Hausdorff dimension of finitely constrained groups
Zoran Sunic, Texas A&M

We provide a characterization of finitely constrained groups of tree automorphisms in terms of the branching property (the notion of a finitely constrained group of tree automorphisms is an analog of the notion of a shift of finite type in symbolic dynamics). We show that all infinite, finitely constrained groups of p-adic tree automorphisms have positive and rational Hausdorff dimension and we provide a general formula for Hausdorff dimension of finitely constrained groups.

For each prime p and monic polynomial f, invertible over p, we define a group G_{p,f} of p-adic automorphisms of the p-ary rooted tree. In this setting, the first Grigorchuk group is the group G_{2,x^2+x+1}. We show that the closures of these groups are finitely constrained. This enables us to calculate their Hausdorff dimension, providing concrete examples (not using random methods) of topologically finitely generated closed subgroups of the group of p-adic automorphisms with Hausdorff dimension arbitrarily close to 1.

Further ``finiteness'' properties are also discussed (amenability, torsion, and intermediate growth).