A Grigorchuk-Gupta-Sidki (GGS-)group is a subgroup of the automorphism group of the $p$-adic tree for an odd prime $p$, generated by one rooted automorphism and one directed automorphism. Pervova proved that all torsion GGS-groups do not have maximal subgroups of infinite index. Here we extend the result to non-torsion GGS-groups, which include the weakly regular branch, but not branch, GGS-group.
We study the Cantor--Bendixson rank of the space of subgroups for members of a general class of finitely generated self-replicating branch groups. In particular, we show for $G$ either the Grigorchuk group or the Gupta--Sidki $3$ group, the Cantor--Bendixson rank of $\mathrm{Sub}(G)$ is $ω$. For each natural number $n$, we additionally characterize the subgroups of rank $n$ and give a description of subgroups in the perfect kernel.
If $G$ is a Grigorchuk-Gupta-Sidki group defined over a $p$-adic tree, where $p$ is an odd prime, we study the existence of Beauville surfaces associated to the quotients of $G$ by its level stabilizers $\st_G(n)$. We prove that if $G$ is periodic then the quotients $G/\st_G(n)$ are Beauville groups for every $n\geq 2$ if $p\geq 5$ and $n\geq 3$ if $p=3$. On the other hand, if $G$ is non-periodic, then none of the quotients $G/\st_G(n)$ are Beauville groups.
For a group $G$ generated by $k$ elements, the Nielsen equivalence classes are defined as orbits of the action of $\operatorname{Aut} F_k$, the automorphism group of the free group of rank $k$, on the set of generating $k$-tuples of $G$. Let $p\geq 3$ be prime and $G_p$ the Gupta-Sidki $p$-group. We prove that there are infinitely many Nielsen equivalence classes on generating pairs of $G_p$.
We study the subgroup structure of the infinite torsion $p$-groups defined by Gupta and Sidki in 1983. In particular, following results of Grigorchuk and Wilson for the first Grigorchuk group, we show that all infinite finitely generated subgroups of the Gupta--Sidki 3-group $G$ are abstractly commensurable with $G$ or $G\times G$. As a consequence, we show that $G$ is subgroup separable and from this it follows that its membership problem is soluble. Along the way, we obtain a characterization of finite subgroups of $G$ and establish an analogue for the Grigorchuk group.
A function $\mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N}$ is near exponential if it is bounded above and below by functions of the form $2^{n^c}$ for some $c > 0$. In this article we develop tools to recognize the near exponential residual finiteness growth in groups acting on rooted trees. In particular, we show the near exponential residual finiteness growth for certain branch groups, including the first Grigorchuk group, the family of Gupta-Sidki groups and their variations, and Fabrykowski-Gupta groups. We also show that the family of Gupta-Sidki p-groups, for $p\geq 5$, have super-exponential residual finit…
We first show that a class of pro-$p$ branch groups including the Grigorchuk group and the Gupta-Sidki groups all have subgroup growth type $n^{\log n}$. We then introduce the notion of orbit growth and use it to construct extensions of the Grigorchuk group and the Gupta-Sidki groups. We compute the subgroup growth type of these extensions and deduce that all functions between $n^{(\log n)^2}$ and $e^n$ occur as the subgroup growth type of a pro-$p$ group, thus, giving almost complete answer to a question raised by Lubotzky and Segal.
A multi-GGS-group is a group of automorphisms of a regular rooted tree, generalising the Gupta--Sidki $p$-groups. We compute the automorphism groups of all non-constant multi-GGS-groups.
Spinal groups and multi-GGS groups are both generalisations of the well-known Grigorchuk-Gupta-Sidki (GGS-)groups. Here we give a necessary condition for spinal groups to be conjugate, and we establish a necessary and sufficient condition for multi-GGS groups to be conjugate. We also introduce a natural common generalisation of both classes, which we call polyspinal groups. Our results enable us to give a negative answer to a question of Bartholdi, Grigorchuk and Sunik, on whether every finitely generated branch group is isomorphic to a weakly branch spinal group.
The class of multi-EGS groups is a generalisation of the well-known Grigorchuk-Gupta-Sidki (GGS-)groups. Here we classify branch multi-EGS groups with the congruence subgroup property and determine the profinite completion of all branch multi-EGS groups. Additionally our results show that branch multi-EGS groups are just infinite.
