Simple groups and irreducible lattices in wreath products

Abstract

We consider the finitely generated groups acting on a regular tree with almost prescribed local action. We show that these groups embed as cocompact irreducible lattices in some locally compact wreath products. This provides examples of finitely generated simple groups quasi-isometric to a wreath product $C\wr F$, where $C$ is a finite group and $F$ a non-abelian free group.