The geodesic flow of a nonpositively curved graph manifold

We consider discrete cocompact isometric actions where X is a locally compact Hadamard space (following B] we will refer to CAT(0) spaces — complete, simply connected length spaces with nonpositive curvature in the sense of Alexandrov — as Hadamard spaces) and G belongs to a class of groups (“admissible groups”) which includes fundamental groups of 3-dimensional graph manifolds. We identify invariants (“geometric data”) of the action which determine, and are determined by, the equivariant homeomorphism type of the action of G on the ideal boundary of X. Moreover, if are two actions with the same geometric data and is a G-equivariant quasi-isometry, then for every geodesic ray there is a geodesic ray (unique up to equivalence) so that . This work was inspired by (and answers) a question of Gromov in Gr3, p. 136]. Submitted: May 2001.