On planar Cayley graphs and Kleinian groups

Abstract: Let $G$ be a finitely generated group acting faithfully and properly discontinuously by homeomorphisms on a planar surface $X \subseteq \mathbb{S}^2$. We prove that $G$ admits such an action that is in addition co-compact, provided we can replace $X$ by another surface $Y \subseteq \mathbb{S}^2$. We also prove that if a group $H$ has a finitely generated Cayley (multi-)graph $C$ covariantly embeddable in $\mathbb{S}^2$, then $C$ can be chosen so as to have no infinite path on the boundary of a face. The proofs of these facts are intertwined, and the classes of groups they define coincide. In the orientation-preserving case they are exactly the (isomorphism types of) finitely generated Kleinian function groups. We construct a finitely generated planar Cayley graph whose group is not in this class. In passing, we observe that the Freudenthal compactification of every planar surface is homeomorphic to the sphere.