Computational explorations in Thompson's group F

Jose Burillo, Sean Cleary, Bert Wiest

Published 2005-06-17Version 1

We describe the results of some computational explorations in Thompson's group F. We describe experiments to estimate the cogrowth of F with respect to its standard finite generating set, designed to address the subtle and difficult question whether or not Thompson's group is amenable. We also describe experiments to estimate the exponential growth rate of F and the rate of escape of symmetric random walks with respect to the standard generating set.