Fixing a subgroup $Γ$ in a group $G$, the commensurability growth function assigns to each $n$ the cardinality of the set of subgroups $Δ$ of $G$ with $[Γ: Γ\cap Δ][Δ: Γ\cap Δ] = n$. For pairs $Γ\leq A$, where $A$ is the automorphism group of a $p$-regular tree and $Γ$ is finitely generated, we show that this function can take on finite, countable, or uncountable cardinals. For almost all known branch groups $Γ$ (the first Grigorchuk group, the twisted twin Grigorchuk group, Pervova groups, Gupta-Sidki groups, etc.) acting on $p$-regular trees, this function is precisely $\aleph_0$ for any $n …
Groups associated to surfaces isogenous to a higher product of curves can be characterised by a purely group-theoretic condition, which is the existence of a so-called ramification structure. Gül and Uria-Albizuri showed that quotients of the periodic Grigorchuk-Gupta-Sidki groups, GGS-groups for short, admit ramification structures. We extend their result by showing that quotients of generalisations of the GGS-groups, namely multi-EGS groups, also admit ramification structures.
A constant spinal group is a subgroup of the automorphism group of a regular rooted tree, generated by a group of rooted automorphisms $A$ and a group of directed automorphisms $B$ whose action on a subtree is equal to the global action. We provide two conditions in terms of certain dynamical systems determined by $A$ and $B$ for constant spinal groups to be periodic, generalising previous results on Grigorchuk--Gupta--Sidki groups and other related constructions. This allows us to provide various new examples of finitely generated infinite periodic groups.
Let $p\ge 3$ be a prime. A generalised multi-edge spinal group is a subgroup of the automorphism group of a regular $p$-adic rooted tree T that is generated by one rooted automorphism and $p$ families of directed automorphisms, each family sharing a common directed path disjoint from the paths of the other families. This notion generalises the concepts of multi-edge spinal groups, including the widely studied GGS-groups, and the extended Gupta-Sidki groups that were introduced by Pervova. Extending techniques that were developed in these more special cases, we prove: generalised multi-edge spi…
We compute the number of irreducible linear representations of self-similar branch groups, by expressing these numbers as the coëfficients a_n of a Dirichlet series sum a_n n^{-s}. We show that this Dirichlet series has a positive abscissa of convergence, is algebraic over the ring Q[2^{-s},...,P^{-s}] for some integer P, and show that it can be analytically continued (through root singularities) to the left half-plane. We compute the abscissa of convergence and the functional equation for some prominent examples of branch groups, such as the Grigorchuk and Gupta-Sidki groups.
We study branch structures in Grigorchuk-Gupta-Sidki groups (GGS-groups) over primary trees, that is, regular rooted trees of degree $p^n$ for a prime $p$. Apart from a small set of exceptions for $p=2$, we prove that all these groups are weakly regular branch over $G''$. Furthermore, in most cases they are actually regular branch over $γ_3(G)$. This is a significant extension of previously known results regarding periodic GGS-groups over primary trees and general GGS-groups in the case $n=1$. We also show that, as in the case $n=1$, a GGS-group generated by a constant vector is not branch.
Let $G$ be a finitely generated regular branch group acting by automorphisms on a regular rooted tree $T$. It is well-known that stabilizers of infinite rays in $T$ (aka parabolic subgroups) are weakly maximal subgroups in $G$, that is, maximal among subgroups of infinite index. We show that, given a finite subgroup $Q\leq G$, $G$ possesses uncountably many automorphism equivalence classes of weakly maximal subgroups containing $Q$. In particular, for Grigorchuk-Gupta-Sidki type groups this implies that they have uncountably many automorphism equivalence classes of weakly maximal subgroups tha…
Let $G$ be either the Grigorchuk $2$-group or one of the Gupta-Sidki $p$-groups. We give new upper bounds for the diameters of the quotients of $G$ by its level stabilisers, as well as other natural sequences of finite-index normal subgroups. Our bounds are independent of the generating set, and are polylogarithmic functions of the group order, with explicit degree. Our proofs utilize a version of the profinite Solovay-Kitaev procedure, the branch structure of $G$, and in certain cases, results on the lower central series of $G$.
