Characterizing divergence and thickness in right-angled Coxeter groups

Abstract

We completely classify the possible divergence functions for right-angled Coxeter groups (RACGs). In particular, we show that the divergence of any such group is either polynomial, exponential or infinite. We prove that a RACG is strongly thick of order k if and only if its divergence function is a polynomial of degree k+1. Moreover, we show that the exact divergence function of a RACG can easily be computed from its defining graph by an invariant we call the hypergraph index.

Accepted for publication by the Journal of Topology. Incorporated referee's comments and added many more figures