Poorly connected groups

Abstract

We investigate groups whose Cayley graphs have poor\-ly connected subgraphs. We prove that a finitely generated group has bounded separation in the sense of Benjamini--Schramm--Timar if and only if it is virtually free. We then prove a gap theorem for connectivity of finitely presented groups, and prove that there is no comparable theorem for all finitely generated groups. Finally, we formulate a connectivity version of the conjecture that every group of type $F$ with no Baumslag-Solitar subgroup is hyperbolic, and prove it for groups with at most quadratic Dehn function.