English

Fractal dimensions and profinite groups

Group Theory 2026-03-02 v3 Logic Metric Geometry

Abstract

Let TT be a finitely branching rooted tree such that any node has at least two successors. The path space [T][T] is an ultrametric space: for distinct paths f,gf,g let d(f,g)=1/Tnd(f,g)= 1/|T_n|, where TnT_n denotes the nn-th level of the tree, and nn is largest such that f(n)=g(n)f(n)= g(n). Let SS be a subtree of TT without leaves that is level-wise uniformly branching, in the sense that the number of successors of a node only depends on its level. We~show that the Hausdorff and lower box dimensions coincide for~[S][S], and the packing and upper box dimensions also coincide. We give geometric proofs, as well as proofs based on the point-to-set principles. We use the first result to reprove a theorem of Barnea and Shalev on the Hausdorff dimension of closed subgroups of a profinite group GG, referring only on the geometric structure of the closed subgroup in the canonical path space given by an inverse system for GG. We obtain an analogous theorem for the packing dimension.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.09995,
  title  = {Fractal dimensions and profinite groups},
  author = {Elvira Mayordomo and Andre Nies},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.09995},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Some small issues fixed from first version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:44:10.840Z