Bavard's duality theorem for mixed commutator length

Abstract

Let $N$ be a normal subgroup of a group $G$. A quasimorphism $f$ on $N$ is $G$-invariant if $f(gxg^{-1}) = f(x)$ for every $g \in G$ and every $x \in N$. The goal in this paper is to establish Bavard's duality theorem of $G$-invariant quasimorphisms, which was previously proved by Kawasaki and Kimura in the case $N = [G,N]$. Our duality theorem provides a connection between $G$-invariant quasimorphisms and $(G,N)$-commutator lengths. Here for $x \in [G,N]$, the $(G,N)$-commutator length $\mathrm{cl}_{G,N}(x)$ of $x$ is the minimum number $n$ such that $x$ is a product of $n$ commutators which are written as $[g,x]$ with $g \in G$ and $h \in N$. In the proof, we give a geometric interpretation of $(G,N)$-commutator lengths. As an application of our Bavard duality, we obtain a sufficient condition on a pair $(G,N)$ under which $\mathrm{scl}_G$ and $\mathrm{scl}_{G,N}$ are bi-Lipschitzly equivalent on $[G,N]$.