The rates of growth in a hyperbolic group (Q6113257)

Finitely generated nilpotent groups have polynomial growth [\textit{H. Bass}, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 25, 603--614 (1972; Zbl 0259.20045)] and finitely generated solvable groups have either polynomial or exponential growth [\textit{G. W. Milnor}, J. Differ. Geom. 2, 447--449 (1968; Zbl 0176.29803)], and independently [\textit{J. A. Wolf}, J. Differ. Geom. 2, 421--446 (1968; Zbl 0207.51803)], and the same holds for linear groups by the Tits alternative. In the paper under review, the authors study the countable set of rates of growth of a hyperbolic group with respect to all its finite generating sets. They prove that the set is well-ordered, and that every real number can be the rate of growth of at most finitely many generating sets up to automorphism of the group. They prove that the ordinal of the set of rates of growth is at least \(\omega_{0}^{\omega_{0}}\) and in case the group is a limit group (e.g. free and surface groups) it is \(\omega_{0}^{\omega_{0}}\). The authors further study the rates of growth of all the finitely generated subgroups of a hyperbolic group with respect to all their finite generating sets. This set is proved to be well-ordered as well and every real number can be the rate of growth of at most finitely many isomorphism classes of finite generating sets of subgroups of a given hyperbolic group.