Acylindrical hyperbolicity of groups acting on quasi-median graphs and equations in graph products

Abstract: In this paper we study group actions on quasi-median graphs, or 'CAT(0) prism complexes', generalising the notion of CAT(0) cube complexes. We consider hyperplanes in a quasi-median graph $X$ and define the contact graph $\mathcal{C}X$ for these hyperplanes. We show that $\mathcal{C}X$ is always quasi-isometric to a tree, generalising a result of Hagen, and that under certain conditions a group action $G \curvearrowright X$ induces an acylindrical action $G \curvearrowright \mathcal{C}X$, giving a quasi-median analogue of a result of Behrstock, Hagen and Sisto. As an application, we exhibit an acylindrical action of a graph product on a quasi-tree, generalising results of Kim and Koberda for right-angled Artin groups. We show that for many graph products $G$, the action we exhibit is the 'largest' acylindrical action of $G$ on a hyperbolic metric space. We use this to show that the graph products of equationally noetherian groups over finite graphs of girth $\geq 6$ are equationally noetherian, generalising a result of Sela.