Topology and Geometric Group Theory Seminar
Non-positively curved (NPC) cube complexes are important tools in low dimensional topology and group theory and play a prominent role in Agol's proof of the Virtual Haken Conjecture. Constructing a hierarchy for a NPC cube complex is a powerful method of decomposing its fundamental group essential to the theory of NPC cube complex theory. When a cube complex admits a hierarchy with nice properties, it becomes possible to use the hierarchy structure to make inductive arguments. I will explain what a quasiconvex hierarchy of an NPC cube complex is and briefly discuss some of the applications. We will see an outline of how to construct a quasiconvex hierarchy for a relatively hyperbolic NPC cube complex and some of the hyperbolic and relatively hyperbolic geometric tools used to ensure the hierarchy is indeed quasiconvex.