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Abstract

We prove that, under a mild assumption, any metrizable compactification of a one-ended proper geodesic metric space is connected. As a consequence, we deduce that the boundary, introduced by Durham--Hagen--Sisto, of a one-ended hierarchically hyperbolic space is connected. Moreover, we prove that the connectedness of the boundary of a hierarchically hyperbolic group is equivalent to the one-endedness of the group. As an application, we show that if, for $n\geq 2$, $G_1=A_1\ast\dots\ast A_n$ and $G_2=B_1\ast\dots\ast B_n$ are free products of one-ended hierarchically hyperbolic groups, then the boundary of $G_1$ is homeomorphic to the boundary of $G_2$ if and only if the boundary of $A_i$ is homeomorphic to the boundary of $B_i$ for $1\leq i\leq n$.