Wright (1992) showed that, if a
–ended,
simply connected, locally compact ANR
with pro-monomorphic fundamental group at infinity (ie
representable by an inverse sequence of monomorphisms) admits a
–action
by covering transformations, then that fundamental group at infinity can
be represented by an inverse sequence of finitely generated free groups.
Geoghegan and Guilbault (2012) strengthened that result, proving that
also
satisfies the crucial
semistability condition (ie representable by an inverse sequence of
epimorphisms).
Here we get a stronger theorem with weaker hypotheses. We
drop the “pro-monomorphic hypothesis” and simply assume that the
–action is
generated by what we call a “coaxial” homeomorphism. In the pro-monomorphic case every
–action
by covering transformations is generated by a coaxial homeomorphism, but
coaxials occur in far greater generality (often embedded in a cocompact
action). When the generator is coaxial, we obtain the sharp conclusion:
is proper
–equivalent to the product
of a locally finite tree with
.
Even in the pro-monomorphic case this is new: it says that, from
the viewpoint of the fundamental group at infinity, the “end” of
looks
like the suspension of a totally disconnected compact set.
Keywords
coaxial homeomorphism, semistability, fundamental group at
infinity