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arXiv · 1908.06044

A finitary structure theorem for vertex-transitive graphs of polynomial growth

Abstract

We prove a quantitative, finitary version of Trofimov's result that a connected, locally finite vertex-transitive graph G of polynomial growth admits a quotient with finite fibres on which the action of Aut(G) is virtually nilpotent with finite vertex stabilisers. We also present some applications. We show that a finite, connected vertex-transitive graph G of large diameter admits a quotient with fibres of small diameter on which the action of Aut(G) is virtually abelian with vertex stabilisers of bounded size. We also show that G has moderate growth in the sense of Diaconis and Saloff-Coste, which is known to imply that the mixing and relaxation times of the lazy random walk on G are quadratic in the diameter. These results extend results of Breuillard and the second author for finite Cayley graphs of large diameter. Finally, given a connected, locally finite vertex-transitive graph G exhibiting polynomial growth at a single, sufficiently large scale, we describe its growth at subsequent scales, extending a result of Tao and an earlier result of our own for Cayley graphs. In forthcoming work we will give further applications.

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Romain Tessera, Matthew Tointon. 2019-08-16. A finitary structure theorem for vertex-transitive graphs of polynomial growth. https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.06044

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