Conjugacy growth of finitely generated groups. (Q1941154)

For a group \(G\) generated by a finite set \(X\) let \(|g|\) be the length of the shortest word in \(X\cup X^{-1}\) representing \(g\). Let \(B_G(n)=\{g\in G\mid |g|\leq n\}\). Let \(\zeta_G(n)\) be the number of conjugacy classes and \(\pi_G(n)\) be the number of primitive conjugacy classes in \(B_G(n)\). A conjugacy class is called \textit{primitive} if some element \(g\) from the class is not a proper power. Theorem 1.1. Let \(G\) be a finitely generated group with a non-degenerate hyperbolically embedded subgroup. Then \(\zeta_G\sim\pi_G\sim 2^n\). Theorem 1.2. Let \(G\) be a group generated by a finite set \(X\), \(f\) the conjugacy growth function of \(G\) with respect to \(X\). Then the following conditions hold: (a) \(f\) is non-decreasing. (b) There exists \(a\geq 1\) such that \(f(n)\leq a^n\) for every \(n\). Conversely, suppose that a function \(f\) from the natural numbers to the natural numbers satisfies (a) and (b). Then there exists an infinite finitely generated group \(G\) such that \(\zeta_G\sim f\). Theorem 1.3. There exists a finitely generated group \(G\) and a finite index subgroup \(H\leq G\) such that \(H\) has 2 conjugacy classes while \(G\) is of exponential growth. -- In particular, conjugacy growth is not a quasi-isometry invariant.