Tree languages and branched groups (Q2697521)

The paper under review is a contribution to the connections between group theory and the theory of formal languages. In Theorem A, level-transitive, recurrent, closed self-similar subgroups of the group of the full isometry group \(\operatorname{Isom}(\mathcal{T})\) of a regular rooted tree \(\mathcal{T}\) are characterised by the fact that their set of portraits is a tree regular language. Here a portrait is a way of describing an element of \(\operatorname{Isom}(\mathcal{T})\) via the permutations it induces on the children of every vertex of \(\mathcal{T}\). In Corollary C it is shown that determining whether two contracting finitely generated regularly branched groups coincide is a decidable problem. In Corollary E it is shown that the Hausdorff dimension of a finitely generated, closed self-similar regularly branched group is computable. \par We refer to the clear and detailed Introduction of this fine paper for further details.