Is there any relationship between growth rate and amenability

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Let $G$ be a finitely generated group, I'm interested in whether there is any relationship between amenability of $G$ (as a discrete group) and its growth rate. To make the question more precise let's divide the class of finitely generated groups into groups of polynomial, intermediate and exponential growth and into groups which are not amenable, elementary amenable and amenable but not elementary so. This gives $9$ possible combinations of growth rate and amenability, can they all occur? Thanks to Ycor's comments the table is now complete.

$$\begin{array}{c|ccc} \text{amenable/growth} & \text{polynomial} & \text{intermediate} &\text{exponential} \\
\hline
\text{no} & \varnothing & \varnothing & F_2 \\
\text{elementary} & \Bbb Z & \varnothing & BS(1,n)\\
\text{yes but not elementary} & \varnothing & \Gamma & \Bbb Z/(2)\wr\Gamma\end{array}$$

where $F_2$ is the free group on two generators, $BS(1,n)=\langle a,b\mid b^{-1}ab=a^n\rangle$ is a Baumslag-Solitair group, and $\Gamma$ is Grigorchuk's group.

I'm looking for examples to fill in the remaining cells or proofs that some of them are empty

Best Answer

Here the short proof of the fact that every f.g. group of subexponential growth is amenable.

Let $S$ be a symmetric generating subset with 1. If $G$ has subexponential growth, then clearly $\liminf |S^{n+1}|/|S^{n}|=1$. So we can extract from $(S^n)$ a Følner sequence.

The converse fails: many f.g. solvable groups have exponential growth.

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