English

Polynomially-bounded Dehn functions of groups

Group Theory 2018-11-22 v3

Abstract

On the one hand, it is well known that the only subquadratic Dehn function of finitely presented groups is the linear one. On the other hand there is a huge class of Dehn functions d(n)d(n) with growth at least n4n^4 (essentially all possible such Dehn functions) constructed in \cite{SBR} and based on the time functions of Turing machines and S-machines. The class of Dehn functions nαn^{\alpha} with α(2;4)\alpha\in (2; 4) remained more mysterious even though it has attracted quite a bit of attention (see, for example, \cite{BB}). We fill the gap obtaining Dehn functions of the form nαn^{\alpha} (and much more) for all real α2\alpha\ge 2 computable in reasonable time, for example, α=π\alpha=\pi or α=e\alpha= e, or α\alpha is any algebraic number. As in \cite{SBR}, we use S-machines but new tools and new way of proof are needed for the best possible lower bound d(n)n2d(n)\ge n^2.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.00550,
  title  = {Polynomially-bounded Dehn functions of groups},
  author = {A. Yu Olshanskii},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.00550},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

98 pages, 18 figures, replaced figures, corrections

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:00:44.289Z