to a generator of or to the identity. Therefore the restriction of to is exactly the standard word metric on .
In this grid, take vertices . Use the two axis segments as two sides, and the path from through to as the third. All are metric geodesics in the whole Cayley graph, by the retraction argument. The corner is at distance from either of the other sides. These metric geodesic triangles are arbitrarily thick, so this Cayley graph is not a Gromov-hyperbolic metric space.
A tree is -hyperbolic. Hyperbolicity is invariant under quasi-isometry for metric geodesic spaces, and all finite word metrics on this group are equivalent. Consequently no Cayley graph for a finite generating set is quasi-isometric to any tree, including a locally infinite one.