We prove a version of the Tits alternative for groups acting on complete, finite rank median spaces. This shows that group actions on finite rank median spaces are much more restricted than actions on general median spaces. Along the way, we extend to median spaces the Caprace-Sageev machinery [CS11] and part of Hagen's theory of unidirectional boundary sets [Hag13].

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We introduce a \mathbb{Z} -valued cross ratio on Roller boundaries of CAT(0) cube complexes. We motivate its relevance by showing that every cross-ratio preserving bijection of Roller boundaries uniquely extends to a cubical isomorphism. Our results are strikingly general and even apply to infinite dimensional, locally infinite cube complexes with trivial automorphism group.

Many geometric structures associated to surface groups can be encoded in terms of invariant cross ratios on their circle at infinity; examples include points of Teichmüller space, Hitchin representations and geodesic currents. We add to this picture by studying cocompact cubulations of arbitrary Gromov hyperbolic groups G. Under weak assumptions, we show that the space of cubulations of G naturally injects into the space of G-invariant cross ratios on the Gromov boundary $$\partial _{\infty }G$$ ∂ ∞ G . A consequence of our results is that essential, hyperplane-essential, cocompact cubulations of hyperbolic groups are length-spectrum rigid, i.e. they are fully determined by their length function. This is the optimal length-spectrum rigidity result for cubulations of hyperbolic groups, as we demonstrate with some examples. In the hyperbolic setting, this constitutes a strong improvement on our previous work [4]. Along the way, we describe the relationship between the Roller boundary of a $$\mathrm{CAT(0)}$$ CAT ( 0 ) cube complex, its Gromov boundary and—in the non-hyperbolic case—the contracting boundary of Charney and Sultan. All our results hold for cube complexes with variable edge lengths.

Finite rank median spaces are a simultaneous generalisation of finite dimensional CAT(0) cube complexes and real trees. If Γ is an irreducible lattice in a product of rank-one simple Lie groups, we show that every action of Γ on a complete, finite rank median space has a global fixed point. This is in sharp contrast with the behaviour of actions on infinite rank median spaces, where even proper cocompact actions can arise.The fixed point property is obtained as corollary to a superrigidity result; the latter holds for irreducible lattices in arbitrary products of compactly generated topological groups.We exploit Roller compactifications of median spaces; these were introduced in [Fio17] and generalise a well-known construction in the case of cube complexes. We show that the Haagerup cocycle provides a reduced 1-cohomology class that detects group actions with a finite orbit in the Roller compactification. This is new even for CAT(0) cube complexes and has interesting consequences involving Shalom's property HF D . For instance, in Gromov's density model, random groups at low density do not have HF D .