On the density of Cayley graphs of R.Thompson’s group F in symmetric generators

Abstract

By the density of a finite graph we mean its average vertex degree. For an [Formula: see text]-generated group, the density of its Cayley graph in a given set of generators, is the supremum of densities taken over all its finite subgraphs. It is known that a group with [Formula: see text] generators is amenable if and only if the density of the corresponding Cayley graph equals [Formula: see text]. A famous problem on the amenability of R. Thompson’s group [Formula: see text] is still open. Due to the result of Belk and Brown, it is known that the density of its Cayley graph in the standard set of group generators [Formula: see text], is at least [Formula: see text]. This estimate has not been exceeded so far. For the set of symmetric generators [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text], the same example only gave an estimate of [Formula: see text]. There was a conjecture that for this generating set equality holds. If so, [Formula: see text] would be non-amenable, and the symmetric generating set would have the doubling property. This would mean that for any finite set [Formula: see text], the inequality [Formula: see text] holds. In this paper, we disprove this conjecture showing that the density of the Cayley graph of [Formula: see text] in symmetric generators [Formula: see text] strictly exceeds [Formula: see text]. Moreover, we show that even larger generating set [Formula: see text] does not have doubling property.