Ruinous subsets of Richard Thompson's group \(F\). (Q861865)

Richard Thompson's group \(F\) is a group of piecewise linear homeomorphisms \(h\colon[0,1]\to [0,1]\) such that (1) \(h\) is not differentiable only on a finite set consisting of diadic numbers, and (2) \(h'\in \{2^k\mid k\in\mathbb{Z}\}\) in points where \(h\) is differentiable. The open question of whether or not the group \(F\) is amenable was stated by \textit{J. W. Cannon, J. W. Floyd}, and \textit{W. R. Parry}, [Enseign. Math., II. Sér. 42, No. 3-4, 215-256 (1996; Zbl 0880.20027)]. Following ideas of Matthew G. Brin, the author considers the group \(F\) as a group of right fractions of the monoid \(P\) where \(P\) is the monoid of binary forests. The \((k,m)\)-binary forest \(\mathcal F\) is a sequence (starting at zero index) of rooted binary trees such that \(\mathcal F\) has a total of exactly \(m\) carets and for each \(i\geq k+1\) the \(i\)-th tree of \(\mathcal F\) is trivial. The operation in \(P\) is attaching forests. The monoid \(P\) has presentation \(\langle x_0,x_1,x_2,\dots\mid x_nx_m=x_mx_{n+1}\) for \(n>m\rangle\). Let \(S_{k,m}\) be the set of all \((k,m)\)-binary forests. The subset \(A\subset S_{0,k}\) is called ruinous if for each \(m\) and for each subset \(U\subset S_{k,m}\) the inequality \(|AU|\geq 2|U|\) holds. The main result is the following criterion: Theorem. Thompson's group \(F\) is nonamenable if and only if the set \(S_{0,k}\) is ruinous for some \(k\).