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We answer an open question of Grigorchuk and Zuk about amenability using random walks. Our results separate the class of amenable groups from the closure of subexponentially growing groups under the operations of group extension and direct limits; these classes are separated even within the realm of finitely presented groups.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

We answer Hubbard's question on determining the Thurston equivalence class of ``twisted rabbits'', i.e. images of the ``rabbit'' polynomial under n-th powers of the Dehn twists about its ears. The answer is expressed in terms of the 4-adic expansion of n. We also answer the equivalent question for the other two families of degree-2 topological polynomials with three post-critical points. In the process, we rephrase the questions in group-theoretical language, in terms of wreath recursions.Comment: 40 pages, lots of figure

No abstract

Abstract. We show that the group of bounded automatic automorphisms of a rooted tree is amenable, which implies amenability of numerous classes of groups generated by finite automata. The proof is based on reducing the problem to showing amenability just of a certain explicit family of groups ("Mother groups") which is done by analyzing the asymptotic properties of random walks on these groups.