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Burnside Groups and Groups Acting on Rooted Trees

Thillaisundaram, Anitha LU (2025) In Advances in Group Theory and Applications 20. p.121-161
Abstract

Branch groups stem from one of the most influential problems in group theory: The famous Burnside Problem, which arose in 1902 and asks if a finitely generated torsion group, i.e. in which every element has finite order, can be itself infinite. Now branch groups are groups acting on rooted trees, that have a rich tree-like subgroup structure. There are many examples of branch groups with remarkable algebraic properties, and branch groups have many applications within group theory and also to other areas of mathematics, such as to dynamics, analysis, algebraic geometry and cryptography. These lecture notes aim to introduce branch groups and some of their well-studied generalisations. An overview of the wide array of applications of... (More)

Branch groups stem from one of the most influential problems in group theory: The famous Burnside Problem, which arose in 1902 and asks if a finitely generated torsion group, i.e. in which every element has finite order, can be itself infinite. Now branch groups are groups acting on rooted trees, that have a rich tree-like subgroup structure. There are many examples of branch groups with remarkable algebraic properties, and branch groups have many applications within group theory and also to other areas of mathematics, such as to dynamics, analysis, algebraic geometry and cryptography. These lecture notes aim to introduce branch groups and some of their well-studied generalisations. An overview of the wide array of applications of branch groups will be given, including their use to answer several open questions. We will then focus on some new developments and some big open problems in the subject, such as those concerning maximal subgroups of branch groups.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Burnside group, group acting on a rooted tree, maximal subgroup
in
Advances in Group Theory and Applications
volume
20
pages
41 pages
publisher
Aracne Editrice
external identifiers
  • scopus:105002664688
ISSN
2499-1287
DOI
10.32037/agta-2025-003
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ee6d149b-9532-4e4c-8ede-4112e954a8a7
date added to LUP
2025-08-15 14:42:18
date last changed
2025-10-14 12:30:22
@article{ee6d149b-9532-4e4c-8ede-4112e954a8a7,
  abstract     = {{<p>Branch groups stem from one of the most influential problems in group theory: The famous Burnside Problem, which arose in 1902 and asks if a finitely generated torsion group, i.e. in which every element has finite order, can be itself infinite. Now branch groups are groups acting on rooted trees, that have a rich tree-like subgroup structure. There are many examples of branch groups with remarkable algebraic properties, and branch groups have many applications within group theory and also to other areas of mathematics, such as to dynamics, analysis, algebraic geometry and cryptography. These lecture notes aim to introduce branch groups and some of their well-studied generalisations. An overview of the wide array of applications of branch groups will be given, including their use to answer several open questions. We will then focus on some new developments and some big open problems in the subject, such as those concerning maximal subgroups of branch groups.</p>}},
  author       = {{Thillaisundaram, Anitha}},
  issn         = {{2499-1287}},
  keywords     = {{Burnside group; group acting on a rooted tree; maximal subgroup}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{121--161}},
  publisher    = {{Aracne Editrice}},
  series       = {{Advances in Group Theory and Applications}},
  title        = {{Burnside Groups and Groups Acting on Rooted Trees}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.32037/agta-2025-003}},
  doi          = {{10.32037/agta-2025-003}},
  volume       = {{20}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}