On asymptotically hereditarily aspherical groups

Abstract

We undertake a systematic study of asymptotically hereditarily aspherical (AHA) groups - the class of groups introduced by Tadeusz Januszkiewicz and the second author as a tool for exhibiting exotic properties of systolic groups. We provide many new examples of AHA groups, also in high dimensions. We relate AHA property with the topology at infinity of a group, and deduce in this way some new properties of (weakly) systolic groups. We also exhibit an interesting property of boundary at infinity for few classes of AHA groups.