Variations on the theme of the uniform boundary condition

Abstract

The uniform boundary condition (UBC) in a normed chain complex asks for a uniform linear bound on fillings of null-homologous cycles. For the [Formula: see text]-norm on the singular chain complex, Matsumoto and Morita established a characterization of the UBC in terms of bounded cohomology. In particular, spaces with amenable fundamental group satisfy the UBC in every degree. We will give an alternative proof of statements of this type, using geometric Følner arguments on the chain level instead of passing to the dual cochain complex. These geometric methods have the advantage that they also lead to integral refinements. In particular, we obtain applications in the context of integral foliated simplicial volume.