Norm growth for the Busemann cocycle

Abstract

Using explicit methods, we provide an upper bound to the norm of the Busemann cocycle of a locally finite regular tree $X$, emphasizing the symmetries of the cocycle. The latter takes value into a submodule of square summable functions on the edges of $X$, which corresponds the Steinberg representation for rank one groups acting on their Bruhat-Tits tree. The norm of the Busemann cocycle is asymptotically linear with respect to square root of the distance between any two vertices. Independently, Gournay and Jolissaint proved an exact formula for harmonic 1-cocycles covering the present case.